The apology and the payment represented a shocking U-turn.
The charges – imposed when a customer missed a minimum credit bill payment – represented a mark-up of up to 7,000% on actual costs of as low as 50 cents.
In their current four-year deals, NBC is paying the N.B.A. $1.75 billion, which is 133percentt more than its previous contract, while Turner's $890 million payment represented a 153percentt increase over its prior deal.
Questioning the fairness of the deal, the attorney general's lawsuit said that it could "compromise investors' claims in exchange for a payment representing a fraction of the losses" that have been suffered by investors.
He argued that the Bank of New York Mellon, which had negotiated the deal as the trustee for the investors, failed to act in their best interest and that the payment represented "a fraction of the losses" involved.
The lawsuit contends that the deal could "compromise investors' claims in exchange for a payment representing a fraction of the losses" experienced by investors and that it had been negotiated without the knowledge of all of the holders of the securities.
Either the inability of the debt-ridden Dubai World, a state-owned corporation, to meet its interest payments represents a minor detour on the road to recovery.
These payments represent a royalty not otherwise available to most artists.
Companies can buy back shares, or not, whenever they feel like it; dividend payments represent a firmer commitment to pay shareholders, he said.
"Payments represent a critical source of revenue for Facebook, which will need to diversify beyond just advertising if it wants to continue growing," it said.
True, state and local governments do have to make annual interest payments on their bonds, but these payments represent a modest 4 percent to 5 percent on the whole of current spending — no more than in the late 1970s.
