A little over two years ago, William A. Ackman, one of Wall Street’s brashest and most self-assured hedge fund managers, was on top of the world. A billionaire before he hit 50, he was generating double-digit gains for his investors and raking in hundreds of millions in fees for his firm and himself.

Hailed as a master investor, he clinched his highflier status in the fall of 2014 by paying $90 million with some friends to buy the penthouse at One57, a 13,500-square-foot aerie in Midtown Manhattan overlooking Central Park. He didn’t plan to live there — it was an investment property — but until he sold it, the apartment would make a good party space, he told The New York Times.

If Mr. Ackman were a stock, that might have been his peak.

Today, things are very different for him. His company’s performance is way down, he is in the midst of an expensive divorce, and on March 13, he and investors in funds run by Pershing Square Capital Management swallowed a $4 billion loss on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, a beleaguered drug company.

As bad bets go, it was one for the record books. read more »

Senator Menendez Rebuffed by Top Court on Corruption Charges

Supreme Court rejects appeal without comment, setting up trial

Menendez accused of taking campaign cash, gifts from donor

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a long-shot appeal from Senator Robert Menendez, clearing the way for a criminal corruption trial that could begin as early as this fall. read more »

Wells Fargo Card Requests Drop by Most Since Scandal Erupted

New checking accounts fall 43%, marking sixth straight decline

Wells Fargo & Co. said credit-card applications dropped 55 percent in February from a year earlier, the biggest decline since a scandal involving fake accounts erupted in September.

Retail customers opened 43 percent fewer checking accounts in February, marking the sixth straight month of declines since regulators fined the bank over the creation of unauthorized accounts. read more »

British banks handled vast sums of laundered Russian money

Exclusive: Billions of dollars were moved out of Russia in ‘Global Laundromat’ operation, with anonymously owned UK companies playing major role

Britain’s high street banks processed nearly $740m from a vast money-laundering operation run by Russian criminals with links to the Russian government and the KGB, the Guardian can reveal.

HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and Coutts are among 17 banks based in the UK, or with branches here, that are facing questions over what they knew about the international scheme and why t they did not turn away suspicious money transfers.

Documents seen by the Guardian show that at least $20bn appears to have been moved out of Russia during a four-year period between 2010 and 2014. The true figure could be $80bn, detectives believe. read more »

How 'dirty money' from Russia flooded into the UK – and where it went

Exclusive: Investigators in eastern Europe have uncovered a trail that leads to fur brokers, Bond Street jewellers and even a Somerset school read more »

Feds investigate insurers' Medicare billing for possible fraud

The disclosure came in a whistleblower case against UnitedHealth Group.

The federal government is investigating whether four health insurers have submitted false claims to Medicare, much as Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group was accused of doing in a whistleblower case unsealed last month.

In February, prosecutors joined a lawsuit alleging that UnitedHealth Group and health plans that hired one of the company's subsidiaries received hundreds of millions, if not billions, in overpayments due to false claims and statements relating to risk adjustment payments in Medicare.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors disclosed ongoing investigations involving four other health insurers — Aetna, Health Net, Humana and a division of Cigna. read more »