Wells Fargo Pulls Bonuses, Claws Back Awards for Top Executives

Wells Fargo & Co. will withhold 2016 cash bonuses from eight senior executives and reduce compensation received in 2014 as the board holds managers accountable for the company’s bogus-account scandal.

The actions cut a total of about $32 million in pay and equity awards from executives including Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan and Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry, the San Francisco-based bank said Wednesday in a statement. Wells Fargo reduced some equity awards received in 2014 by as much as 50 percent, according to the statement. read more »

SocGen Banker to Give Secret Testimony in Libya Bribery Case

A Societe Generale SA executive will have his testimony in a Libyan bribery lawsuit heard in secret because of the risk he may incriminate himself in a U.S. criminal probe.

Judge Nigel Teare refused a request by head of sales for global markets Marc El Asmar to escape testifying, according to the banker’s attorneys, who said on Monday that his inclusion in the trial carries the “threat of foreign incrimination.” He’ll give evidence in private when the trial starts later this year.

The bank is being sued by the Libyan Investment Authority, which alleges billion-dollar investment deals with the French lender were tainted by bribery and intimidation of Libyan officials. The London lawsuit is running in parallel with a separate U.S. Justice Department investigation. A DOJ subpoena issued to the bank named El Asmar, making it more likely he will be included in the probe, his lawyer Alex Bailin said at a pre-trial hearing Monday. read more »

FCA reveals U.S. state, federal probes on diesel emissions

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has received subpoenas from U.S. federal and state authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, related to alleged excess diesel emissions by some of its vehicles, the automaker revealed in a filing with the SEC on Tuesday.

On the diesel emissions issue, FCA said it has "received various inquiries, subpoenas and requests for information from a number of governmental authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC and several states’ attorneys general. We are investigating these matters and we intend to cooperate with all valid governmental requests," FCA said in its annual report filed Tuesday with the SEC.

Earlier this month, a person briefed on the matter said the Justice Department has been involved in the matter for more than six months after getting a referral from the Environmental Protection Agency in July. Involvement by the SEC and state attorneys general has not been previously disclosed. read more »

Beach boards: Platinum fraud charges reignite Cayman concerns

Criminal charges against top executives of Platinum Partners for running the $1.4 billion hedge fund firm “like a Ponzi scheme” have revived an old question for investors: Where was the board?

The literal answer is the Cayman Islands. As is common in the hedge fund world, New York-based Platinum drew five of its six independent directors from firms in the tax-friendly British overseas territory nestled in the Caribbean to comply with a local requirement for external oversight.

What is less clear is whether those directors could have prevented Platinum’s decline.

Donald Seymour and David Bree of Cayman-based DMS Governance Ltd were directors for Platinum’s troubled Value Arbitrage Fund. They are among the most prominent practitioners of what critics call the “jumbo” model – where professional directors sometimes sit on hundreds of boards at once. read more »

Company lauded for ethics agrees to pay $1.5M for improper billing

A company that has been repeatedly honored for its ethics has reached a settlement with federal prosecutors in Philadelphia to pay $1.5 million for improperly billing Amtrak for project management work.

CH2M Hill worked on several Amtrak construction projects throughout the eastern United States, but billed the agency at improper rates from January 2011 through December 2014, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia.

The company, which is based in Colorado but has offices nationwide, including one in Center City, has agreed to pay the federal government $1.5 million to settle civil claims against it, officials said. read more »

Ex-Barclays traders put money before honesty, UK court hears

Two former Barclays traders showed scant regard for honesty and integrity when they conspired to rig global Libor interest rates, a lawyer for the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) told a London jury trial on Tuesday.

Greek national Stylianos Contogoulas and Ryan Reich, an American, deny one count of dishonestly skewing Libor, a benchmark for interest rates on about $450 trillion of financial contracts and loans worldwide, to boost profits and defraud others between June 2005 and September 2007.

Emma Deacon, prosecuting for the SFO, said the men "essentially cheated" others when they schemed with London-based Libor submitters, responsible for sending the bank's daily cost of borrowing estimates to a Libor administrator, to try to nudge dollar Libor rates to bolster their trading positions. read more »

Whistleblower: Millions wasted at NE Ohio rehab center for teens

One of the nation’s largest private prison companies is defending itself against Medicaid fraud charges filed by a former clinical supervisor at an Ohio residential treatment center for teens.

Lynn Roycroft’s federal lawsuit alleges Abraxas Ohio in Shelby, an all-male, treatment center owned by GEO Group Inc., billed the government for years on "false or fraudulent" claims, including counseling sessions never happened.

“I would say it was a pretty egregious abuse of your tax dollars,” Roycroft told WKYC Channel 3 News. “Because treatment did not happen for the most part.”

According to state Medicaid officials, Abraxas received more than $9 million in payments in 2016 and more than $33 million since 2012. read more »

Judge rejects effort to withdraw guilty plea in massive Ponzi scheme

A federal judge in Sacramento on Tuesday rejected an effort by scam artist Lee Loomis to withdraw a guilty plea he entered a year ago – one that could send him to prison for 18 years.

After a 45-minute hearing, U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez told the former financial adviser that he saw no evidence to support Loomis’ claims that he was under duress at the time he accepted a plea agreement and pleaded guilty in January 2016 to a single count of wire fraud.

“In fact, Mr. Loomis’ demeanor was one of competence and calm ...” said Mendez, who presided when Loomis entered his guilty plea. “The fact is he pleaded guilty on Jan. 29, 2016, under oath and in open court.”

The finding moves Loomis, who has been in custody since September 2012 and is accused of bilking investors in six states out of as much as $100 million, one step closer to a federal prison sentence. Mendez set March 28 for sentencing, although Loomis, who is acting as his own attorney, suggested that date would not hold up because he plans to appeal. read more »