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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Funds scandal costs Bank One $90m
/0 Comments/in Bank One /by ceadminBank One Corp has agreed to pay penalties of $90m after an inquiry into improper stock trading.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and New York’s attorney general both announced settlements with Bank One late on Tuesday.
Mark Beeson, ex-head of Bank One’s mutual funds unit, was fined $100,000 and banned from trading for two years
Yukos forced to pay $3bn tax bill
/0 Comments/in Yukos /by ceadminA Moscow court has ruled that Russian oil giant Yukos will have to pay almost 100bn roubles ($3.4bn: £1.9bn) in back taxes to the Russian authorities
Microsoft settles anti-trust case
/0 Comments/in Microsoft Corporation /by ceadminMicrosoft has been given preliminary approval to settle a class-action anti-trust case in Arizona by giving away $105m (£57m) in computer vouchers.
The software giant had been accused of using its monopoly position to over charge for its software.
Under the deal businesses and homes who bought Microsoft products between January 1996 and January 2002 will get vouchers of up to $24 each
Enron ex-boss breaks his silence
/0 Comments/in Enron /by ceadminKenneth Lay, Enron’s former chief executive, has spoken out for the first time since the 2001 scandal that shook corporate America to the core.
Mr Lay blamed the fraud on his finance chief, claiming to be one of the 98% of Enron employees who were “good, honest, hardworking individuals”.
Prosecutors have been trying to build a case against Mr Lay for over two years
Ex-Shell chief gets £1m pay-off
/0 Comments/in Shell /by ceadminFormer Shell chairman Sir Philip Watts who stood down after the firm’s oil reserves estimates were dramatically cut has received a £1m ($1.8m) pay-off.
Shareholders were highly critical of Sir Philip who headed exploration and production at the time when most of the reserves in question were booked
Vivendi ex-chief Messier arrested
/0 Comments/in Vivendi /by ceadminJean-Marie Messier, former chief executive of French media giant Vivendi Universal, has been taken into custody.
Mr Messier is being questioned as part of an investigation into “financial misappropriation”, Paris police said.
The arrest follows a probe into Vivendi ex-finance chief Guillaume Hannezo launched earlier this month
Halliburton cuts off KBR ex-boss
/0 Comments/in Halliburton /by ceadminHalliburton said it has terminated its relationship with an ex-chairman of its Kellogg, Brown and Root subsidiary over financial impropriety.
KBR is being investigated by the US stock market regulator over allegations it paid bribes for Nigerian gas deals.
Halliburton said it had severed ties with Jack Stanley, who had worked as a consultant since retiring in December 2003, and another person, over Nigeria
Siemens staff told to work longer hours
/0 Comments/in Siemens /by ceadminThousands of workers at the engineering giant Siemens have staged rallies throughout Germany in protest against the threat of jobs moving abroad.
“Staff have been told to work 40 hours instead of 35 a week for the same pay or else production will go elsewhere,” a union official told BBC News Online.
Hartwig Oertel of IG Metall said staff walked out of their factories on Friday and held rallies for an hour or so
Employee sues Caterpillar Inc
/0 Comments/in Caterpillar /by ceadminA man who says he was fired by Caterpillar Inc. because he wasn’t able to urinate for a drug test sued the equipment giant, alleging discrimination.
The plaintiff said Wednesday he suffers from paruresis, more commonly known as shy bladder syndrome, and was physically unable to urinate into a specimen cup, despite having drunk 40 ounces (1
Group Sues Astra Zeneca
/0 Comments/in AstraZeneca /by ceadminA Minnesota seniors group sued nine major pharmaceutical manufacturers on Wednesday, alleging that the companies have conspired to keep U.S. medicine prices artificially high by blocking Canadian imports
Pentagon suspends Halliburton payments
/0 Comments/in Halliburton /by ceadminUnder intense scrutiny over billing and contracts related to the war in Iraq, Houston-based Halliburton Co. has once more come under the watch of the U.S
New York sues GlaxoSmithKline
/0 Comments/in GlaxoSmithKline /by ceadminThe city of New York has sued drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, claiming that the company engaged in “anticompetitive, fraudulent, and inequitable conduct,” when it acquired patents for its anti-depressant Paxil.
The suit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, accuses the company of unfairly keeping generic versions of the drug off the market by obtaining more than a dozen “frivolous” patents on Paxil over the past decade.
The complaint accused the company of violating antitrust laws and seeks repayment of the millions of dollars the city has spent purchasing Paxil for New York residents through the Medicaid program
Group sues Pfizer, other drug makers over imports
/0 Comments/in Pfizer /by ceadminA Minnesota seniors group sued nine major pharmaceutical manufacturers on Wednesday, alleging that the companies have conspired to keep U.S. medicine prices artificially high by blocking Canadian imports
Sony sued by film maker
/0 Comments/in Sony /by ceadminA production company sued Sony Pictures and its Columbia Pictures division, alleging the studios shortchanged the firm on receipts from the 1970s film “The Lords of Flatbush,” court documents state.
The suit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Ebbets Field Film Co. claims breach of contract and violation of the business and professional code
29 Dead in Shell Oil Well fire
/0 Comments/in Shell /by ceadminTRAGEDY struck at Afam in Oyigbo local government area of Rivers State Sunday as over 29 persons were killed in a fire outbreak at Shell oil well in the area.
A source told Daily Champion that the fire was caused by a disagreement among indigenes of the three communities in Afam over the sharing formula for “royalties” from the illegal bunkerers who have turned the Shell oil well head into an illegal bunkering.
The three communities had been contesting the ownership of the land on which the well head is sited with each insisting on taking the lion’s share of the booty
Adecco delays results again
/0 Comments/in Adecco /by ceadminThe worlds largest employment agency, Adecco, has again delayed the release of its 2003 results, saying an independent audit has yet to be completed.
Adecco gave no new date for the release of the figures, which had been due out on Tuesday.
The company repeated in a statement that bookkeeping problems discovered earlier this year had had little impact on its finances
SEC Charges Lucent Employees
/0 Comments/in Lucent Technologies /by ceadminCHICAGO (Reuters) – Nine current and former employees of Lucent Technologies Inc. and another individual on Monday were charged with securities fraud for their roles in accounting problems at the telecommunications equipment maker.
The civil case dates back to the company’s fiscal year 2000, during which the U
U.S. Grand Jury Subpoenas Nortel Records
/0 Comments/in Nortel Networks /by ceadminTORONTO (Reuters) – A U.S. grand jury has subpoenaed records from Nortel Networks Corp
Citigroup settles Worldcom claims
/0 Comments/in CitiGroup /by ceadminCitigroup is to pay $2.6bn to settle claims that it was partly to blame for losses suffered by investors who backed failed telecoms giant Worldcom.
The bank is facing legal action from Worldcom shareholders who lost out two years ago when the firm went bust after admitting it had inflated its profits
UBS fined $100m
/0 Comments/in UBS /by ceadminSwitzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has been fined $100m by the United States Federal Reserve for violating US trade sanctions.
UBS admitted “very serious mistakes” had been made and said it would now quit the banknote trading business outside Switzerland.
The Fed had accused the bank of supplying US dollars to countries such as Cuba, Libya, Iran and Yugoslavia
GlaxoSmithKline faces antitrust investigation
/0 Comments/in GlaxoSmithKline /by ceadminA drug manufacturer being investigated for possible antitrust violations because it cut off shipments to Canadian mail-order pharmacies has to turn its records over to the Minnesota attorney general’s office, a judge has ruled.
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Albrecht also gave a boost to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s drug-importation Web site, ruling that not all drug importation is illegal
Halliburton seeks to settle Asbestos Liability
/0 Comments/in Halliburton /by ceadminHalliburton Co. inched closer to settling all asbestos liabilities Monday with completion of hearings in Pittsburgh to confirm the pre-negotiated bankruptcy for subsidiary DII Industries.
The company expects U
Allied Irish admits overcharging
/0 Comments/in Allied Irish /by ceadminAllied Irish Bank, Ireland’s biggest banking group has admitted overcharging foreign exchange customers 14m euros.
The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority said they are investigating and is in talks with the bank to make reparations get underway.
AIB is examining how compensation can be appropriately paid to customers
Regulators probe Prudential
/0 Comments/in Prudential /by ceadminNEW YORK (Reuters) – Prudential Financial Inc., the second largest U.S
Merck may owe taxman $2 billion
/0 Comments/in Merck /by ceadminNEW YORK (Reuters) – Merck & Co Inc. said Friday the Internal Revenue Service could make it pay more than $2 billion in taxes and penalties because of the agency’s decision to disallow deductions the drug maker has claimed since 1993 from a partnership.
Investors initially appear unconcerned by the tax issue as Merck (MRK: down $0
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.