Banks Rejected by High Court, Lose Bid to Derail Libor Suits

The U.S. Supreme Court turned away an appeal by Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., refusing to stop antitrust lawsuits that accuse some of the world’s largest banks of conspiring to rig Libor.

The banks sought review of a decision that said the suing investors had adequately claimed they were harmed by the alleged effort to drive Libor down. The investors held securities tied to Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, an interest-rate benchmark used to value more than $300 trillion of securities worldwide. read more »

DOJ: Deutsche Bank Agrees to Pay $7.2 Billion for Misleading Investors

Deutsche Bank AG reached a final settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over its handling of mortgage-backed securities before 2008, resolving one of its biggest litigation risks.

The bank agreed to pay $7.2 billion and admitted to misleading investors, according to the Justice Department. The penalty was in line with the bank’s Dec. 23 announcement that it had reached an agreement in principle in the matter. It will pay a $3.1 billion civil penalty and provide $4.1 billion in relief to homeowners

“This resolution holds Deutsche Bank accountable for its illegal conduct and irresponsible lending practices, which caused serious and lasting damage to investors and the American public,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a written statement. “Deutsche Bank did not merely mislead investors: It contributed directly to an international financial crisis.” read more »

MedStar settles Medicare fraud suit for $12.7M

A former employee claimed the company falsified bills for ambulance services to qualify for higher Medicare reimbursements

MedStar Ambulance agreed to pay $12.7 million to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit alleging the company fraudulently billed Medicare for unqualified ambulance services. read more »

Will Ban Ki-moon’s Family Cost Him a Presidential Bid?

Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in the spotlight this week after U.S. prosecutors accused his brother and nephew of conspiring to bribe a government official while he was at the UN. Ban Ki Sang and his son Joo Hyun Bahn allegedly orchestrated a $500,000 bribe to a Middle Eastern official for the purchase of the Landmark 72 skyscraper in Vietnam.

According to the allegations, the initial payment was meant to be followed by a secondary bribe of $2 million after the sale. The identity and nationality of the official the two attempted to bribe has not been disclosed, but the middleman in the deal has been identified as U.S. businessman Malcolm Harris, who apparently took the first bribe but spent it himself rather than passing it along to the official. Harris is currently at large but Bahn and his associate Sang Woo were arrested for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribing foreign officials.  Bahn, who was slated to serve as an adjunct professor at NYU, has been stripped of his position but has been let out on bail and will remain within the U.S. for a federal trial. read more »

Rolls-Royce apologizes after £671m bribery settlement

British engineering giant Rolls-Royce will pay a £671m penalty to settle corruption cases with UK and US authorities, a court has ruled.

The aerospace firm will pay £497m plus costs to the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which conducted its biggest ever investigation into the firm.

The SFO found conspiracy to corrupt or failure to prevent bribery in China, India, Thailand and other markets.

The firm apologised "unreservedly" for cases spanning nearly 25 years.

The investigation revealed 12 counts of conspiracy to corrupt or failure to prevent bribery in seven countries - Indonesia, Thailand, India, Russia, Nigeria, China and Malaysia read more »

SEC to award contract to build stock transaction tracking system to Thesys

Thesys Technologies LLC won the award, an upset for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority which had been seen as the most likely winner.

Thesys Technologies LLC won the award to operate one of the largest databases ever created, a forensic tool for detecting suspicious trading and investigating the causes of flash crashes in stock markets, people familiar with the matter said.

Thesys, a developer of high-speed trading platforms and analytics software, topped two other finalists seeking to build the consolidated audit trail, these people said Tuesday. The ambitious project, which will be used by the Securities and Exchange Commission, reflects regulators’ struggles to police the fragmented and increasingly automated U.S. stock market, where rapid-fire algorithms create and cancel orders faster than a human eye can blink. read more »

Dodd-Frank: Another Fossil Of The Pre-Trump Past?

Trump Administration on key industries – and what smart companies should be doing about it.

No mystery, no surprise. When Donald Trump announced Sullivan & Cromwell partner Jay Clayton as his nominee for SEC Chairman, the President-elect himself neatly summarized what Wall Street and corporate America can expect as a result: “We need to undo many regulations which have stifled investment in American businesses,” said Trump.

The financial community may have further reason for euphoria: Clayton has no government background, which will likely mean less if any of the prosecutorial instinct that’s been driving the SEC’s agenda over the past eight years. The contrast to current Chair Mary Jo White – formerly a star-power U.S. Attorney – could not be bolder. Clayton’s career has been all about capital formation and complex financial instruments.

Top of the regulatory hit list is, of course, Dodd-Frank – yet, as with any radical policy departure, the devil’s in the proverbial details, especially as the whistleblower provisions are impacted. Of all the law’s provisions, these mandated incentives for employees to report corporate misdeeds have borne the most impressive results. Tamper with that and you invite a political firestorm even this confrontational President might not welcome, especially if huge new corporate scandals follow in the aftermath. read more »

10 Firms Violated Pay-to-Play Rule By Accepting Pension Fund Fees Following Campaign Contributionspens

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that 10 investment advisory firms have agreed to pay penalties ranging from $35,000 to $100,000 to settle charges that they violated the SEC’s investment adviser pay-to-play rule by receiving compensation from public pension funds within two years after campaign contributions made by the firms’ associates. read more »