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Ex-Qwest chief request to remain free is rejected

Joseph Nacchio, Qwest Communications International Inc.’s former chief executive officer, must report to prison on April 14 to begin serving a six-year sentence for insider trading, a federal appeals court ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver rejected Nacchio’s argument that he should remain free on bail while seeking a review of his case from the U.S. Supreme Court.

SEC appoints Cross director of Corporation Finance

Meredith Cross, a partner at WilmerHale in Washington, was named director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s division of corporation finance.

Cross worked at the SEC in the 1990s and was previously deputy director of the corporation finance unit, the agency said in a statement Monday. She replaces John White, who left the SEC in January to return to Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Invista will spend about $500 million on violations

Invista, the maker of Stainmaster carpet, will pay a $1.7 million civil penalty and spend about $500 million to fix self-reported environmental violations in seven states, the Justice Department said.

The company disclosed more than 680 violations of water, air, hazardous waste and other rules to the Environmental Protection Agency after auditing 12 facilities it acquired in 2004 from DuPont Co., the Justice Department said in a statement Monday.

The settlement is the largest under the EPA’s audit policy, started in 1995, which provides incentives to companies that voluntarily disclose and correct violations.

Invista, which produces polymers and fibers for nylon and polyester, is a unit of closely held Koch Industries Inc., based in Wichita, Kan. Invista already has corrected the “vast majority” of the violations, according to a company statement distributed by Business Wire.

“This agreement affirms the work we have already done to improve environmental compliance at these plants and enables us, as a new owner, to finish correcting the prior owner’s noncompliance,” David Dotson, Invista’s senior vice president for operations, said in the statement.

A telephone message left at Invista wasn’t immediately returned.

DuPont didn’t participate in the settlement, said Anthony Farina, a company spokesman, in an e-mailed statement. DuPont invested millions in environmental projects and health and safety improvements during its ownership, Farina said.