DaimlerChrysler has suspended at least six managers over bribery allegations linked to the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq, the Financial Times says.
Quoting “people close to the carmaker”, the paper said between six and nine senior managers had been suspended after an internal investigation.
A report published last year listed the carmaker among more than 2,000 firms said to have paid Iraqi kickbacks
Insurer Guardian Assurance and its associated company Guardian Linked Life have been fined $1 million (£750,000) for mishandling endowment complaints.
It is the fourth time that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined an insurance company for not dealing with complaints properly.
The FSA said Guardian’s complaints procedure had “serious systemic flaws”
The US stockmarket watchdog SEC will investigate computer services firm IBM over one of its earnings reports and its stock options scheme.
The move gives the SEC the right to see internal IBM e-mails, documents and to interview company executives.
IBM said it was co-operating with the investigation, but in after-hours trading its share price fell 1
The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has been ordered to pay $172m (£99m) in compensation to workers who were refused lunch breaks.
A California court found Wal-Mart broke a state law requiring employers to give staff an unpaid 30-minute lunch break if they worked more than six hours.
More than 100,000 Wal-Mart employees in California will be eligible for compensation
The European Commission has threatened to fine Microsoft up to 2m euros (£1.36m; $2.4m) a day until it gives rivals more access to its systems
U.S. regulators on Monday fined ABN Amro, the Dutch banking heavyweight, $80 million for violating U
Oil firms ExxonMobil and BP are being sued by local authorities in Alaska who accuse them of holding back gas.
The authorities want to build a gas pipeline to rival one proposed by the firms, who they say have hampered their attempts at getting a deal.
BP and ExxonMobil want a pipeline to take gas from Alaska to mainland US, where prices are near record levels
EBay is under fire from law enforcement officials and manufacturers over levels of crime on the site and the levels of cooperation they receive.
Trading standards officers who regularly investigate crimes perpetrated on the site have accused eBay of being “obstructive” in the way it shares information. North Yorkshire Trading Standards says eBay can take up to two months to provide the names and addresses of suspects it is pursuing
The European Commission has begun legal action against Italy over its central bank’s handling of recent bank mergers.
It comes after Dutch bank ABN Amro said the Bank of Italy tried to block its bid for Italian lender Antonveneta.
Central bank chief Antonio Fazio Bank of Italy was said to have wanted an all-Italian merger instead
A US judge has declared a mistrial in the first federal lawsuit against drugs giant Merck and its Vioxx painkiller.
The move came after a jury in Houston was unable to agree on whether the drug had caused a man’s fatal heart attack.
Merck is facing a mass of Vioxx lawsuits