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HAWAII

HCDA names interim director

The Hawaii Community Development Authority yesterday named Sandra Pfund, a project director on its staff, as interim executive director.

Pfund, whose salary was not disclosed, is a temporary replacement for Jan Yokota at the agency responsible for the redevelopment of the 670-acre Kakaako district.

Yokota left the executive director post at a salary in the mid-$80,000s to become director of capital improvements at the University of Hawaii for $120,000 a year.

Lori Lum, chairwoman of the HCDA board, said the agency hopes to select a permanent executive director within a few months.

State pushes high-tech image

Gov. Linda Lingle is speaking today with more than 300 California business executives through a videoconference during a reception the state will host in conjunction with an annual meeting of optical engineers in San Diego.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said it is promoting Hawaii's high-tech sector in a San Diego mission that ends today.

"When you look at Hawaii as a package -- including our high-tech potential, the strength of our convention and visitor industry, our strategic location and our unmatched lifestyle -- we have a lot to offer," said Ted Liu, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Maui to honor landscapers

WAILUKU >> An annual award is being sponsored to recognize landscape professionals helping to keep Maui County free from invasive species.

The award, Malama I Ka Aina, is sponsored by the Maui Invasive Species Committee and the Maui Association of Landscape Professionals.

Those eligible for the award include landscape designers, suppliers, contractors, nurseries and hotels.

The winner will be announced at the Lawn and Garden Fair at the Kaahumanu Center on Nov. 8.

Applications are due by Oct. 1. For more information, call committee education specialist Mele Fong at (808) 579-2116.

NATION

WorldCom settlement approved

WorldCom Inc. won a bankruptcy judge's approval of a record $750 million settlement to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud allegations, a month after a federal judge also signed off on the accord.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez approved the payment to investors, who lost about $200 billion in the company's collapse. The penalty, first approved on July 7 by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, is the largest for an accounting-fraud case. WorldCom has admitted accounting irregularities of $11 billion.

The settlement "is fair and reasonable," Gonzalez said this afternoon.

The ruling comes as WorldCom, the second-largest U.S. long- distance phone carrier, seeks to complete the biggest bankruptcy reorganization ever and change its name to MCI. A hearing on the company's recovery plan is scheduled for Sept. 8.

30 million Americans hang up

More than 30 million Americans have signed up for the government's do-not-call list, a free registry for blocking unsolicited telephone sales pitches, the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday.

The FTC said 3.4 million people signed up in California, 2.2 million in Florida and 2 million in Texas. Eight of every 10 people who joined the list did so online rather than by telephone.

"Millions of consumers registered their telephone numbers successfully within the first few days of the opening of the registry, and hundreds of thousands of numbers still are being entered every day," FTC chairman Timothy J. Muris said.

Merrill exec caught in succession squabble

Merrill Lynch & Co. announced yesterday that its investment banking chief plans to step down by the end of the year, making him the latest casualty in a corporate suite squabble over succession plans at the Wall Street firm.

The job held by Arshad Zakaria, president of global markets and investment banking, will be shared by two managers, Merrill said in a statement. Zakaria, 41, will stay on until the responsibilities of his job are shifted to Greg Fleming, co-head of the division's financial institutions group, and Dow Kim, head of global debt markets.

Zakaria's departure follows the ouster of his mentor, Thomas Patrick, who was the No. 2 executive at the firm until last week. Patrick, 60, abruptly resigned after a boardroom disagreement with Merrill chief executive E. Stanley O'Neal over succession plans.

American Banknote's Weissman convicted

American Banknote Corp.'s former Chief Executive Officer Morris Weissman was convicted of cheating investors of at least $116 million, prosecutors said.

Weissman was convicted of inflating earnings at American Banknote and its one-time subsidiary, American Bank Note Holographics Inc., in the months leading up to ABN Holographics 1998 initial public stock offering. He was indicted in mid-2001 for crimes that allegedly began in 1996.

The criminal trial in Manhattan federal court was the first of a former CEO since Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. collapsed in accounting scandals that led to criminal charges against top corporate executives. American Banknote prints stock certificates and makes transaction cards.