ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 8, 1996 TAG: 9611080059
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
Electric toothbrush chargers recalled
BELLEVUE, Wash. - The Optiva Corp. is recalling the bases of 150,000 electric toothbrush chargers after discovering that at least one was shipped without insulation. The voluntary recall is for all Sonicare toothbrush charger bases made between Sept. 3 and Oct. 30.
An uninsulated coil in the base of the charger created an electrical hazard, said company president David Giuliani said. Optiva will ship customers a replacement and pay for postage.
Customers should unplug it the charger base and contact Optiva at: (800) 676-7664.
-Associated Press
Ex-banker charged in $14 million theft
NEW YORK - A former executive at Chase Manhattan Corp.'s equipment-leasing unit has been charged with embezzling $14.5 million by selling bank assets and diverting some of the proceeds.
Michael Wachs was accused of underreporting the proceeds from sales of Chase assets - including three DC-8 airplanes, 485 railroad cars and 338 barges - and pocketing the difference, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Prosecutors said he deposited some of the money into secret personal accounts, then used some of it to buy Canadian Maple Leaf coins and South African Krugerrands.
Prosecutors said Wachs is free on $1 million bond after an appearance in federal court in Manhattan.
-Associated Press
Briefly
* U.S. government bond markets and trading in related futures and options contracts will close early this afternoon in advance of the Veteran's Day holiday Monday. There will be no trading in U.S. government bonds or of related contracts Monday on the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. The weekly auction of short-term Treasury bills and bonds, generally scheduled for Monday, will be postponed until Tuesday. Normal trading is scheduled for stock markets and all other commodity exchanges. The Roanoke Times will report trading results as usual in The Daily Market Report. Results of the Treasury auction will be reported in Wednesday's editions.
* Republic Industries Inc., controlled by the billionaire entrepreneur Wayne Huizenga, agreed Thursday to buy Alamo Rent-A-Car Inc. for $625 million in stock. Since Republic opened its first AutoNation used-car arm last month, it has said it was looking for a steady supply of fresh models. Alamo, the nation's fourth-largest car renter, has about 150,000 cars.
* Blockbuster Video this weekend will offer movie renters a bonus - a free month of Internet service. Lycos Inc., the Marlborough, Mass., Internet search engine firm, has joined Blockbuster and the Sprint long-distance telephone company to launch the Sprint Internet Passport service. Sprint will distribute 1.5 million copies of free Internet software - an older version of Netscape Navigator - at Blockbuster stores by the end of the year, with more to come in 1997.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB