Above And Beyond Promotion

Posts Tagged ‘control’

By CHARLES LEVINSON

in Benghazi, Libya,

MARGARET COKER and SAM DAGHER in Tripoli, and TAHANI KARRAR-LEWSLEY in Dubai

WSJ’s Jerry Seib and Neil Lipschutz report with a stalemate looming in Libya between Gadhafi-backed forces and rebels, the U.S. and its allies still have a No-Fly Zone on the table to potentially force a peaceful governmental transition.

Forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi continue to press attacks in some areas under rebel control, changing the balance of the conflict with rebels and raising the stakes for the Obama administration and its allies that are trying to oust the embattled leader.

As the U.S., the European Union and other governments look into options for intervention, including imposing a no-fly zone over Libya as well a wider economic sanctions, a high-ranking member of the Libyan military landed in Cairo on Wednesday and embassy staff told Egyptian officials that he was carrying a message from Col. Gadhafi, the Associated Press reported.

An Egyptian army official said that Maj. Gen Abdul-Rahman bin Ali al-Saiid al-Zawi, the head of Libya’s logistics and supply authority, was asking to meet Egypt’s military rulers.

There have been no public contacts between the Libyan regime and Egypt’s ruling generals since the Libyan uprising broke out on Feb. 15, and there have been no known government-related flights during that time, the AP said.

After a string of successes over the past weeks, Libya’s rebel movement appears to have hit a wall against loyalists of Col. Gadhafi. Pro-regime forces halted their drive on Tripoli with a heavy barrage of rockets in the east and threatened to recapture some towns where key oil facilities are located.

There is a virtual curfew at nighttime in Tripoli when most streets become deserted amid reports of a continued standoff between Col. Gadhafi’s forces and rebels not only in Zawiya to the west but also in several towns and villages south of the capital like Yafran and Zintan in an area known as the Western Mountain.

There is also growing evidence that Col. Gadhafi is supplying fresh arms to many tribes in the west who have pledged to defend his regime in return for unspecified concessions.

A Tripoli resident who hails from Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli said he and his brother received calls from a leader in their tribe of Warfala, one of the largest in Libya, to collect weapons.

The resident said his brother received on Tuesday two AK 47s that he brought back to Tripoli.

There are reports of continued shelling by that pro-Gadhafi forces about 12 miles west of the oil port of Ras Lanuf, an indication that they were much closer to the city than previously known, the AP said.

As his forces escalate the offensive, Col. Gadhafi’s maintained a defiant tone, saying in a Turkish television interview that Libyans would fight back if Western nations imposed a no-fly zone to prevent his regime from using its air force to bomb government opponents staging a rebellion.

He said imposing the restrictions would prove the West’s real intention was to seize his country’s oil wealth.

“Such a situation would be useful,” Gadhafi said. “The Libyan people would understand their real aims to take Libya under their control, to take their freedoms and to take their oil and all Libyan people will take up arms and fight.”

Libya’s central bank governor Farhat Bengdara, who has been outside Libya since Feb. 22, said Wednesday that he is still dealing with “external issues” on behalf of the central bank. In that capacity, he said he has been in touch with the U.S. Treasury, the European Union and other institutions in a bid to soften any freeze on the central bank’s assets.

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“I took the decision to travel to Istanbul to contact the European Union, IMF, World Bank and U.S. Treasury and to try to do my best to stop the sanctions that would freeze the central bank’s money,” Mr. Bengdara said in telephone interview. He said Libya’s revenues have fallen dramatically because of the country’s inability to export oil. If payments to the central bank for oil shipments are frozen, it will cause further difficulties, Mr. Bengdara added.

“We are trying our best to make the case that any sanctions should not affect the Libyan population, it should not make it difficult for people to import food,” Mr. Bengdara said.

The European Union is expected to announce measures on Friday to widen the scope of its sanctions on Libya that are almost certain to include a freeze of assets held in Europe by the Libyan central bank and the country’s sovereign-wealth fund. The freeze would be broadened beyond the top Libyan officials already subject to EU sanctions.

Col. Gadhafi’s gains come as the Pentagon planning swung into high gear on a range of humanitarian and military options to curb the fighting in Libya, reflecting growing concern about deteriorating living conditions for refugees and Col. Gadhafi’s use of air power against rebel forces.

The U.S. has said it wants Col. Gadhafi to leave now and for the Libyan people to sort out what comes next.

President Barack Obama’s most senior advisers were meeting Wednesday to outline what steps are realistic and possible to pressure Col. Gadhafi to halt the violence and give up power, the AP reported.

Britain and France are pushing for the U.N. to create a no-fly zone over Libya, and while the U.S. may be persuaded to sign on, such a move is unlikely to win the backing of veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China, which traditionally object to such steps as infringements on national sovereignty.

Rebels in Libya said they have had contacts with an array of foreign governments, and sent envoys to several European cities seeking support. An Italian diplomatic delegation was in Benghazi on Tuesday meeting with rebel leaders, the first official public visit by Western diplomats since the establishment of the provisional rebel government.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague, has begun to gather information with a view to opening a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity by Libya’s leadership.

—Erkan Oz contributed to this article.

Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com and Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com

By JENNY STRASBURG

A few years back, a defense lawyer representing an insider-trading client got a lesson in the quiet toughness of federal Judge Richard J. Holwell.

Edward Little asked the judge in 2008 for probation for a Wall Street analyst who pleaded guilty in an insider-trading ring. Judge Holwell rejected the request, emphasizing that insider trading was serious—and sentenced the analyst to 57 months in prison.

Judge Holwell will be center stage in a New York federal court Tuesday, presiding over the largest insider-trading case in a generation. The U.S. accused hedge-fund titan Raj Rajaratnam of criminal securities fraud and conspiracy, alleging he reaped $45 million through illicit stock tips; 19 of 26 defendants in the case have pleaded guilty.

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Judge Holwell presiding at 2009 trial of Vivendi ex-CEO Jean-Marie Messier.

“He has good control over the courtroom—not because he’s loud or aggressive, but because he has this quiet quality,” says Gerald Shargel, a friend and defense lawyer who has represented mob figures. “Holwell won’t be bullied.”

The 64-year-old Judge Holwell—a former White Case LLP litigator with a thick white mustache—won’t let Mr. Rajaratnam’s high profile, or the attention his case has drawn, influence a trial that is expected to last at least six weeks, according to a dozen lawyers who have tried cases before him or know him socially.

Judge Holwell’s demeanor could provide a foil to the more combative style of John Dowd, Mr. Rajaratnam’s lead attorney, who is leading a team of eight other Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld LLP lawyers for the defense. Judge Holwell and Mr. Dowd declined to comment.

Already, the judge has issued a key ruling in the case. Mr. Dowd in the fall vehemently argued that prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had lied to obtain approval of wiretaps crucial to the case.

In incendiary remarks before Judge Holwell in October, Mr. Dowd asserted that prosecutors had “gamed the system” and misrepresented the circumstances of key wiretap requests “in a desperate attempt” to get the court to approve them.

“Thank you, Mr. Dowd,” Judge Holwell replied, according to a transcript of the hearing. The next month, he rejected Mr. Dowd’s request to throw out the wiretaps, saying the government had shown “ample reason” to allow the wiretaps as evidence.

But in a 68-page opinion, he also had some harsh words for prosecutors, writing that Mr. Rajaratnam had shown “that the government’s application omitted and misstated important information” about a key informant in the case.

Judge Holwell’s quiet control was on display Feb. 28 during a hearing over a decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission to file a separate civil case against a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director, accusing him of passing inside information about Goldman to Mr. Rajaratnam.

“Mr. Dowd, you’re standing up. Looks like you’re ready to talk,” Judge Holwell said, according to a transcript unsealed this week. Over the next several minutes, Mr. Dowd appealed to the judge to support a prosecutor request that the SEC charges not be made public so close to Mr. Rajaratnam’s trial. Mr. Dowd argued the resulting publicity would taint potential jurors.

Wrapping up his impassioned statement, Mr. Dowd said he and a federal prosecutor “just felt an obligation, both of us, to…”

“All right,” Judge Holwell said, interrupting him.

“…apprise you of these circumstances,” Mr. Dowd continued.

“All right, I understand,” Judge Holwell said.

Judge Holwell thanked the lawyers, then said he wouldn’t rule because the issue wasn’t in his power to address.

The SEC filed the civil allegations against the director, Rajat Gupta, the next day. Mr. Gupta has denied wrongdoing.

Judge Holwell has presided over insider-trading cases before, including the civil insider-trading case against design entrepreneur Martha Stewart, which she settled in 2006 before the case went to trial.

Ms. Stewart separately was convicted in 2004 on criminal charges and served five months in a West Virginia prison.

In the 2008 criminal insider-trading sentencing handled by Judge Holwell, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bond analyst Eugene Plotkin was among defendants accused of reaping more than $6 million through a Wall Street insider-trading ring.

In asking for probation, his lawyer, Mr. Little, asked Judge Holwell to consider Mr. Plotkin’s youth—he was 28—and secondary role in a scheme he described as part foolish prank.

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Mr. Little recalls the judge saying he could “appreciate” the circumstances, but noted that the crime was a serious matter and stuck with nonbinding federal sentencing guidelines. Mr. Plotkin was released from prison last year. “While he’ll give both sides a fair trial,” he says of Judge Holwell, “he’ll treat the case very seriously.”

In nearly eight years on the bench, Judge Holwell has been selected for a range of cases outside of Wall Street. In 2007, he presided over a civil case in which fast-food restaurants fought a New York City health regulation that they post calorie counts for their menu items. Judge Holwell struck down the city regulation, saying it butted heads with existing federal law related to how some restaurants already voluntarily posted calorie information. But he rejected restaurants’ argument that their free-speech rights were under attack.

In 2008, Judge Holwell upheld the city’s retooled regulation, which survived an appeals-court challenge. Said Kent Yalowitz, who represented the restaurants’ side in the case: “I don’t think anybody’s going to ride over Judge Holwell.”

—Chad Bray contributed to this article.

Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com

When you do call your prospects or talk to them to follow up on an offer, please do not start your conversation with “How are you”. Not only does it kill the conversation instantly, it also opens you to a lot of responses that you either are not ready for or that you don’t want to hear it.

For one thing, when you do ask this opening phrase, be sure that you can actually bear to hear your target client’s answer. Be prepared to care ? a lot, if your prospect says that he or she is sick and is not feeling fine, or get a never ending political rant of how Obama is better than Hillary.

Secondly, with a call-killer like your “how are you”, it surely makes you lose control of the call and gets you off track. You must remember that the main purpose why you talked to the person in the first place is to pitch your business. But how can you do that if your client is already lecturing you of the hazards of getting married with someone who nags all day and all night.

Another reason why you shouldn’t open your conversation with “how are you”, the moment you utter the phrase, your prospective client is already on to you. And before you could even say your first word of your sales pitch they would have already turned you down flat.

Even with your ads printed by a commercial color printing company, you should also avoid words and phrases considered as “call-killers” so you can effectively give your piece without your prospective customers throwing you out even before they can read your whole story.

Having call-killer phrases in your ads not only give your potential clients the tip off that you’re going to start a sales pitch, you also give them the opportunity to reject you outright. And when they do, you’ll have a heck of a time trying to keep them interested in what you have to say.

You probably think that it’s the polite thing to say when talking to somebody. Then again, there are other ways to start your ads. Introducing yourself and going directly to why you’re there in the first place can be more effective and it gives you the power to take control of the connection.

It’s all about taking control of the moment. When you are in control you are more likely to provide the most effective ad and copy that your target audience can appreciate. Don’t risk blowing your opportunity of being able to convince your prospective clients of your business’ worth. Avoiding call-killer phrases can lessen, if not totally eliminate your chances of getting your target clients interested, and eventually making a sale for your business.

For more information, you can visit this page on Commercial Color Printing