[JURIST] Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, Bristol-Myers Squib [corporate website] has reached a $300 million settlement with the federal government over securities fraud. US Attorney for the district of New Jersey Christopher Christie [official profile] announced the settlement today, and also announced that two former employees, former Chief Financial Officer Frederick Schiff and the former head of Bristol-Myers medicine division Richard Lane, had been indicted on securities fraud charges. Read the Bristol-Myers Squib press release. The US DOJ press release is also available. Bloomberg has more.

In other corporations and securities law news...

• The European Union [official website] has fined UK pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca [corporate website] $73 million for anticompetitive practices. The EU says, in part, that AstraZeneca mislead regulators in order to extend patents on profitable drugs. AstraZeneca plans to appeal the fine. See the EU press release, and a statement from AstraZeneca. AP has more.
  
  
• As reported earlier in JURIST's states brief, spyware producer Eliot Spitzer [Wikipedia profile] had brought a lawsuit against the Los Angeles based company alleging it had secretly installed spyware programs on millions of computers. In addition to the fine, Intermix agreed to stop producing spyware software. See the Intermix press release. Reuters has more.