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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, October 25th, 2013 / Banking & Finance, Law, Real Estate, Top Stories / Comments Off on Montecito investor gets sentencing date as ex-wife seeks bankruptcy
David Prenatt, the Montecito real estate investor who took in $18 million from more than a dozen people and then used the cash to support what a bankruptcy trustee called “lavish spending habits,” is headed for a sentencing in federal criminal court on Dec. 9.
Prenatt struck a deal with federal prosecutors this summer and pleaded guilty to giving false loan application information to Lompoc-based CoastHills Federal Credit Union. Prenatt’s creditors forced him into an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding in 2009. Earlier this fall, his former wife Maria Prenatt filed for personal bankruptcy claiming $27.1 million in debts.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, October 18th, 2013 / Banking & Finance, Central Coast Health Watch, Technology, Top Stories, Tourism, Tri-County Public Companies / Comments Off on Gov. Brown vetoes Amgen-backed anti-biosimilars bill
Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill supported by Thousand Oaks-based Amgen and other biotechnology companies that would have made it more difficult for pharmacists to dispense so-called biosimilars, the biotech industry’s analogue to generic pharmaceuticals.
Senate Bill 598, approved by both houses of the legislature, looked mostly like a procedural change to state’s pharmacy laws. If it passed, the bill would have allowed pharmacists to fill prescriptions with biosimilars that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deems “interchangeable” with brand-name counterparts.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, October 18th, 2013 / Features, Technology / Comments Off on The art of advertising: PureClick keeps an eye on Google
Internet veteran Tim Rodgers founded PureClick with a simple goal. Google’s display advertising networks offer to place banners and ads on thousands of websites across the Internet, playing a sort of matchmaker by putting those ads next to what it deems to be the most relevant content. PureClick aims to let advertisers double-check Google’s work.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, October 18th, 2013 / Banking & Finance, Banking Industry, Central Coast, Real Estate, Tri-County Economy / Comments Off on Banking on downtown SLO: Heritage Oaks buys former Union Bank building
The multimillion-dollar sale of a prime property in the heart of the Central Coast’s busiest downtown comes amid a flurry of building activity that had some developers bidding on the lot in hopes of developing the bank building’s adjacent parking lot, which faces the corner of Marsh and Osos streets. But the timing was too good for Heritage Oaks to pass the location up, said Simone Lagomarsino, the bank’s CEO.
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, October 11th, 2013 / Technology, Top Stories / Comments Off on Stellar’s $12M raise sets stage for drug rollout
Port Hueneme-based Stellar Biotechnologies has closed a $12 million round of financing and acquired a license for what could one day be its first drug. Stellar gained notoriety in the research world by snatching up a facility inside the Port of Hueneme gates during a round of base closings in the late 1990s. It used Read More →
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By Stephen Nellis / Friday, October 11th, 2013 / Columns, Law / Comments Off on Minimum wage hike has ripple effect on exempt worker status
As fall settles and you break out the Halloween decorations, it’s time to think about the biggest fright of the season: Next year’s new employment laws.
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