Internet giant Yahoo has been accused of supplying information to China which led to the jailing of a journalist for “divulging state secrets”.
Reporters Without Borders said Yahoo’s Hong Kong arm helped China link Shi Tao’s e-mail account and computer to a message containing the information.
The media watchdog accused Yahoo of becoming a “police informant” in order to further its business ambitions
Mastercard and the banks issuing its credit cards have been overcharging their customers, according to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The fee levied on retailers to recover the costs of the card system was too high, the watchdog says.
Consequently, all Mastercard purchases in the UK between March 2000 and November 2004 were overcharged
Global accounting giant KPMG has agreed to pay a $456m fine to settle a case related to past tax shelter sales.
The deal means KPMG will avoid potentially crippling criminal charges.
But prosecutors have charged nine people – mainly former KPMG executives – with conspiring to defraud US tax authorities in relation to the case
Utility firm Transco has been fined £15m – a UK record – after being convicted on a charge arising from an explosion which killed four people.
Andrew and Janette Findlay and their children Stacey, 13, and Daryl, 11, died in the explosion in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, in December 1999.
Transco was found guilty after a six-month trial in Edinburgh of breaching health and safety laws
The world’s largest internet service provider America Online (AOL) has vowed to reform its customer service after agreeing to settle a US lawsuit.
It follows an investigation by New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer into complaints that AOL ignored people who wanted to cancel the service.
AOL will provide refunds to all the 300 customers who complained and will pay New York State $1
US watchdogs have charged two ex-top executives of Kmart with fraud in the lead up to the retailer’s bankruptcy.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused ex-chief executive Charles Conway and ex-finance chief John MacDonald of misleading investors.
The men made “materially false” statements about Kmart’s ability to pay its bills in the lead up the firm’s bankruptcy in 2002, the SEC alleged
A former employee of Halliburton subsidiary KBR has admitted taking $110,300 (£61,225) in bribes from an Iraqi firm it awarded a US contract.
The $609,000 contract was to renovate warehouse and office space in Iraq.
Glenn Allen Powell – whom KBR has fired – faces up to 20 years in jail and a fine of up to $1
Two former directors of US drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb are been sued for civil damages after being accused of masterminding a $1.5bn ($833m) fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission watchdog alleges that Frederick Schiff and Richard Lane devised a scheme to inflate sales and profits at the firm
Working long hours can greatly increase the risk of suffering injury or illness, a study says.Workers who do overtime were 61% more likely to become hurt or ill, once factors such as age and gender were taken into account. And working more than 12 hours a day raised the risk by more than a third, […]
US drugs giant Merck has been ordered to pay $253.4m (£141.07m) to the widow of a man who died from a heart attack blamed on the popular painkiller Vioxx