The former chief executive and six former officials at US telecoms giant Qwest Communications have been accused of deceiving investors.
Former CEO Joseph Nacchio, who denies any wrongdoing, is among those named in the civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It said Qwest inflated its revenue by $3bn (£1
US insurance broker Marsh & McLennan is to pay $850m (£451m) to settle charges that it conspired with insurance providers to rig the marketplace.
Under the agreement with New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer, Marsh said it “neither admits nor denies the allegations”.
It will pay the money back over four years to affected policyholders
The former head of Worldcom has told a court that he knew too little about the phone firm’s accounts to be aware of the fraud that drove it to bankruptcy.
Bernie Ebbers’ lawyers argued that their client was a sharp entrepreneur but no accountant.
For that reason, they said, he was not responsible for the $11bn (£6bn) fraud which led to the firm’s 2002 collapse
Profits at US pharmaceutical giant Merck fell 21%, after the firm was forced to withdraw its Vioxx painkiller last year.
Sales of the drug were halted amid safety fears on 30 September, causing a dip in fourth-quarter profits to $1.1bn (£0
The trial of Emilio Botin, the chairman of Spain’s most powerful bank, Santander Central Hispano, has started in Madrid.
Mr Botin is accused of misusing the bank’s funds after he approved the payment of 160m euros ($208m; £111m) in bonus and pension payouts to two former executives.
However, the trial was suspended when Mr Botin’s lawyer introduced a new set of documents on the day testimony was set to begin
A US consumer privacy group has called for a global boycott of Tesco stores over the company’s trial of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips.
The technology allows products to be tracked via radio waves.
Privacy groups have labelled them “spy chips” because they fear the tags attached to products, can be used to track the behaviour of customers
Bank of America has been banned from suing Parmalat, the food group which went bust in 2003 after an accounting scandal.
The bank – along with investors, auditors and the group’s managers – want damages for being victims of fraud at the hands of the Italian firm.
But a judge has barred Bank of America and two auditors from the case
Traders at US banking giant Citigroup are facing a criminal investigation in Germany over a controversial bond deal.
The deal saw the sale of 11bn euros ($14.4bn; £7
Bank of America has been banned from suing Parmalat, the food group which went bust in 2003 after an accounting scandal.
The bank – along with investors, auditors and the group’s managers – want damages for being victims of fraud at the hands of the Italian firm.
But a judge has barred Bank of America and two auditors from the case
Up to 350,000 HSBC small business customers could face a quadrupling of banking costs following significant charge increases.
Those with a turnover of less than half a million must now pay much more for using the branch to do their banking.
Charges include 27 pence for every cheque paid in, and 50 pence out of every £100 cash deposited at any HSBC bank