Ex-SAP executive, two others indicted in U.S. for insider trading

A former SAP SE executive and two Indiana car wash owners have been indicted on charges that they engaged in an insider trading scheme that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.

Christopher Salis, a former global vice president at the software company's SAP America unit, was charged along with brothers Douglas Miller and Edward Miller in an indictment filed in federal court in Hammond, Indiana made public on Thursday.

The criminal charges followed a civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June against the trio and a fourth man over trades the regulator said were placed ahead of SAP's acquisition of Concur Technologies in 2014. read more »

Sharp Teeth Of Soft Power, U.S. Law Targets European Firms

U.S. fines slapped on foreign companies have become commonplace. The most recent victim, Deutsche Bank, involved in a litigation that dates back to the subprime crisis, was threatened with a $14 billion fine, which could actually be lowered to $4 or $5 billion. But even then, the sums at stake are huge, and the bank has been badly rattled.

How can companies cope in the face of such a show of force on the part of the American legal system? Some, like French lawmakers Pierre Lellouche and Karine Berger, who recently published a report on the local application in Europe of American legislation, think U.S. interference in European companies' business is intolerable. Others consider that the U.S. is the only country capable of fighting corruption efficiently. Depending on the analysis, the answer to this question will vary. read more »

Fight Between Goldman Sachs and Libyan Fund Shadows Lawyer

Within days of arriving in Tripoli in July 2008 to work on behalf of Libya’s new sovereign wealth fund, Catherine McDougall, a young Australian lawyer, was swept off on a journey into the desert.

Ms. McDougall, a fund official and some of his friends set out early in the morning. Cutting across wide swaths of empty desert, their white station wagon roared down paved roads at nearly 90 miles an hour. The next day, they feasted on camel tagine and took tea on the roof of an ancient house.

For Ms. McDougall, then 26, it was the start of a wild and bewildering ride that six weeks later would end up with her being pulled out of Libya by her employer, the powerhouse London law firm Allen & Overy. The law firm told her it would be initiating a disciplinary proceeding against her after a complaint from the Libyan general counsel. Rather than face that, Ms. McDougall says, she resigned. read more »

Stock Options Help Firms Keep Workers Quiet

A study finds companies involved in financial misconduct deter whistleblowing by granting options to rank-and-file employees.

Companies offer stock options to rank-and-file employees to deter them from reporting financial misconduct, according to a new study that may have implications for regulatory efforts to encourage whistleblowing.

The study found firms involved in financial reporting violations granted more rank-and-file options during periods of misreporting than a control sample and that those firms were more likely to avoid whistleblower allegations.

“Employees are less likely to blow the whistle about corporate misconduct if they benefit from it,” the paper concludes, adding that “when a higher share of their compensation is tied to firm performance, employees are more likely to facilitate (either directly or indirectly) wrongdoing.” read more »

'Diva of Distressed' Tilton to face U.S. SEC fraud trial

Financier Lynn Tilton is set to go on trial next week before an administrative law judge on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges she defrauded investors by hiding the poor performance of assets underlying three $2.5 billion debt funds.

Tilton, the founder of New York-based Patriarch Partners who is known as the "Diva of Distressed" for taking over troubled companies, will face an SEC administrative proceeding in Manhattan on Monday.

The SEC is seeking to force Tilton and Patriarch to pay the agency at least $200 million for defrauding investors in three so-called Zohar collateralized loan obligation funds, which raised $2.5 billion to make loans to distressed companies. read more »

Feds: Hudson Valley health group to pay $5.3M for false claims

A Hudson Valley health group must pay $5.31 million for submitting fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims, officials said.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced Friday that Hudson Valley Hematology Oncology Associates had settled a civil fraud lawsuit over its practices. The group has offices in Hawthorne, Mount Kisco, Yorktown, Carmel, Fishkill and Poughkeepsie, according to its website.

"Hudson Valley Hematology Oncology Associates improperly billed Medicare and Medicaid for reimbursement, costing the taxpayers millions of dollars," Bharara said in a statement. "This settlement not only restores those funds, but involves detailed admissions by Hudson Valley and the imposition of safeguards to ensure against fraudulent billing in the future."

Under the False Claims Act, a whistleblower accused the group of illegally waiving copayments and billing Medicare for those copayments, and routinely submitting false claims for services that it did not provide or were not permitted under the Medicare and Medicaid program rules, officials said. read more »