Business briefs for July 22, 2003

Tuesday, July 22, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.

FBI investigates trade secret theft

PHOENIX -- The FBI is investigating allegations that the nation's largest for-profit university stole trade secrets from its former software provider and gave privileged access to a competing software company.

Chariot Software Group alleges that top-level administrators at The University of Phoenix, a subsidiary of Phoenix-based Apollo Group Inc., supplied passwords for Chariot's software to another company, which then mimicked Chariot's designs and used their servers to maintain the university's online testing system.

No charges had been filed as of Monday, said Jan Caldwell, a special agent with the FBI's San Diego office.

Passengers stranded

LANSING, Mich. -- Allegiant Air's fledgling service to Las Vegas from Lansing has hit some turbulence.

On Monday about 150 passengers bound for Las Vegas in the third week of the charter airline's Lansing-to-Las Vegas service were stuck at Lansing Capital City Airport.

A Sunday flight, delayed because of mechanical problems, had passengers still left stranded by noon Monday, when they were joined by passengers for Monday's flight, leaving the replacement airplane overbooked. Allegiant spokesman Mark Peterson said such delays aren't unusual in the industry, but the timing hurts because Allegiant began its Lansing service July 10.

Waksal resigns

NEW YORK -- Harlan W. Waksal has resigned from ImClone Systems, severing the last executive ties between the company and the two brothers who founded it 19 years ago.

Waksal's resignation as chief scientific officer and a board member, announced by the company on Monday, comes the same week as his older brother, Samuel D. Waksal, is scheduled to begin serving a seven-year, three-month sentence for insider trading, perjury and other crimes.

Harlan Waksal, long the company's chief operating officer, became chief executive in May 2002, when his brother was ousted from that post. In April, Harlan Waksal was demoted to chief scientific officer when the biotechnology company became the focus of a federal investigation over its tax treatment of stock options.