The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused unknown Martek Bioscience Corp. investors of insider trading ahead of the company's announcement last week of its $1.09 billion sale to Royal DSM NV, according to recent court filings.

On Dec. 21, Netherlands-based Royal DSM said it would pay $31.50 per share for Columbia, Md.-based Martek, marking a 35 percent premium to its stock value on Dec. 20. Martek makes nutritional supplements for infant formula and Royal DSM makes nutritional supplements, vaccine ingredients and industrial chemicals. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan on Dec. 22, the SEC said unknown buyers bought 2,615 call option contracts between Dec. 10 and Dec. 15, through a UBS Ltd. account. The options were sold on the same day the buyout deal was publicly announced, putting those buyers in a position to gain $1.2 million in profit.

There was no information made public about the deal prior to the companies' Dec. 21 announcement.

The SEC wants the court to require the buyers to return the profits and pay a fine. On Dec. 23 the court agreed to freeze assets in the UBS account and ordered the buyers to come forward. A hearing date of Jan. 6 was set.

Federal prosecutors have charged a former Chicago man of swindling nearly $8 million from more than 50 victims who were led to believe they were buying specially discounted stock in a number of well-known companies, including Google Inc., and Facebook Inc.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago says 39-year-old Randy Cho, now of Newton, Mass., was charged Monday with one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false federal income tax return. The office says Cho will be arraigned at a later date, and did not say whether he had an attorney.

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, says Cho styled himself as a self-employed securities trader while running the alleged swindle from locations in Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and Newton.

Ernst & Young LLP may be sued for fraud as early as today by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for allegedly helping Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. mislead investors, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Cuomo will be sworn in as governor on Jan. 1. The suit would relate to Ernst & Young’s audits of Lehman financial statements aimed at downplaying its liabilities, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the case. The fraud suit would be brought under the state’s Martin Act, said the person, adding that a settlement is possible.

Richard Bamberger, a spokesman for Cuomo’s office, declined to comment. Charles Perkins, a spokesman for Ernst & Young, declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal said earlier today a lawsuit might be filed this week.

Lehman, once the fourth-largest investment bank, failed in September 2008 because of risky real estate bets and too much debt including Repo 105 trades, which it tried to hide from investors, according to bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas’s report. Valukas, in the report, said Ernst & Young could be accused of “professional malpractice” for its role as auditor.

Repo 105 transactions are a form of short-term financing that Valukas said Lehman used to move as much as $50 billion off its balance sheet temporarily to show investors it wasn’t carrying too much debt.

It's the most significant new tax law in a decade, but what does it mean for you? Big savings for millions of taxpayers, more if you have young children or attend college, a lot more if you're wealthy.

The package, being signed Friday by President Barack Obama, will save taxpayers, on average, nearly $3,000 next year.

But many families will be able to save much more by taking advantage of tax breaks for being married, having children, paying for child care, going to college or investing in securities. There are even tax breaks for paying local sales taxes and using mass transit, and a new Social Security tax cut for nearly every worker who earns a wage.

Most of the tax cuts have been around since early in the decade. The new law will prevent them from expiring Jan. 1. Others are new, such as the decrease in the Social Security payroll tax. Altogether, they provide a thick menu of opportunities for families at every income level.

"The tax code wants to encourage people to invest in their homes, invest in their education, invest in their retirement, and you have to know about all of these in order to take advantage of it," said Kathy Pickering, executive director of The Tax Institute at H&R Block.

A Florida court has upheld a $28.3 million verdict against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a lawsuit filed by the family of a deceased smoker.

The 1st District Court of Appeal's ruling Tuesday marked the first decision on an appeal in thousands of smoker lawsuits being tried across the state. The court sided with the family of Pensacola smoker Benny Martin, who died of lung cancer in 1995.

The appeals judges disagreed with the tobacco company's claims that damages were excessive.

About 8,000 similar lawsuits are being tried individually after the state Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion class-action damage award for smokers. That decision also concluded that cigarette makers knowingly sold dangerous and defective products.