DIGEST
DuPont said two of its major businesses, DuPont Nylon North America and DuPont Dacron, will cut about 1,500 employee and contractor jobs in order to boost competitiveness. DuPont said it expects to take a first-quarter charge of about $27.8 million to cover the costs of the job cuts.</br></br>The SEC barred Mitchell Vazquez, a former derivatives salesman at BT Securities, from the securities and investment industries for misleading Gibson Greetings about the size of the company's losses on derivatives. Vazquez, who was also fined $50,000, entered into a settlement agreement with the SEC and the Federal Reserve without admitting or denying wrongdoing.</br></br>Netscape Communications founder Marc Andreessen, along with two other company founders, told the SEC they intend to sell millions of dollars worth of stock. Analysts said that rather than a hint of bad times at the company, the executives are simply trying to collect some of their millions in paper profits.</br></br>The Justice Department announced a nationwide crackdown on bankruptcy fraud that resulted in criminal charges being filed this year against 127 people in 27 states. As part of the bankruptcy fraud investigation, dubbed "Operation Total Disclosure," the government used FBI undercover agents and concealed cameras for the first time.</br></br>Honeywell was ordered by a federal jury in Los Angeles to pay $234 million in damages to Litton Industries for monopolizing the market for a product used in guiding commercial jetliners -- a sum that would automatically be tripled to $702 million under U.S. antitrust law. Honeywell said it would immediately appeal the decision.