Ericsson risked workers lives by Islamic State
/0 Comments/in Ericsson /by ceadminThe telecoms company Ericsson put contractors’ lives at risk by insisting they continued working in territory controlled by the Islamic State [IS] group in Iraq. This resulted in them being kidnapped by IS militants.
Post Office scandal: Public inquiry to examine wrongful convictions
/0 Comments/in Post Office /by ceadminBetween 2000 and 2014, more than 700 sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a flaw in a computer system Horizon.
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Halliburton worker admits bribes
/0 Comments/in Halliburton /by ceadminA 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
US giant punished for faulty drug
/0 Comments/in Merck /by ceadminUS 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
China Aviation owner fined $4.8m
/0 Comments/in China Aviation Oil /by ceadminSingapore’s central bank has fined the owner of China Aviation Oil (CAO) for selling shares in the crisis-hit firm a month before its collapse.
Beijing’s China Aviation Oil Holding Company was ordered to pay 8m Singaporean dollars ($4.8m; £2
Coke told to close Indian plant
/0 Comments/in Coca Cola /by ceadminDrinks giant Coca-Cola has been ordered to close one of its largest bottling plants in India for breaching environmental regulations.
Closure with immediate effect has been ordered by the Pollution Control Board of the southern state of Kerala.
The plant in the village of Plachimada is one of 27 that the soft drinks company has in India
Net widens in Reebok insider case
/0 Comments/in Reebok /by ceadminUS financial regulators have named more defendants in a case involving alleged insider trading of shares in sports gear maker Reebok International.
“We have named eight additional defendants today,” said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
One of the them is the nephew of a retired Croatian woman accused of insider trading in Reebok options
Hollinger men face fraud charges
/0 Comments/in Hollinger International /by ceadminTwo former officials from Conrad Black’s media empire have been charged with allegedly diverting $32m (£17m) through bogus newspaper deals.
David Radler, ex-president of Hollinger International and Hollinger’s in-house lawyer Mark Kipnis face seven counts of fraud.
The two were indicted together with Conrad Black’s bankrupt holding company Ravelston Corporation
JP Morgan pays $1bn in Enron deal
/0 Comments/in JP Morgan Chase /by ceadminP Morgan Chase has agreed to pay about $1bn (£554m) to settle claims that it contributed to the collapse of former energy trader Enron four years ago.
The bank will pay $350m in cash and meet claims totalling another $660m.
Enron has previously asserted that 10 banks aided and abetted in its collapse, but the settlement is the first with a US bank
Experian rapped over credit offer
/0 Comments/in Experian /by ceadminUS financial information group Experian has settled charges that it deceived consumers into signing up to a credit monitoring service.
UK-owned Experian lured people into signing up to the service by offering them free credit reports, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said.
Consumers were not adequately informed that they would be tied into the credit monitoring service, the FTC said
Venezuela-Shell tax row heats up
/0 Comments/in Shell /by ceadminVenezuelan tax authorities have closed a Royal Dutch Shell office for 48 hours and asked for an injunction on some of the oil firm’s assets in a tax dispute.
The row centres on a $131m (£74m) bill for back taxes covering 2001-2004, presented to the oil giant in July.
Venezuela’s tax authority said it had put a hold on Shell goods worth $131m and shut its office in Lake Maracaibo
Ex-Worldcom finance chief jailed
/0 Comments/in WorldCom /by ceadminWorldcom’s former finance chief has been sentenced to five years in jail for his part in the largest accounting fraud in US corporate history.
Scott Sullivan played a key role as a “star” prosecution witness in the case against former Worldcom chief Bernie Ebbers who was jailed for 25 years.
The 43-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy, securities fraud and making false financial filings
Intel faces S Korean sales probe
/0 Comments/in Intel /by ceadminSemiconductor maker Intel is facing a probe into its sales practices in South Korea, echoing similar inquiries in Europe and Japan.
Intel revealed it was co-operating with the country’s Fair Trade Commission which has requested documents relating to marketing and rebate schemes.
Earlier this year the firm was rebuked for violating antitrust laws in Japan, and is also under scrutiny by Brussels
US Justice Department probes DamilerChrysler
/0 Comments/in DaimlerChrysler /by ceadminThe US Justice Department has begun an inquiry into allegations of bribery at DamilerChrysler’s Mercedes unit, the German-US carmaker has confirmed.
DaimlerChrysler said it was co-operating fully, and has made all its accounts available.
The criminal probe escalates a civil one by the US market watchdog, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday
Watchdog probes DaimlerChrysler
/0 Comments/in DaimlerChrysler /by ceadminGermany’s financial market watchdog has launched a probe into possible insider trading in shares of carmaker DaimlerChrysler.
DaimlerChrysler’s share price jumped last week ahead of chief executive Juergen Schrempp’s announcement that he would step down at the end of the year.
Following the announcement, the shares surged as much as 10%
CIBC Shares Drop After $2.4bn Enron Settlement
/0 Comments/in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce /by ceadminThe Canadian bank last night agreed to pay $2.4 billion to settle allegations that it was involved in the Enron fraud. The sum, the largest settlement in the case so far, boosts the total sum to be returned to former shareholders of the collapsed energy giant to a record $7 billion
Time Warner to Pay $2.4 Billion for AOL Suit
/0 Comments/in AOL TimeWarner /by ceadminTime Warner said today that it had agreed to pay $2.4 billion to shareholders who accused its AOL unit in a lawsuit of exaggerating revenues in order to push through the companies’ merger in 2001.
The cost of settling the legal dispute offset all of Time Warner’s earnings from the second quarter, and the company posted a net loss of $321 million
Ex-Kanebo bosses in fraud arrest
/0 Comments/in Kanebo /by ceadminJapanese prosecutors arrested three former executives of cosmetics firm Kanebo on Friday for alleged fraud.
The troubled firm is currently being managed by the state-backed Industrial Revitalisation Corporation of Japan.
The charges facing the three executives, including former president Takashi Hoashi, are that the firm hid debts for five years to March 2003
Google discrimination lawsuit
/0 Comments/in Google /by ceadminA former Google sales executive has filed a lawsuit against the search giant, alleging it engaged in job discrimination while she was pregnant with quadruplets.
Christina Elwell, who was promoted to national sales director in late 2003, alleges her supervisor began discriminating against her in May 2004, a month after informing him of her pregnancy and the medical complications she was encountering, according to the lawsuit filed July 17 in a U.S
Commerzbank in laundering probe
/0 Comments/in Commerzbank /by ceadminCommerzbank, Germany’s fourth-largest lender, has confirmed that five executives and former staff are caught up in a Russian money-laundering probe.
Frankfurt prosecutors searched offices last week on Tuesday and Wednesday, the bank said. Premises were also checked elsewhere in Germany and Switzerland
Pay-for-play costs Sony BMG $10m
/0 Comments/in Sony /by ceadminSony BMG, the world’s second-biggest record label, has agreed to pay $10m (£5.7m) and stop paying radio station employees to play its artists’ songs.
The settlement follows an investigation into “pay for play” practices in the music industry, conducted by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
Scandal-hit VW in Indian payout
/0 Comments/in Volkswagen /by ceadminVolkswagen has paid the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh around 2 million euros (£1.4m; $2.4m) in compensation for misdealings linked to the carmaker
Pension fund sues Morgan Stanley
/0 Comments/in Morgan Stanley /by ceadminA pension fund that holds shares of Morgan Stanley has sued the giant investment bank’s directors, claiming they wasted corporate assets through “grotesque mismanagement,” including paying more than $100 million to two departing executives.
The suit, filed yesterday in U.S
Fury over leaked Aer Lingus memo
/0 Comments/in Aer Lingus /by ceadminIrish airline Aer Lingus looks set for a bumpy ride with unions after a leaked memorandum exposed underhand tactics to speed up a job cuts programme.
The state-owned carrier developed a 12-point plan to make life difficult for its employees in a bid to make them accept voluntary redundancy.
Plans included changing shift patterns and making staff wear tacky uniforms
Infineon rocked by bribery claims
/0 Comments/in Infineon /by ceadminA member of the board of German chip firm Infineon has offered to step down following allegations of bribery.
Andreas von Zitzewitz, the firm said, was under investigation “in context with payments made for contracts regarding motorsport sponsorship”.
Dr von Zitzewitz led the firm’s memory chip unit, the core of operations at Europe’s second-biggest chip maker
UK Watchdog fines MyTravel £240,000
/0 Comments/in MyTravel /by ceadminMyTravel has been fined £240,000 ($450,000) by the City watchdog for failing to tell investors about a change in its profit forecasts.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said it had not told investors promptly about a one-off £24.3m ($45m)loss in 2002, which was likely to affect profits
Shell faces Venezuelan tax demand
/0 Comments/in Shell /by ceadminVenezuela has ordered oil giant Shell to pay $131m (£74m) in what it says is unpaid tax, as part of a clampdown on alleged tax avoidance by foreign firms.
In a separate move, the country’s tax authority seized documents belonging to US oil firm Chevron which it said had not been produced upon request.
Venezuelan authorities have said that foreign firms may owe up to $3bn (£1
The whistleblowing bankers who were sent to jail
/0 Comments/in Barclaycard, United Kingdom, United States /by ceadminTwo traders jailed for rigging interest rates were the original whistleblowers of the scandal, and not the bosses that directed them to carry out the illegal actions. Leaked audio recordings reveal Peter Johnson and Colin Bermingham alerted the US central bank to a fraud that the tapes suggest was directed from the top of the financial system.