Miami Herald- Database provider InfoGROUP Inc. said Tuesday it has removed founder Vin Gupta as chairman, citing excessive corporate expenditures and expense reimbursements.

The changes are the result of an internal investigation, which came in response to an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation and a shareholder lawsuit. Gupta will continue to serve as chief executive officer of the company, which used to be named InfoUSA.

The company also said Gupta has "orally agreed" with the Board of Directors’ Special Litigation Committee to pay InfoGROUP $9 million. According to a news release, the payment is subject to a settlement agreement and court approval, but it’s not clear if it is referring to settlement of the shareholders lawsuit.

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Reuters-  Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) agreed to pay $137.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit that claimed the world’s largest soft drink maker artificially inflated sales to boost its stock price, according to court documents.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2000, claimed that in 1999 Coca-Cola had forced some bottlers to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of unnecessary beverage concentrate in an effort to make its sales seem higher.

Bottlers use the beverage concentrate to make soft drinks.

Institutional investors, led by Carpenters Health & Welface Fund of Philadelphia & Vicinity, said the practice, known as "channel stuffing," artificially inflated Coca-Cola’s results and gave investors a false picture of the company’s health.

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