Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, April 11, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 106 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
The big business news last week involved new rules from the Obama administration aimed at stopping U.S. companies from moving their headquarters overseas to avoid U.S. taxes, rules which killed a major pharmaceutical merger. As analysts debated the impact, Medtronic plc took the opportunity to insist its merger last year with Irelandbased Covidien plc, and subsequent headquarters move to Dublin, was “strategic.” Minneapolis-based Medtronic officially moved its corporate headquarters out of the U.S. after completing the $49.9 billion merger in January 2015, although the medical device maker maintained its operational headquarters in Minneapolis. Medtronic maintains the headquarters of its surgical technologies division in Jacksonville. The company announced those plans at about the same time several U.S. companies came under fire for these “tax inversion” strategies, in which they merge with a foreign company and avoid taxes by moving the headquarters to the offices of the merged company. The U.S. Treasury Department last week announced its third set of rules aimed at stopping tax inversions. The latest rules include a measure to prevent these companies from shielding U.S. earnings through the use of debt. Medtronic issued a statement Wednesday saying it has reviewed the new regulations and concluded they will not have a material impact on any transaction it has undertaken. The statement also said the Covidien deal “was undertaken for strategic reasons and has created a company that is positively impacting the lives of more patients, in more ways and in more places around the world.” Meanwhile, the Treasury’s new rules Basch continued on Page A-2
Photos by David Chapman
Medtronic defends Covidien deal again
Pat Partridge, left, and Merritt Partridge, second from left, run Partridge Well Drilling Co. that was just outside the scene of a March 9 shooting of a detective. Merritt Partridge, along with Shannon Brown and Bob Yongue, were among the 11 employees who rushed to help the detective. In return for the heroics, the Fraternal Order of Police gave them with a painting and plaque.
t deserve ‘ We don’ any of that hero credit ’ Partridge Well employees recognized by FOP for helping detective who was shot
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Partridge Well Drilling Co. is located on Collins Road near Interstate 295.
In the corner office of the Partridge Well Co. facility, Merritt Partridge heard the sounds ring out in the morning air. Pop. Pop. Pop. Fireworks? Some of the guys had played pranks in the past and set off a few in the yard. But Partridge knew. He owns guns. These were gunshots. He was with his brother, Lance, when he looked out the window and saw almost a dozen guys looking just as confused as he was. It was just after 7 a.m. and they, too, were prepping for the day when the sounds interrupted. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
A second volley of bursts. The guys started making their way to the Westside business’s front gates when Jack Padgett made eye contact with Partridge and started running toward the sounds. Partridge and the others were seconds behind. There weren’t any more bursts. Just the sight of an unmarked police car with flashing lights, pock-marked windshield and a detective standing near the back. He was bleeding. The first three bursts were shots fired at him, hitting his head, torso and hand. It was a routine traffic stop that was anything but routine. The crew at Partridge Well went to work methodically as first responders. Shooting
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Dodd-Frank changed debt collection process New federal regulations transformed specialty practice By Max Marbut Staff Writer July 4, 1776; Dec. 7, 1941; Sept. 11, 2001. They are dates that forever changed America. Attorney Lawrence Rolfe would add July 21, 2010, to that list. It’s the day President Barack Obama signed into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. “It created a regulatory nightmare,” said Rolfe, who has worked in debt collection law since three days after he graduated from law school in 1973. According to the text of Public Law
Rolfe
Public
legal notices begin on page
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111-203 enacted by the 111th Congress, the law is intended to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial systems, to end “too big to fail,” to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts and to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices. That last phrase led to the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It consolidates most federal consumer financial protection authorities in one place and has one goal — “watching out for American consumers,” according to its website, consumerfinance.gov. Procedural requirements created and
Published
for
enforced by the bureau changed the rules on collecting defaulted consumer debt and that changed how they do business at Rolfe & Lobello. Before the recession and the new regulations, his firm had seven attorneys and 20 debt collectors. Now, there are three collectors and five attorneys — one of whom is a compliance officer who is exclusively dedicated to ensuring the firm complies with the regulations, including documentation of nearly all the work done by everyone there. The firm is periodically audited by its clients and all phone calls to and from the office are recorded, both to Collections continued on Page A-7
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