[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, executives at DaimlerChrysler [corporate website] have denied that they were involved in insider trading. German media are reporting that DaimlerChrysler's chief spokesman Hartmut Schick and executive board member Ruediger Grube are under investigation for insider trading relating to the surprise resignation of CEO Juergen Schrempp in July [AP report]. German media are also reporting that Grube and Schick's homes and offices were searched last week [MarketWatch report] in relation to the allegations. Both men are considered close confidants of Schrempp. Reuters has more.

In other corporations and securities law news…

• Australian Prime Minister John Howard [Wikipedia profile] has called the behavior of telecom Telstra Corp. [corporate website] disgraceful as it moves towards full privatization [AP report]. Telstra's American CEO Sol Trujillo recently criticized Australia's regulatory actions, claiming that they would cost the company AUS$850 million and that he expects the company's stock to fall 7-10 percent [AP report] in the next year. Telstra, Australia's largest phone service provider, has been accused recently of intentionally deflating stock price in order to discourage regulation enforcement by the government, the company's largest shareholder. Reuters has more.
• Despite Northwest's continued assertions [official strike response page] that its mechanics union strike is not affecting safety, the FAA [official website] is preparing to investigate allegations of hundreds of missing safety reports from the airline. The Wall Street Journal reports that the investigation comes as a result of an FAA inspector's letter to Democratic Senator Mark Dayton [official biography] of Minnesota. In the letter, the inspector is said to complain that he was transferred away from Northwest and that 470 FAA defect reports had not been entered into the agency's electronic database. Dayton forwarded the letter to the FAA along with his own memo. Reuters has more.
• As reported earlier in JURIST's Paper Chase, Morgan Stanley [corporate website] has settled for $700,000 with Delaware's Department of Justice. The Delaware Attorney General's Office [official website] had alleged that brokers with the firm had made over 500 improper transactions through a Delaware couple's personal brokerage account. The settlement comes as Morgan Stanley is expected to announce a $10 million settlement with the SEC [AP report] over improper e-mail disposal. AP has more.