[JURIST] Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, the Sprint-Nextel merger [merger website] has taken a large step towards final approval after the Federal Communications Commission [official website; includes link to press release] and the US Justice Department [official website] signed off on the deal. The merger, which will create the third largest wireless service provider in the US, still has legal issues with various partners to sort out [JURIST report] before it is finalized. Shareholders of both companies overwhelmingly approved of the merger [JURIST report] in July. AP has more.

In other corporations and securities law news…

• New SEC chairman Christopher Cox [Wikipedia profile] met with his staff for the first time Thursday. Cox, who was sworn in to office yesterday [JURIST report], also spoke to the press and warned companies that the SEC will pursue those who don't obey the law. He also joked that he was glad to be working with other people's money. MarketWatch has more.
• The SEC has announced that it settled with Utah Educational Savings Plan Trust [official website](UESP), a college savings fund. In a press release, the SEC said that after UESP discovered criminal activity by its former director it released misleading information about his activities and falsely told investors that they were not affected. As part of the settlement UESP must refund investors' accounts and fix problems in its system. In its own press release UESP said that the fund voluntarily dealt with the SEC and that the changes the SEC ordered had already taken place. Reuters has more.