Posts

The whistleblowing bankers who were sent to jail

Two 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.

Ericsson risked workers lives by Islamic State

The 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

Between 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.

NatWest fined £265m cash laundered

NatWest has been fined £265m after admitting it failed to prevent money-laundering of nearly £400m by one firm. A gold trading business suspected of money-laundering deposited £700,000 in cash into one NatWest branch in black bin bags.

RBS fined £14.5m over mortgage advice

Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined £14.5m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for “serious failings” in its mortgage sales business.

The City watchdog said RBS did not ensure that it gave suitable mortgage advice to customers

Systematic bribery at GlaxoSmithKline China ‘credible’

Allegations that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) systematically bribed doctors in China are credible, says an investigator hired by the firm.

Peter Humphrey was hired only to investigate who was behind a suspected smear campaign against GSK.

But after he finished his report, he learned the details of further allegations against the firm and told colleagues he believed they were true

British Gas staff mis-sold deals, says regulator Ofgem

The UK’s biggest energy supplier, British Gas, mis-sold energy deals by making exaggerated claims to potential customers, the regulator has said.

Ofgem said British Gas sales staff did not make accurate comparisons between suppliers’ deals, and so made overblown claims about savings for switching.

The cases involved British Gas staff working in Sainsbury’s stores nationwide between 2011 and 2013

Wonga chased debt using fake law firms

Payday lender Wonga must pay £2.6m in compensation after sending letters from non-existent law firms to customers in arrears.

The letters threatened legal action, but the law firms were false

British Gas heavily fined over complaint handling

British Gas has been fined £2.5m by the regulator Ofgem for the way in which it deals with customer complaints.

Ofgem ruled that the company had failed to re-open complaints when customers said they had not been resolved

Silent calls fine for Barclaycard

Barclaycard has received the maximum possible fine for the “most serious and persistent” case of silent calls ever seen by regulator Ofcom.

The credit provider was hit with a £50,000 fine after an Ofcom investigation uncovered an extremely high number of silent calls.

Typically, these occur when call centres with automated systems dial more numbers than staff can deal with