Ericsson risked workers lives by Islamic State
/0 Comments/in Ericsson /by ceadminThe telecoms company Ericsson put contractors’ lives at risk by insisting they continued working in territory controlled by the Islamic State [IS] group in Iraq. This resulted in them being kidnapped by IS militants.
Post Office scandal: Public inquiry to examine wrongful convictions
/0 Comments/in Post Office /by ceadminBetween 2000 and 2014, more than 700 sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a flaw in a computer system Horizon.
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NatWest fined £265m cash laundered
/0 Comments/in NatWest /by ceadminNatWest has been fined £265m after admitting it failed to prevent money-laundering of nearly £400m by one firm. A gold trading business suspected of money-laundering deposited £700,000 in cash into one NatWest branch in black bin bags.
Boeing refutes 737 Max new safety concerns
/0 Comments/in Boeing /by ceadminBoeing’s 737 was cleared to fly passengers again by US regulators last year, having been grounded following two catastrophic accidents. Since then, however, a number of potentially serious problems have been reported during 737 Max flights.
Apple sues Israeli spyware firm NSO Group
/0 Comments/in NSO Group /by ceadminApple is suing Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and its parent company for allegedly targeting iPhone users with a hacking tool.
NSO’s Pegasus software can infect both iPhones and Android devices, allowing operators to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones and cameras.
RBS fined £14.5m over mortgage advice
/0 Comments/in Royal Bank of Scotland /by ceadminRoyal Bank of Scotland has been fined £14.5m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for “serious failings” in its mortgage sales business.
The City watchdog said RBS did not ensure that it gave suitable mortgage advice to customers
Deutsche Bank, HSBC accused in US suit of rigging silver price
/0 Comments/in Deutsche Bank /by ceadminDeutsche Bank, HSBC and Bank of Nova Scotia have been accused of attempting to rig the price of silver, in a lawsuit filed in the US.
The plaintiff alleges the banks, which set the price of silver each day, abused their position in the market.
Deutsche Bank and HSBC have not commented on the filing, while Bank of Nova Scotia told Bloomberg news agency it would “vigorously defend” itself
Systematic bribery at GlaxoSmithKline China ‘credible’
/0 Comments/in GlaxoSmithKline /by ceadminAllegations that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) systematically bribed doctors in China are credible, says an investigator hired by the firm.
Peter Humphrey was hired only to investigate who was behind a suspected smear campaign against GSK.
But after he finished his report, he learned the details of further allegations against the firm and told colleagues he believed they were true
Goldman Sachs fined over dark pool pricing
/0 Comments/in Goldman Sachs /by ceadminGoldman Sachs has been fined $800,000 by a US regulator for “failing” to ensure that trades in its dark pool took place at the best price.
The regulator said more than 395,000 trades were executed in the bank’s Sigma X dark pool at an inferior price during an eight-day period in 2011.
But it added that Goldman was “unaware” of the issue at the time
British Gas staff mis-sold deals, says regulator Ofgem
/0 Comments/in British Gas /by ceadminThe UK’s biggest energy supplier, British Gas, mis-sold energy deals by making exaggerated claims to potential customers, the regulator has said.
Ofgem said British Gas sales staff did not make accurate comparisons between suppliers’ deals, and so made overblown claims about savings for switching.
The cases involved British Gas staff working in Sainsbury’s stores nationwide between 2011 and 2013
Wonga chased debt using fake law firms
/0 Comments/in Wonga /by ceadminPayday lender Wonga must pay £2.6m in compensation after sending letters from non-existent law firms to customers in arrears.
The letters threatened legal action, but the law firms were false
British Gas heavily fined over complaint handling
/0 Comments/in British Gas /by ceadminBritish Gas has been fined £2.5m by the regulator Ofgem for the way in which it deals with customer complaints.
Ofgem ruled that the company had failed to re-open complaints when customers said they had not been resolved
Microsoft must pay $290m for patent infringement
/0 Comments/in Microsoft Corporation /by ceadminThe US Supreme Court has denied an appeal by Microsoft against a $290m verdict for infringing a small Canadian company’s patent.
The company, i4i, sued Microsoft in 2007, saying it owned the technology behind a text manipulation tool used in Microsoft’s Word application.
The technology gave Word 2003 and Word 2007 users an improved way of using a document’s contents
Glass makers hit with huge fine
/0 Comments/in Saint-Gobain /by ceadminFour car glass makers have been hit with the European Commission’s largest cartel fine after being found guilty of “cheating” car buyers.
Asahi Glass, Pilkington, Saint-Gobain and Soliver have been ordered to pay 1.38bn euros (£1
Silent calls fine for Barclaycard
/0 Comments/in Barclaycard /by ceadminBarclaycard has received the maximum possible fine for the “most serious and persistent” case of silent calls ever seen by regulator Ofcom.
The credit provider was hit with a £50,000 fine after an Ofcom investigation uncovered an extremely high number of silent calls.
Typically, these occur when call centres with automated systems dial more numbers than staff can deal with
Mortgage firm fined over lost £2m
/0 Comments/in GE Money Home Lending /by ceadminA mortgage firm has been fined £1.12m after failures resulted in hundreds of borrowers suffering losses of £2.3m
Lawsuit threat to Merrill Lynch
/0 Comments/in Merrill Lynch /by ceadminNew York State’s attorney general has threatened to sue Merrill Lynch for misrepresenting certain debt investments as safer than they were.
Andrew Cuomo said that legal action against the US bank was “imminent” after it failed to settle charges of mis-selling with regulators.
Last week, Merrill Lynch offered to buy back $12bn (£6bn) of auction-rate debt
US banks give clients $7bn refund
/0 Comments/in Morgan Stanley /by ceadminMorgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase have agreed to buy back more than $7bn of securities and pay fines to settle allegations that they misled investors.
The deals were with the New York Attorney General and other regulators.
The Wall Street banks were accused of marketing debt products, called auction-rate securities, as much safer than they were
Citigroup reaches SEC settlement
/0 Comments/in CitiGroup /by ceadminFinance firm Citigroup is set to buy back billions of dollars worth of securities, as part of a settlement with the US financial regulator.
The deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) comes after an investigation into whether the bank breached securities rules.
The SEC had looked at the sale and marketing of a bond often used by municipal authorities to raise funds
BA bosses in price-fixing charge
/0 Comments/in British Airways /by ceadminFour current and former British Airways executives have been charged with involvement in fixing the prices of plane fuel surcharges.
BA’s head of sales Andrew Crawley and ex-commercial director Martin George are due to appear before City of London Magistrates Court on 24 September.
Also due up are former communications head Iain Burns and former UK and Ireland sales chief Alan Burnett
Prosecutors charge Samsung chief
/0 Comments/in Samsung /by ceadminThe chairman of South Korean firm Samsung, Lee Kun-hee, has been indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust, prosecutors say.
The announcement follows a three-month investigation into alleged corruption at South Korea’s biggest conglomerate.
But the probe cleared the firm of allegations by a former executive that it used a multi-million dollar slush fund to bribe prosecutors and judges
Prosecutors question Samsung boss
/0 Comments/in Samsung /by ceadminThe boss of South Korea’s Samsung Group has appeared before special prosecutors to be questioned over allegations of corruption at the firm.
Lee Kun-hee, chairman of the company, the country’s largest conglomerate, is being questioned in regard to an investigation that started in January.
Samsung is accused of operating a 200bn won ($215m; £108m) slush fund to bribe prosecutors, judges and civil servants
SEC sues UK hedge fund and boss
/0 Comments/in Pentagon Capital Management /by ceadminThe US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it is suing UK hedge fund Pentagon Capital Management and its chief executive, Lewis Chester.
The watchdog alleges the fund and Mr Chester have schemed to defraud mutual funds and shareholders in the US.
London-based Pentagon Capital said last week it was winding down two funds because it expected the SEC to file civil complaints against Mr Chester
AB Volvo fined for Iraq kickbacks
/0 Comments/in AB Volvo /by ceadminThe Swedish lorry maker AB Volvo has agreed to pay millions of dollars in fines in connection with an inquiry into Iraq’s UN oil-for-food programme.
It will pay a $7m (£3.5m) fine to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and $4m in civil fines to the Securities and Exchange Commission
Starbucks must pay $100m in tips
/0 Comments/in Starbucks /by ceadminA US judge has ordered Starbucks to repay its California coffee-makers more than $100m in tips that were paid to shift supervisors.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett said the coffee-makers – “baristas” – were entitled to $86m in back tips, plus interest.
She issued an injunction banning supervisors from sharing future tips
Record £14m fine for rail company
/0 Comments/in Network Rail /by ceadminNetwork Rail has been fined a record £14m by the railway regulator, after engineering work over-ran during the Christmas and New Year period.
But the company says that without further delays, it risks not meeting a December deadline for finishing work to the West Coast Main Line at Rugby.
Passengers now face extra disruption through the summer, as lines are closed in order to complete the work
EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn
/0 Comments/in Microsoft Corporation /by ceadminThe European Commission has fined US computer giant Microsoft for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour.
Microsoft must now pay a record 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680
The whistleblowing bankers who were sent to jail
/0 Comments/in Barclaycard, United Kingdom, United States /by ceadminTwo traders jailed for rigging interest rates were the original whistleblowers of the scandal, and not the bosses that directed them to carry out the illegal actions. Leaked audio recordings reveal Peter Johnson and Colin Bermingham alerted the US central bank to a fraud that the tapes suggest was directed from the top of the financial system.