DIGEST
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) will review the Federal Reserve Bank's role in overseeing a small California bank suspected of being a possible conduit in the mid-1990s for illegal Chinese political contributions. Shelby, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, already has said he will review if another federal bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, was negligent in its oversight of the bank, the Far East National Bank of Los Angeles. The Fed approved the sale of the bank to a foreign bank in Taiwan in June 1997, the same month the Fed knew the OCC was notifying the Justice Department and other criminal investigators of the bank's activities.</br></br>Cox Communications agreed to buy TCA Cable TV for about $4 billion in stock, cash and assumed debt, moving to become the fourth-largest company in the rapidly consolidating U.S. cable television industry. TCA has 883,000 subscribers, mainly in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Cox -- which last month agreed to buy Media General's cable systems for $1.4 billion -- and many of its competitors have been on an acquisition spree in the past year, seeking to build larger regional groups of subscribers to spread out the cost of new programming and digital services such as high-speed Internet access and local telephone service.</br></br>Bank fraud charges were filed against 33 people in federal court in Manhattan for using false papers to apply for more than $35 million in loans from Citibank, Chase Manhattan and five other banks. The defendants, mostly small-business owners, got the bogus documents from a former NatWest Bank loan officer who has already pleaded guilty. U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said the banks actually lent out about $20 million based on the papers and lost $10 million to $15 million.</br></br>Avondale Industries said its board has authorized management to begin talks with Litton Industries over Litton's $500 million cash offer to purchase the New Orleans shipyard. Litton has made twin, unsolicited offers for Avondale and Newport News Shipbuilding, which also has an offer pending for Avondale. While Litton is offering cash for Avondale, Newport News has offered its stock in a bid valued at about $470 million. Newport News has not publicly responded to the bid from Litton.</br></br>Insight Communications said it plans to raise more than $500 million through an initial public offering of Class A common stock. The cable TV system operator did not disclose the number of shares or estimated price range in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It plans to use proceeds from the IPO to acquire systems in Kentucky, introduce new and enhanced products and services and invest in a telephone venture with AT&T.