Federal Court in Chicago Orders U.K. Resident Navinder Singh Sarao to Pay More than $38 Million in Monetary Sanctions for Price Manipulation and Spoofing

Sarao Admits to Contributing to Extreme Order Book Imbalance and Causing and Creating Artificial Prices on Multiple Days, Including May 6, 2010 (Flash Crash Day) read more » 

IN AN UNPRECEDENTED EFFORT, OUR FIRM'S CLIENT DISCOVERED THE MANIPULATIVE ACTIVITY THAT WAS BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF THE CFTC AND DOJ WHO SUBSEQUENTLY CHARGED MR. SARAO AND NOW HAVE SUCCESFULLY WON THIS EXTRADITION FIGHT AND SECURED HIS GUILTY PLEA

The whistle-blower who punctured the Theranos bubble

A young idealistic college grad joins the company of his dreams, only to realise it is based on a lie

The scandal over Theranos, the blood-testing start-up founded by Silcon valley golden girl Elizabeth Holmes, is far from blowing over. The company, which sold a dream of cutting-edge technology that could administer blood tests for thousands of conditions using just a finger pinprick of blood, is in crisis. Holmes herself has been banned from operating blood-testing labs and has watched her estimated net worth plummet from $4.5 billion to zero, while her company shut down its facilities last month and faces both civil and criminal investigations. read more »

J.P. Morgan Settlement Lays Bare the Practice of Hiring ‘Princelings’

So-called Sons and Daughters program in Asia sought to hire well-connected offspring to win business

A decade ago, a J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. managing director in Asia sent an email to the investment-banking team: “As you know, the firm does not condone the hiring of the children or other relatives of clients or potential clients...In fact, the firm’s policies expressly forbid this,” the director wrote.

Within two years, however, the team had begun orchestrating the hiring of dozens of relatives of powerful government officials in Asia with the express purpose of winning business, U.S. authorities said Thursday. The bank had created a separate channel to get unqualified applicants through the hiring process, and it later began tracking profits from any subsequent business awarded because of the hires, they said. read more » 

Rio Tinto Offered Bribe for Mine, Ex-Guinea Minister Says

A Rio Tinto Group executive asked how big a bribe it would take to beat out a competitor for a hotly contested iron ore deposit in Guinea, the country’s former mining minister said, adding a new accusation of graft just days after the world’s second-biggest miner fired two of its top executives over a payment made in connection with the West African project.

Mahmoud Thiam, the former mining minister, said that the head of Rio Tinto’s Guinea operation, Steven Din, offered him a bribe in early 2010 in order to win back control of half of the undeveloped Simandou project, considered the world’s biggest untapped iron ore deposit. Din was attempting to regain control of the blocks from billionaire investor Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources Ltd., Thiam said in a Nov. 9 phone interview.

Thiam claims Din said he had the backing of senior Rio Tinto executives to make the offer. Din denies ever paying or offering a bribe. Rio Tinto declined to comment. read more » 

World Bank raises ‘serious’ alarm at Rio Tinto scandal

The World Bank has attacked mining giant Rio Tinto over a $US10.5 million corrupt­ion ­scandal.

The International Finance Corporation — the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank and a long-term investor in the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea — told The Weekend Australian it viewed the unfolding saga “very seriously’’.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and will work with Rio Tinto, the government of Guinea and community stakeholders to ensure our investments meet high standards for transparency, revenue management, governance and environmental and social risk management,’’ the corporation said.

The comments are likely to stoke expectations that Rio Tinto could be subject to a corruption probe from US authorities given it operates a number of coal and copper projects across North America. An industry source with exper­ience of the US Foreign ­Corrupt Practices Act probe said Rio would face fines of more than $US100m from US authorities if found to have breached the act as well as fines under British laws. read more » 

SEC Charges Renewable Energy Company, CEO, and Others With Defrauding Investors

he Securities and Exchange Commission today filed fraud charges against four individuals and others who allegedly profited by defrauding investors in a cash-strapped California-based renewable energy company.

Patrick Carter, the founder and CEO of 808 Renewable Energy Corp. was charged along with the company, chief operating officer Peter Kirkbride, sales representatives Martin Kinchloe and Thomas Flowers, and three other firms: 808 Investments LLC, West Coast Commodities LLC, and T.A. Flowers LLC.  The complaint alleges that the fraud began in 2009 and lasted at least five years, raising more than $30 million from hundreds of investors.

According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the defendants misled investors, falsely claiming their funds would be used to acquire new equipment and expand 808 Renewable. Instead, the complaint alleges that Carter paid millions for “consulting fees” by 808 Investments LLC, a company he owned and controlled, and diverted millions more to support his lavish lifestyle, to pay commissions to sales representatives, and to make Ponzi-like payments to investors. read more »