Officials in the US are suing shopping-mall developer Mills Corp. over alleged accounting fraud that cost the state pension fund more than $5 million in stock-market losses.
“This is becoming an all-too-common story all over the country – hard-working men and women
The French parliament has backed plans to give consumers more choice over music downloads from the internet.
MPs backed a draft law to force Apple, Sony and Microsoft to share their proprietary copy-protection systems by 296 to 193 votes.
The aim is to ensure that digital music can be played on any player, regardless of its format or source
The U.S. Department of Justice appointed Joshua Hochberg, the former head of its fraud unit, to investigate claims of fraud and other misconduct that may have led to Refco’s bankruptcy filing
Occidental Petroleum is offering the Ecuador government up to $1bn (£569m) in disputed taxes, investments and extra revenues to end a legal dispute.
The row centres on whether the US firm transferred part of an Ecuadorean field to Canada’s EnCana in 2000 without approval from the Ecuador authorities.
Occidental proposes giving Ecuador at least $600m in extra revenues from the disputed area, but denies wrongdoing
The executive who first raised concerns about financial malpractice at Enron said an internal investigation into accounting procedures was “bogus”.
Testifying at the trial of Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, Sherron Watkins said she first raised doubts about Enron’s accounting methods in August 2001.
“Accounting just doesn’t get that creative,” she said, referring to structures used by Enron to hide debts
Defence lawyers acting for former Enron boss Kenneth Lay have accused a chief witness against him of helping to bring about the US energy giant’s collapse.
Former finance chief Andrew Fastow lied to his bosses at Enron while stealing millions of dollars from the bankrupt firm, Mr Lay’s defence attorney said.
Mr Fastow was facing cross-examination after giving evidence against Mr Lay and fellow Enron boss Jeffery Skilling
Internet giant Google Inc. has announced it has agreed to settle the “click fraud” suit brought against the company by smaller firms who claimed to have paid for bogus sales referrals. The bogus referrals are generated through “click fraud”
Microsoft’s efforts to comply with the European Commission’s anti-competition ruling are “entirely inadequate”, Brussels has warned.
The Commission said it would impose fines of up to 2m euros (£1.4m) a day if the firm continued to drag its feet
Enron’s former boss lied about the state of the firm’s finances months before its collapse, the company’s ex-finance chief has testified.
Andrew Fastow said Ken Lay claimed that Enron’s finances were robust in a interview in August 2001 despite him being aware of mounting problems.
“It was what Mr Lay was saying
Enron’s former chief financial officer has testified to setting up partnerships designed to help the firm hide losses of millions of dollars.
Andrew Fastow took the witness stand at the trial of ex-Enron bosses Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay.
The two deny multiple charges of conspiracy, fraud and insider trading linked to the collapse of the US energy firm in December 2001