China Life Insurance has confirmed it has received an informal inquiry from the main US securities regulator.
China Life did not say what the US
regulator was looking into, but there has been market concern over levels of disclosure at the firm.
Earlier this month China Life revealed that its state-owned predecessor had breached insurance laws in China when it hid results of a state audit
Telecoms equipment firm Nortel Networks has fired its head Frank Dunn and two executives after conducting an internal review of its accounts.
Nortel also said it was reviewing its earnings figures for the past three years, and profits for 2003 would be revised lower by about 50%.
The company’s accounts are already under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission
Investigations are being carried out by the Financial Services Authority into oil giant Shell after recent events.
A storm of bad publicity surrounds the company following three separate occasions when the company admitted it had overstated its oil reserves.
The Shell scandal first broke back in January when the firm made its initial announcement on a reserves downgrade
Russian tax inspectors have raided the headquarters of oil giant Yukos, whose assets were frozen earlier this month as part of a tax fraud inquiry.
Officials entered the central Moscow building and seized papers which they said related to tax evasion cases.
Yukos has been charged with shirking payment of $3
EarthLink Inc. gave its leader a 76 percent increase in his annual bonus last year, during which time the nation’s third-largest Internet Service Provider said it was cutting 1,300 jobs, a regulatory filing shows.
The Atlanta-based company paid chief executive Garry Betty a $346,790 bonus in 2003, compared to a bonus of $196,590 in 2002
Ernst & Young has been banned from taking on new clients in the US after regulators questioned its relationship with software company PeopleSoft.
Judge Brenda Murray said that E&Y should not accept new auditing work for six months from Securities and Exchange Commission-listed companies.
E&Y is not expected to appeal the ruling, which includes a $1
A Moscow court has frozen the assets of Russian oil giant Yukos as part of an ongoing prosecution of the firm on charges of evading $3bn in taxes.
Under the ruling the troubled firm is barred from “selling or mortgaging its assets, including shares”.
However, the group’s oil sales will remain unaffected
Ernst Welteke, the president of Germany’s central bank, has resigned following investigations into a hotel stay paid for by Dresdner Bank.
The row started after a news magazine reported that Mr Welteke and his family accepted a 7,600-euro ($9,200; £5,000) free stay in Berlin’s top Adlon Hotel.
Mr Welteke was at a celebration of the euro’s first year as a cash currency
An advisor to shareholders on corporate governance issues has questioned Warren Buffett’s independence as a director of soft drinks giant Coca-Cola.
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has urged investors not to re-appoint Mr Buffett, citing his business links to the company.
Coca-Cola dismissed the complaint and called Mr Buffett “a man of unimpeachable integrity”
Software giant Microsoft has agreed to pay $440m to settle a legal row over its use of anti-piracy patents.
It struck the deal with California based InterTrust Technologies, a maker of software to protect online delivery and payment for films and music.
The agreement comes one week after Microsoft paid $1