Libor: Bank of England implicated in secret recording

A secret recording that implicates the Bank of England in Libor rigging has been uncovered by BBC Panorama.

The 2008 recording adds to evidence the central bank repeatedly pressured commercial banks during the financial crisis to push their Libor rates down.

Libor is the rate at which banks lend to each other, setting a benchmark for mortgages and loans for ordinary customers. read more »

Barclays boss investigated over attempts to unmask whistleblower

Regulators probe bank as board plans ‘significant cut’ to Jes Staley’s bonus and censure him for trying to find employee who questioned new exec’s suitability. read more »

Los Angeles Raids Target Investor Green Card Fraud

Federal agents on Wednesday executed search warrants at several sites in greater Los Angeles that the authorities say were connected to a $50 million visa fraud operation that enabled Chinese citizens, including fugitives from the law, to secure green cards for permanent residency in the United States.

The multiyear investigation, which used Mandarin-speaking agents, is the latest to highlight abuses in the EB-5 program, which offers foreign investors a fast path to a green card. The program is also the target of a crackdown by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The search warrants include allegations of visa fraud, money laundering and “inducing foreigners to reside in the U.S. in violation of the law.” More than 100 people have been linked to the scheme, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which worked with the F.B.I. on the investigation. read more »

BP cuts CEO's pay package after shareholder backlash

BP has cut Chief Executive Bob Dudley's 2016 pay package by 40 percent to $11.6 million, the latest British bluechip company to rein in executive pay after a wave of shareholder revolts.

The oil company has reduced Dudley's payout and introduced changes from this year that will lower executives' performance incentives. The cuts come after around 60 percent of shareholders opposed BP's pay policy at last year's annual general meeting.

Executive pay has come under growing scrutiny in Britain after a string of corporate scandals, such as the collapse of store chain BHS, which has fuelled mistrust of the high levels of pay awarded to company bosses. read more »

$1.77 Million in CFTC Binary Options Fraud Action

The Default Judgment Orders find that Pecker and Vision fraudulently solicited approximately $3 million from over 120 members of the public in the U.S. and Canada to trade off-exchange binary options. The Default Judgment Orders also find that, rather than trade binary options on behalf of their clients, the Defendants misappropriated almost $2 million of client funds, and diverted those client funds to Relief Defendants, including Westward and Coucarin. The court also found that Westward and Coucarin did not provide any legitimate services nor had any legitimate entitlement or interest to the client funds, and must disgorge those funds. read more »