Wells Fargo’s Reaction to Scandal Fails to Satisfy Angry Lawmakers

He is forfeiting at least $41 million in pay. He vows that his bank will drop its sales incentive program — blamed for prompting bankers to set up illegal and unauthorized bank and credit card accounts to meet their sales goals — by the end of the week, not in January, as he had previously promised.

But at a hearing Thursday before the House Financial Services Committee, nobody was impressed. If anything, the House lawmakers who interrogated John G. Stumpf, the chief executive of Wells Fargo, were even angrier and more hostile than their Senate counterparts who questioned him last week, before either of those steps had been taken.

One by one, Democrats and Republicans alike took turns ripping apart Mr. Stumpf and what took place at the bank he leads. They denounced the actions as “theft,” “a criminal enterprise,” identity fraud, an outrage and a devastating blow to the entire banking industry. read more »

The “Blood Diamond” magnate who is at the center of Och-Ziff’s bribery scandal in Africa

The United States’ first foreign-bribery case against a hedge fund is full of dramatic detail.

More than $100 million in bribes, sometimes bags stuffed with cash, was paid from one of New York’s best known hedge funds, Och-Ziff Management Capital, to corrupt officials in Libya, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other African countries.

A private Airbus was rented for a Guinean official while two officials from Niger received an S-Class Mercedes sedan each. Bribes are discussed in casual shorthand over text message: “Yip. Pay the 77m, and we pay 2m withim [sic] 24hr,” one employee wrote of funds to help facilitate a deal in Guinea in 2011. read more »

Bank Worries and Foreign Bribes

People are worried about Deutsche Bank.

The catalyst for Deutsche Bank's current problems is the U.S. Justice Department's effort to fine it $14 billion for, you know, 2008. (That is, for selling bad mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the crisis.) "This is about Deutsche Bank paying up for the financial crisis," read more »

Wells Fargo Troubles Mount With Penalty for Soldiers’ Loans

Wells Fargo & Co., reeling from weeks of pummeling over fraudulent customer accounts, was sanctioned by the Justice Department over improperly repossessing cars owned by members of the military.

Federal authorities are punishing the San Francisco-based lender for as many as 413 alleged violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, according to a statement Thursday from the Justice Department, which said the bank agreed to pay more than $4 million to compensate borrowers involved in unlawful repossessions spread over seven years. The bank’s regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, also fined the company $20 million for a decade of transgressions, the agency said in a statement.

“Wells Fargo Bank unlawfully repossessed hundreds of servicemembers’ cars without the proper process, and the bank will now rightfully pay for its violations,” Bill Baer, the Justice Department’s No. 3 official, said in a statement. The department “is committed to protecting our country’s servicemembers as they continue to fight for our freedom. read more »

Antigraft Law Stirs Up Wariness Over South Koreans Bearing Gifts

The new law, called the Kim Young-ran Act after the former Supreme Court justice who drafted it, is being hailed as a milestone in efforts to fight corruption in South Korea, where collusion between government officials and businesses is a major public concern — and where wining and dining, cash envelopes and other kinds of gifts have long been central to doing business. read more »

Biotech Employee Charged With Insider Trading Ahead of Company’s Announcements About Breast Cancer Drug

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the former senior director of regulatory affairs for Puma Biotechnology with insider trading ahead of the company’s news announcements about its drug to treat breast cancer.  

The SEC alleges that Robert Gadimian pocketed more than $1.1 million in illicit profits by secretly purchasing Puma stock and short-term call options based on nonpublic information he learned about positive developments in two clinical trials for Puma’s drug, neratinib.  Gadimian allegedly bought Puma securities before the results from the first trial were announced in December 2013 and again before the results of the second trial were announced in July 2014. read more »

SEC: Casino-Gaming Company Retaliated Against Whistleblower

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that casino-gaming company International Game Technology (IGT) has agreed to pay a half-million dollar penalty for firing an employee with several years of positive performance reviews because he reported to senior management and the SEC that the company's financial statements might be distorted.

In its second whistleblower retaliation case since the Dodd-Frank Act authorized the agency to bring such charges, the SEC found that the employee was removed from significant work assignments within weeks of raising concerns about the company's cost accounting model.  He was terminated approximately three months later. read more »

CFTC Orders Jon P. Ruggles to Disgorge More than $3.5 Million in Trading Profits and Pay a $1.75 Million Penalty for His Illegal Futures and Options Trading

for engaging in fraudulent, fictitious, and noncompetitive trades in crude oil and heating oil futures and options and RBOB gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange read more »