Who is Navinder Singh Sarao? Stock marker trader accused of May 2010 ‘flash crash’ – all you need to know

Rogue trader faces jail after pleading guilty to his role in a 2010 economic crash

ROGUE trader Navinder Sarao faces jail after pleading guilty to his role in a 2010 economic crash.

A hearing is being held in Chicago today and a sentencing date is likely to be announced.

But who is the so-called “Hound of Hounslow” – and what was his part in the Wall Street flash crash? read more »

Venezuela names new leaders at oil firm PDVSA to 'defeat corruption'

Venezuela's president on Sunday created an executive vice president post and named new vice presidents to lead PDVSA in what he described as a shake-up of the state oil company and an effort to root out corruption in the OPEC nation's principal industry.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro kept Eulogio Del Pino as PDVSA president but created a new post of executive vice president while naming vice presidents in areas including finance and exploration. PDVSA has been dogged for years by corruption ranging from lucrative smuggling of heavily subsidized fuel to kickbacks and bribery that led to prosecution of U.S.-based contractors who did business with the company. read more »

Deutsche Bank fined $630m over Russia money laundering claims

Authorities in US and UK issue fine after saying bank used offices in Moscow and London to move $10bn out of country

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority imposed its largest ever fine – £163m – for potential money laundering offences on Germany’s biggest bank

The US regulator, the New York Department of Financial Services, also fined the bank $425m as it listed problems at Deutsche including one senior compliance officer stating he had to “beg, borrow, and steal” to get the resources to combat money laundering. As part of the settlement DFS has imposed a monitor, who will police the behaviour inside the bank for two years.

The latest run-in with regulators comes as Deutsche’s chief executive John Cryan tries to clean up the bank. Last month Deutsche paid $7.2bn to settle a decade-old toxic bond mis-selling scandal with the US Department of Justice. read more »

Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating a whistleblower's "allegations of corruption"

On any given day at MacDill Air Force Base, web crawlers scour social media for potential recruits to the Islamic State group. Then, in a high-stakes operation to counter the extremists' propaganda, language specialists employ fictitious identities and try to sway the targets from joining IS ranks.

At least that's how the multimillion-dollar initiative is being sold to the Defense Department.

Early last year, the government opened the bidding on a new counter-propaganda contract — separate from WebOps— that is worth as much as $500 million. Months after the AP started reporting about the bidding process, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service told the AP that it had launched an investigation. NCIS spokesman Ed Buice said the service is investigating a whistleblower's "allegations of corruption" stemming from how the contract was awarded. read more »

CFPB Sues Debt Relief Attorneys for Collecting Illegal Fees from Struggling Consumers

Lawyers Revived an Illegal Debt Relief Scheme that the CFPB Previously Shut Down

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today took action against a ring of law firms and attorneys who collaborated to charge illegal fees to consumers seeking debt relief. In a complaint filed in federal court, the CFPB alleges that Howard Law, P.C., the Williamson Law Firm, LLC, and Williamson & Howard, LLP, as well as attorneys Vincent Howard and Lawrence Williamson, ran this debt relief operation along with Morgan Drexen, Inc., which shut down in 2015 following the CFPB’s lawsuit against that company. The CFPB seeks to stop the defendants’ unlawful scheme, obtain relief for harmed consumers, and impose penalties.

“The defendants exploited consumers who were already suffering financial difficulties by tricking them into paying steep, illegal fees,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “We put a stop to this scam once already, and we intend to do it again.” read more »

Brazilian Tycoon Eike Batista Is Arrested After Returning Home

Eike Batista, the fugitive oil-and-mining tycoon wanted in connection with Brazil’s far-reaching corruption investigation, flew home from New York on Monday and surrendered to the police, who placed him temporarily in a notoriously overcrowded prison. read more »

Lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo of denying student loans to young immigrants

Lawsuit filed Monday accuses banking giant Wells Fargo of illegally denying student loans to young immigrants who are protected from deportation and allowed to work and study in the U.S. under a program created by former President Obama.

Wells Fargo said it was disappointed the plaintiffs sued instead of working with the bank on a solution.

The young immigrants are in the country illegally but have Social Security numbers and documents that meet bank requirements for identification, but Wells Fargo refuses to give them loans based on their citizenship status, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California by the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The loans, meanwhile, are available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, the suit says.

It seeks a court order declaring the policy discriminatory and forcing Wells Fargo to grant the loans to those participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It also seeks unspecified monetary damages. read more »