Ban Ki-moon’s brother and nephew charged in US bribery case

Relatives of former UN secretary-general accused of corruption in Vietnam tower sale

US prosecutors have accused two relatives of Ban Ki-moon, the former UN secretary-general, of a bribery plot linked to Vietnam’s tallest building and a South Korean company embroiled in a corruption scandal.

US authorities claim Mr Ban’s relatives conspired in 2014 to funnel $2.5m via a middleman to an unnamed Middle Eastern official. The official was supposed to convince his country’s sovereign wealth fund to buy the Landmark 72 tower in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, for $800m. read more »

Two Businessmen Plead Guilty to Foreign Bribery Charges in Connection with Venezuela Bribery Schemes

A former general manager and partial owner of a Florida-based energy company and an owner of multiple Texas-based energy companies each pleaded guilty today to foreign bribery charges for their roles in a scheme to corruptly secure contracts from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A read more »

In fight between casino moguls, a spotlight on the FBI

a sworn statement submitted in a Nevada lawsuit between rival casino moguls Steve Wynn and Japan's Kazuo Okada contained an unusual assertion. Its author said Wynn's head of security had asked to meet him in Japan and then persuaded him to travel to the United States to talk to federal agents pursuing a different matter: a criminal bribery probe into Okada.

The person who provided the statement, Yoshitaka Fujihara, then an executive at Okada's Universal Entertainment Corp. , said he did not pay for his business-class flights, lodging and meals for two meetings with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in California. Wynn Resorts has since acknowledged covering those costs and making other arrangements for Fujihara, as well as other potential witnesses, to meet with the FBI. read more »

U.S. Airlines Unlikely to Face Antitrust Case on Capacity

The U.S. Justice Department is unlikely to bring an antitrust action against U.S. airlines after finding little evidence the carriers coordinated to raise fares by curbing the supply of seats, a person familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. has been investigating major U.S. carriers at least since the summer of 2015, when some airlines confirmed getting letters from the Justice Department requesting documents about their actions on seating capacity. The availability of seats is closely tied to air fares, because airlines find it difficult to raise prices when capacity exceeds demand. read more »

Six Volkswagen Executives Charged in Emissions Scandal

Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges on Wednesday against six Volkswagen executives for their role in the company’s emissions scandal, a substantial turn by a departing administration that is trying to remake its image that it is soft on corporate crime.

The Volkswagen executives include a former head of development for the Volkswagen brand as well as a former head of engine development. One of them, Oliver Schmidt, was arrested in Florida last week, but the other five are believed to be in Germany. read more »

JPMorgan Ordered to Pay Damages for Firing Whistle-Blower

JPMorgan Chase inappropriately retaliated against a former employee who raised questions about the bank’s sales tactics and investment products, the Labor Department found.

The bank was ordered to pay back wages and damages to Johnny Burris, a former broker at one of its Arizona branches. A letter released on Tuesday by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a division of the department, said that JPMorgan had violated provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley law designed to protect whistle-blowers. read more »

Shire PLC Subsidiaries to Pay $350 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations

The Justice Department announced today that Shire Pharmaceuticals LLC and other subsidiaries of Shire plc (Shire) will pay $350 million to settle federal and state False Claims Act allegations that Shire and the company it acquired in 2011, Advanced BioHealing (ABH), employed kickbacks and other unlawful methods to induce clinics and physicians to use or overuse its product “Dermagraft,” a bioengineered human skin substitute approved by the FDA for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. read more »

SEC Charges Government Contractor With Inadequate Controls and Books and Records Violations

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that L3 Technologies Inc. (formerly known as L-3 Communications Holdings Inc.), a contractor for U.S. and various foreign government agencies, has agreed to pay a $1.6 million penalty to settle charges that it failed to maintain accurate books and records and had inadequate internal accounting controls. read more »

CFTC Orders J.P. Morgan Securities LLC to Pay $900,000 for Supervision Failures

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an Order filing and settling charges against J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS), a Delaware corporation headquartered in New York City, for failing to diligently supervise its officers’, employees’, and agents’ processing of exchange and clearing fees it charged customers for trading and clearing Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (CME) products and products from certain other exchanges during 2010 to 2014. JPMS is registered with the CFTC as a Futures Commission Merchant and a swap dealer. read more »

Company pays $4 million to settle pricing, sourcing allegations

Government contractor ICP Medical, based in Earth City, Missouri, has signed a civil settlement agreement and paid $4 million to resolve allegations involving submittal of false claims for medical items to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

ICP allegedly made false disclosures to the VA and the DoD regarding discounts and prices it was providing to other customers for medical products, including surgical gowns, sheets and scrubs, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. ICP, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, used inflated prices with the government. read more »