French Prosecutors Want HSBC on Trial on Tax Fraud Charges

French financial prosecutors have asked judges to send HSBC and two former executives to trial on charges of aggravated tax fraud by its Swiss private bank.

HSBC'S Swiss bank has been investigated in several countries after leaked documents suggested it helped wealthy people around the world dodge taxes.

The French financial prosecutor's office confirmed Thursday its request to send HSBC and Swiss-based HSBC Private Bank to trial, along with former executives Peter Braunwalder and Judah Elmaleh. Investigating judges make the final decision on a trial. 

Armstrong, Landis, and the U.S. government head to court

The Lance Armstrong legal team filed new papers in court on Sept. 25, offering a glimpse of potential defenses the Texan may use in a False Claims Act suit.

Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis, and the U.S. government await a ruling that could end up costing Armstrong $100 million or nothing at all.

The parties came before U.S. District Court judge Christopher Cooper on Wednesday to argue for and against a summary dismissal in the case of Landis vs. Tailwind Sports Corporation, which the U.S. government joined in February 2013. Armstrong’s legal team sought to have the case thrown out, or at least trimmed heavily, while the government sought to push it forward.

Armstrong was not obligated to attend but made the trip to Washington, D.C. anyway. He was not available for comment Wednesday night.

The core of each side’s argument rests on the value of the U.S. Postal Services’ sponsorship of Armstrong and his team as the Texan raced to four Tour de France victories. The government contends that Armstrong defrauded the Postal Service by portraying his victories as clean prior to his 2013 doping admission. 

West Virginia urges Justice Dept to reject settlement with Mylan

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Wednesday blasted Mylan NV's announced $465 million settlement with the U.S. Justice Department over the drugmaker's classification of its lifesaving allergy treatment EpiPen as a generic, saying the amount was "woefully deficient."

The department has not acknowledged such a deal almost a month after Mylan announced it, and department spokeswoman Nicole Navas declined to comment on Wednesday. read more »

Wells Fargo’s Stars Thrived While 5,000 Workers Got Fired

After Wells Fargo & Co. executive John Sotoodeh handed off more than a hundred branches in Southern California to a colleague in 2009, problems surfaced quickly.

His successor, Kim Young, addressing rumors that some employees were opening bogus accounts, called an introductory meeting with staff and warned she wouldn’t tolerate misconduct. Within a few days, managers recall, sales crumbled across her new turf.

Sotoodeh, who started as a teller in 1990, has since climbed even higher. He’s now one of three regional chiefs running the firm’s nationwide consumer-banking empire. Young spent the final years of her four-decade career at Wells Fargo weeding out bad employees, retiring in 2014.

In interviews, more than a dozen past and current Wells Fargo employees -- many of them senior managers -- chronicled how a generation of executives thrived in its ambitious sales culture, winning accolades and promotions, while being held aloft as examples to colleagues. All the while, people under them were opening legions of unwanted accounts for customers.

As Wells Fargo grew, some stars fanned out from Southern California, described by colleagues and in congressional testimony as a focal point of the rampant misconduct, spreading a culture that lionized boosting sales. read more »

With false claims trial looming in KC, for-profit college shuts down

Heritage College closed its doors only a few days after an appeals court cleared the way for a trial on whether the school deliberately falsified attendance records and grades to receive about $32.8 million in federal funding.

A fraud case against Denver-based Heritage College was filed in January 2011 under the U.S. False Claims Act. Whistleblowers Cathy Sillman and Chickoiyah Miller filed the suit on behalf of the U.S. government. read more »

SEC advises Ontario Securities Commission to protect whistleblowers from retaliation

The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says its Ontario counterpart should focus on protecting corporate whistleblowers from retaliation if it wants its new program aimed at fighting white collar crime to be successful.

Mary Jo White says the SEC’s whistleblower program has been a “game changer,” bringing in high-quality tips and helping the regulator successfully prosecute cases. read more »