Business Briefs

TAMPA BAY AREA

WellCare Names Senior VP

WellCare Health Plans Inc. has named Jonathan Rich, former general counsel and chief compliance officer at health insurer Aveta Inc., as the Tampa company's senior vice president and chief compliance officer.

Rich has also served as a senior executive at Oxford Health Plans and worked for a New York law firm.

WellCare administers managed-care services and prescription drugs for several states' Medicaid and Medicare plans. Its Henderson Road headquarters was raided by federal agents in October. The U.S. attorney's office has not stated what it is investigating.

WellCare's top three executives left the company in January, with Heath Schiesser being named president and chief executive officer.

NATION

Fund Adviser Sentenced

A federal judge in Akron, Ohio, on Tuesday sentenced an investment adviser to 12 years in prison Tuesday on fraud charges related to the loss of $216 million in a hedge fund at the state agency for injured workers.

Mark Lay, chief executive and founder of the now-defunct MDL Capital Management of Pittsburgh, also was ordered to pay $212.9 million in restitution and a $590,000 forfeiture. The forfeiture is the amount of money the jury determined he earned from his work on the hedge fund.

Lay's defense attorneys argued that he was a scapegoat for a legitimate investment loss that wasn't a crime.

Fed Officer: Fight Inflation

Recent inflation figures are "unacceptably high," and the Federal Reserve should focus on combating that rather than on stimulating the economy, Richmond, Va., Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., said Tuesday.

The risks of a sharp economic slowdown have "diminished substantially," which enables the Fed to consider other challenges, such as rising prices, Lacker said. The central bank can help ease inflation by raising a benchmark short-term interest rate.

Furniture Maker Cuts Jobs

Stanley Furniture Co., the 84-year-old maker of bedroom dressers and dining room tables based in Stanleyville, Va., said it will consolidate two North Carolina plants and cut 350 jobs.

Hummer May Be Sold

General Motors Corp.'s sales chief told dealers that Hummer is the only brand being reviewed for possible sale or shutdown.

GM is not conducting any "examination" of Saturn or other brands beyond normal business operations, Mark LaNeve, vice president for North American sales, said in a memo to retailers.

ENERGY

Oil Drops For Second Day

Crude prices tumbled Tuesday, falling $5.33 to settle at $136.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and bringing oil's two-day drop to more than $9.

The average U.S. retail price of a gallon of gasoline remained at a record $4.108, according to AAA auto club, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

In the Tampa Bay area, the average price of a gallon of gas on Tuesday was $3.999, according to AAA.

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