| US: SEC charges Goldman Sachs with civil fraud in subprime deal by Greg Gordon, McClatchy Newspapers April 16th, 2010 The Securities and Exchange Commission Friday charged Goldman Sachs & Co. and one of its executives with fraud in a risky offshore deal backed by subprime mortgages that cost investors more than $1 billion. |
| US: Deaths at West Virginia Mine Raise Issues About Safety by Ian Urbina and Michael Cooper, New York Times April 6th, 2010 Rescue workers began the precarious task Tuesday of removing explosive methane gas from the coal mine where at least 25 miners died the day before. The mine owner’s -- Massey Energy Company -- dismal safety record, along with several recent evacuations of the mine, left federal officials and miners suggesting that Monday’s explosion might have been preventable. |
| US/KUWAIT: Settlement possible in military contractor fraud case by Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution January 29th, 2010 Kuwaiti firm Agility (formerly Public Warehousing) indicted here for overcharging the Army on an $8.5 billion contract is negotiating a possible settlement with the Justice Department. On Nov. 9, a federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted the firm on charges it gouged the U.S. government by overcharging on its contract to supply food to American troops in Iraq. |
| UK: U.K. to Crack Down on Tax Evasion in Developing Countries by Laurence Norman, Wall Street Journal January 26th, 2010 The U.K. government will on Wednesday set out proposals to broaden the crackdown on tax evasion to benefit developing countries, setting a year-end deadline for a U.K.-led multilateral tax-information-sharing accord with emerging nations. That could eventually open the way for multination tax-information accords, which would include former tax havens, developed and developing nations. |
| US: F.B.I. Charges Arms Sellers With Foreign Bribes by Diana B. Henriques, New York Times January 20th, 2010 On Tuesday, 22 top-level arms industry executives, including a senior sales executive at Smith & Wesson, were arrested in what Justice Department officials called the first undercover sting ever aimed at violations of the federal ban on corporate bribes paid to get foreign business. The individuals are being prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. |
| GHANA: Corruption probe into sale of Ghana oil block by William Wallis, Martin Arnold and Brooke Masters, Financial Times January 7th, 2010 US and Ghanaian authorities are investigating corruption allegations involving a Texas oil company and the local partner that helped it secure control of the Ghanaian oil block that yielded one of Africa’s biggest recent discoveries. The case risks complicating efforts by Texas company Kosmos to sell its stake in the Jubilee oil field to ExxonMobil in a deal valued at $4bn. |
| US: DynCorp Fires Executive Counsel by August Cole, Wall Street Journal November 28th, 2009 DynCorp International Inc. said it has terminated one of its top lawyers, a move that comes on the heels of the government contractor's disclosure that some of its subcontractors may have broken U.S. law in trying to speed up getting licenses and visas overseas. |
| KAZAKHSTAN: Kazakh Bank Lost Billions in Western Investments by Landon Thomas Jr., New York Times November 27th, 2009 In the last few years, big banks have found many surprising ways to lose billions of dollars by making loans that turned sour. But few can match the odd tale involving Kazakhstan and a little-known bank. From 2003 to 2008, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, ING and others funneled more than $10 billion in loans into Bank Turalem, during the Central Asian country's boom spurred by its rich deposits of oil and natural gas. Many of these loans are now bust. |
| US: Ex-UBS Banker Seeks Billions for Blowing Whistle by Lynnley Browning, New York Times November 26th, 2009 Bradley C. Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in prison for helping rich Americans dodge their taxes, his sentence reduced in turn for informing on Swiss banking giant UBS. Now, with the help of the National Whistleblower Center, he and his lawyers hope to use a new federal whistle-blower law to claim a multibillion-dollar reward from the American government. |
| US/ECUADOR: New nonprofit uses Web to pressure Chevron by David A. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle November 16th, 2009 Retired retail executive Richard Goldman was astonished when he heard about the $27 billion pollution lawsuit against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador. SO he has created a nonprofit group, Ethos Alliance, that will use social-networking tools to spread word of the case and put pressure on Chevron. |
| US: E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection by Michael Moss, New York Times October 3rd, 2009 Tracing the chain of production of an E. Coli-contaminated hamburger made by Cargill, through interviews and government and corporate records obtained by The New York Times, shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble. Neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe. |
| ANGOLA: The dark side of doing business by Rob Rose, Times South Africa September 17th, 2009 As Angolan leader Jose Eduardo Dos Santos wooed President Jacob Zuma this week, some South African companies are furious at having been fleeced out of cash by doing business with the oil-rich country |
| SOUTH AMERICA: Plundering the Amazon by Michael Smith and Adriana Brasileiro, Bloomberg.com August 16th, 2009 Alcoa and Cargill have bypassed laws designed to prevent destruction of the world’s largest rain forest, Brazilian prosecutors say. The damage wrought by scores of companies is robbing the earth of its best shield against global warming. |
| US: DynCorp Billed U.S. $50 Million Beyond Costs in Defense Contract by V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post August 12th, 2009 A Defense Department auditor, appearing before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, testified Tuesday that DynCorp International billed the government $50 million more than the amount specified in a contract to provide dining facilities and living quarters for military personnel in Kuwait. |
| FRANCE: In French Inquiry, a Glimpse at Corporate Spying by DAVID JOLLY, New York Times August 1st, 2009 A corporate espionage case unfolding in France involves some of the biggest French companies, including Électricité de France, the world’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, and Vivendi, the media and telecommunications conglomerate. The story has the elements of a corporate thriller: a cast of characters that includes former French spies and military men, an American cycling champion, Greenpeace activists and a dogged judge. |
| US: Cuomo Says Schwab Faces Fraud Suit by Liz Rappaport, Wall Street Journal July 20th, 2009 New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has warned Charles Schwab & Co. that his office plans to sue the firm for civil fraud over its marketing and sales of auction-rate securities to clients. Emails and testimony cited in the letter show Schwab's brokers had little idea of what they were selling and later failed to tell clients that the market was collapsing. |
| US: Madoff Is Sentenced to 150 Years for Ponzi Scheme by Diana B. Henriques, New York Times June 29th, 2009 A criminal saga that began in December with a string of superlatives — the largest, longest and most widespread Ponzi scheme in history — ended the same way on Monday as Bernard L. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum for his crimes. |
| AFRICA: Blood diamond scheme 'is failing' BBC News June 24th, 2009 Officials are meeting to review the Kimberley Process, amid criticism that the scheme, set up to certify the origin of diamonds to assure consumers that by purchasing diamonds they are not financing war and human rights abuses, is failing. The Kimberley Process emerged from global outrage over conflicts in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, largely funded by the plundering of diamond resources. |
| US: Madoff Suits Add Details About Fraud by Diana B. Henriques, New York Times June 22nd, 2009 Three lawsuits filed on Monday provided new details about what regulators say went on inside Bernard L. Madoff’s long-running Ponzi scheme, including information about who might have helped perpetuate the fraud for so long. |
| US/ANTIGUA: Texas Financier and Antiguan Official Charged With Fraud by Clifford Krauss , New York Times June 19th, 2009 A U.S. Justice Department indictment unsealed Friday accused R. Allen Stanford of Stanford International Bank, based in the Caribbean money haven of Antigua, of operating a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme with the help of Antigua’s top banking regulator, Leroy King. |