Three convicted in Libor rigging trial

Three former Barclays employees have been found guilty of rigging the Libor interest rate between 2005 and 2007.

Jay Merchant, 45, was convicted unanimously at Southwark Crown Court of manipulating the key financial rate.

Jonathan Mathew, 35, and Alex Pabon, an American 38 year-old, were found guilty by majority verdict after a ten-week trial. The trio will be sentenced on Thursday.

The Libor rate is used by banks to set prices of financial products.

It stands for the London inter-bank offered rate, and underpins trillions of pounds worth of loans and financial contracts for households and companies across the world. read more »

University of Missouri agrees to pay United States $2.2 Million to settle alleged false claims act violations

The University of Missouri-Columbia has agreed to pay the United States $2.2 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims for radiology services to federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE.  The United States alleged that certain attending physicians certified that they had reviewed the images associated with interpretative reports prepared by resident physicians when, in fact, they had not reviewed those images.

“Hospitals and physicians have the highest obligation to both protect patients by complying with the standard of care and to protect taxpayers by complying with the rules for billing federal programs.  This lengthy investigation by multiple agencies working together has produced a just result for both patients and taxpayers,” said United States Attorney Dickinson.

Latest Sunshine Act fact? Drug and device makers shelled out $6.5B to docs, hospitals last year

Drug and device makers handed over almost $6.5 billion to doctors and medical institutions in 2015, according to the latest release from the U.S. government’s Open Payments database. Add in various ownership and investment interests, and the total comes to $7.52 billion.

That’s a slight increase from 2014, when payments rang in at $7.46 billion. This is the second full year of disclosures under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.

Research funding made up almost half of the 2015 total--$3.88 billion--with ownerships and investment interests accounting for another $1.03 billion.

Speakers’ fees, meals, royalties and other payments added up to $2.6 billion.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gathers the payment info from drugmakers and devices companies under the “sunshine" provision of the Affordable Care Act. read more »