Vijay Mallya, Indian Tycoon Accused of Fraud, Is Arrested in London

The Indian tycoon who called himself the King of Good Times, was arrested in London on Tuesday, having fled his home country more than a year ago under an avalanche of unpaid bills and allegations of fraud.

India canceled Mr. Mallya’s passport in April 2016, after a court in Mumbai issued a warrant for his arrest, and on Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police in London said its extradition unit had arrested Mr. Mallya “on behalf of the Indian authorities in relation to accusations of fraud.” Mr. Mallya was scheduled to appear at a London court on Tuesday, the police said in a statement.

Often likened to the British entrepreneur Richard Branson, Mr. Mallya owns the United Breweries Group, which makes Kingfisher beer and distributes a wide variety of products, including alcohol, chemicals and fertilizer. He also has a stake in India’s only Formula One auto racing team, Force India. read more »

6 Ways Wells Fargo Made it’s Employees’ lives a living hell

The bank made staff dress up “in themed costumes,” drove one to a hand-sanitizer addiction, and other disturbing revelations.

In September 2016, Wells Fargo announced that it had fired 5,300 employees—or as then C.E.O. John Stumpf viewed them, a couple of bad apples—who had created up to 2.1 million fake accounts in customers’ names without those customers’ knowledge or consent. At the time, the San Francisco bank largely viewed the issue as a done deal that, while embarrassing to admit, was now in the rearview. But oh how wrong they were! In the eight months since the initial revelation, the fallout from the scandal has continued with near bi-weekly disclosures that made the bank‘s pitch as a squeaky-clean antipode to Wall Street’s greedy, scandal-ridden banks increasingly less credible. Today, eight months into what we can only assume will continue to an annus frigging horribilis for the bank, the Wells Fargo board released a 113-page report detailing an internal investigation into the toxic workplace culture that resulted in thousands of employees feeling pressured to make millions of fake accounts (and why it went on for so long). read more » 

Robert De Niro transforms into Bernie Madoff in The Wizard of Lies trailer

Starring Robert De Niro as fraudster Bernie Madoff, HBO’s latest telefilm tells the story of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history. The new trailer, released Wednesday afternoon, not only reveals the moment Madoff admitted to the fraud, but also promises that the film will include a hefty bit of family drama as it examines how the scheme affected his family: Did they suspect anything? Are they accountable? How could Madoff have hidden this from them for so long? read more »

Law That Strengthens Protections For WA Gov’t Whistleblowers Signed Into Law

With his signature today, Washington Governor Jay Inslee enacted a law that strengthens the protections for whistleblowers across state government. Substitute Senate Bill 5374 closes a loophole that may have discouraged state employees from reporting possible violations of state laws or rules.

The bill was sponsored by Senator Randi Becker (R-Eatonville) and Auditor Pat McCarthy advocated for the measure.

“State employees are accountable to the public, and this change underscores state government’s commitment to integrity in all our operations,” McCarthy says. read more »

Feds investigating ‘false claims for payment for services’ related to R.I. computer contract

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating “false claims for payment for services” in connection with the state’s long-running contract with the company that produced the seriously flawed new $364-million public-assistance computer system: Deloitte Consulting.

In response to a Journal inquiry, the Raimondo administration on Monday provided copies of two “civil investigative demands” for documents that the U.S. Department of Justice served on two state agencies: the Department of Administration and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.

The two March 7 demands for documents, signed by then-U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha, say: “The investigation concerns the allegation that false claims for payment for services and/or false statements in support of such payments have been submitted to the U.S. government. read more »