The world’s largest company is suffering yet another blow to its global reputation as Sweden follows Norway in blacklisting Wal-Mart stock from the portfolio of a national pension fund, citing persistent human rights violations.
Sweden blacklists “Mall-Wart” stock
The Swedish Second National Pension Fund has announced that it has sold its SEK 300m (USD 40.7m) stake in Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Mexico
BP is facing a fresh lawsuit in the US, alleging it manipulated oil prices by limiting access to important storage facilities in 2003 and 2004.
Oil futures trader Richard Hershey claimed he suffered financial damage as a result of BP’s alleged action, which he said artificially affected prices.
BP said it had not seen the lawsuit and therefore could not comment
Kerri Rigsby and Cori Rigsby, two independent insurance adjusters who worked exclusively for State Farm for eight years, say they have turned over to the FBI and Mississippi investigators thousands of documents proving that the insurance company systematically cheated victims of Hurricane Katrina. In an interview with ABC News, Rigsby and Rigsby describe what they call “widespread fraud” in State Farm offices in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi.
The adjusters say that the insurance company brought in a shredding truck to destroy documents; however, State Farm maintains that shredding documents is standard procedure to protect customers’ privacy
Czech trade watchdogs have fined a unit of German utility RWE a record $17m (£8.9m) for violating competition laws.
Regulators said RWE’s gas operation, Transgas, had discriminated against regional gas distributors by offering better deals to its own subsidiaries
GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to pay out $70m (£36.9m) to settle numerous civil claims of price-fixing in the US.
Several states, health plans and numerous consumers had launched legal action against the group claiming it had inflated the price of some drugs
Troubled software firm iSoft has found evidence of irregularities affecting its accounts for 2004 and 2005.
Isoft said the problems mainly related to stating revenues earlier than they should have been.
An independent probe into its accounting problems also concluded there were grounds for a more formal investigation, iSoft added
Internet giant AOL has apologised for releasing the search queries of more than 650,000 of its US subscribers.
The company admitted the release to researchers was “a screw up” and had breached the privacy of its users.
AOL said it was an “innocent attempt to reach out to the academic community with research tools”
An Indian non-governmental organisation says samples of Coca-Cola and Pepsi products are showing even worse levels of pesticides than in a previous study.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said their investigations revealed that the drinks contain harmful residues, posing a health risk.
A CSE report in 2003 resulted in Pepsi and Coca-Cola strenuously rejecting claims that their drinks were unsafe
A City worker employed in a “department from hell” has won about $1.5m damages for bullying.
Helen Green, 36, sued Deutsche Bank Group Services (UK) Ltd claiming harassment by colleagues and a lack of support from bosses
Former Worldcom boss Bernard Ebbers has lost his appeal against his conviction and 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy.
A federal appeals court in New York on Friday upheld the guilty verdict passed by the jury in Mr Ebbers’ original trial back in March 2005.
The convictions against Mr Ebbers relate to his part in an $11bn (£6bn) accounting fraud at the telecoms firm