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Leniency for big corporations
WASHINGTON - In a major shift of
policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking down giant
corporations, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, has put
off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing over
the last three years. (IHT)
Americans in the dark over fees
NEW YORK - When
you fork over $36 billion, it stands to reason that you should know
exactly what you're paying for. (CNN) REPORT:
GAO: Report on bank fees
.pdf
National Grid fined
LONDON -
National Grid,
the UK gas and power infrastructure operator, has been fined a
record £41.6 million by UK energy market watchdog
Ofgem
for restricting competition in the market for domestic gas meters.
(Times online)
Insurer must pay $9M
LOS ANGELES
- A Southern California woman who had her medical coverage canceled
as she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer was awarded more
than $9 million Friday in a case against one of California's largest
health insurers. (San Francisco Chronicle) PREVIOUS:
LA
city attorney sues Health Net
Health Net
EU regulators raid Intel
BRUSSELS - EU
antitrust regulators stepped up a probe into microchip giant
Intel
by raiding the US company's German offices and
computer retailers on suspicions they might have stifled
competition. (AFP) MORE:
EU
regulator raids Intel offices
WB using US funds to boost Iranian industry
WASHINGTON - The
World Bank is using
millions of dollars in American taxpayer funds to help Iran build up
its industrial and natural gas sectors. This comes at a time when
the United States and the United Nations are actively working to
discourage the international community from conducting commercial
transactions with Iran and its energy sector, in particular.
(Fox)
Elderly woman's heat cut off
VICTORIA - An
elderly Victoria woman was put at risk of hypothermia after
Terasen Gas
cut off her gas. The
76-year-old woman, who is not married and has no children, is
suffering from the first stages of dementia. She owed the gas
company $114.24. Terasen has now charged the senior a $95
disconnection fee and a $95 reactivation fee for their work on the
weekend. They also required a $360 advance payment fee.
(Victoria Times Colonist)
Former executive summoned
SEOUL - The investigation is probing claims by
Samsung's
former chief lawyer Kim Yong-Chul that the group created a
multi-million-dollar slush fund to bribe prosecutors, government
officials and journalists. Kim has claimed he had taken part in
creating the fund totalling over seven trillion won ($7.5B dollars).
(AFP) PREVIOUS:
Office of Samsung chairman raided
Samsung Chairman's office raided
Lee Kun-hee
Loss is a big win for taxpayers
MONTREAL - Judge
Joel Silcoff has snipped one of the many golden threads linking the
government of Quebec with
Bombardier
Inc. The result should be more respect for the need to protect
public money through competitive tendering. (Montreal Gazette)
PREVIOUS:
'A massive blow'
Fleet
grounded again
Inside a stock fraud
VANCOUVER - The future
didn't look bright for serial swindler and parolee Michael Lee
Mitton when RCMP officers frisked him at Vancouver International
Airport on a cloudy June day in 2004. (Toronto Star)
Scandal at Oral Roberts University
TULSA, Okla. -
Twenty years ago, televangelist
Oral Roberts
said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told
him to raise $8 million for
Oral Roberts University,
or else he would be ``called home." Now, his son, Oral Roberts
University president
Richard Roberts,
says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in
a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt
college in scandal. (AP)
MORE:
ORU to employ an additional audit
firm
Oral Roberts president gets no confidence vote
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What you see isn't what you get
OTTAWA - The
Senate added a roadblock to the so-called "all-in" advertising
provision, postponing it until industry and government had the time
to figure out how to avoid any unintended consequences on airlines'
competitiveness. Liberal senator
Dennis Dawson,
a former lobbyist for WestJet Airlines, proposed the implementation
delay after airline executives appeared before the Senate.
(CanWest)
Alcoa sued for $1B
PITTSBURGH -
Alcoa
Inc., the world's third-biggest aluminum producer, was sued by a
government-controlled
Bahraini
metals company for at least $1 billion in damages based on claims of
fraud and bribery of officials overseas.
(Bloomberg)
Tycoon resigns
HONG KONG -
Prominent Hong Kong tycoon
David Li Kwok-po
has stepped down from the city's cabinet two weeks after settling
with US regulators over insider-trading allegations involving shares
of
Dow Jones.
(AFP)
MORE:
Banker
resigns from Hong Kong cabinet
Enbridge fee 'outrageous'
TORONTO -
Enbridge
is set to charge its Ontario customers a new fee to help pay the
costs of an out-of-court settlement. In 2004, the Supreme Court
ruled against the natural gas company - for charging unfair fees.
(CTV)
Travel scams
LONDON - The
Hollow Insurance: A
Consumer Association survey in 2006 reported that 81% of customers
didn’t have their coverage properly explained to them by their
travel agent, 55% weren’t told about their excess payment and 65%
weren’t asked about any existing medical complaints that might have
left them uncovered. The government is so concerned that, from
January 2009, travel agents will be regulated by the Financial
Services Authority. (ETN) PREVIOUS:
Moneysupermarket
An ex-president, a mining deal and a big donor
Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private
plane carrying the Canadian mining financier
Frank Giustra
touched down in Almaty, a city in southeast
Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles
to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium
that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. Unlike more
established competitors, Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company
lacked in experience, it made up for in connections. Accompanying
Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former
president of the United States,
Bill Clinton. (IHT) PREVIOUS:
Aid project: Clinton - Giustra
sustainable growth initiative
The Sleaze factor
Total found guilty in oil spill case
PARIS - A court
ruled on Wednesday that French oil giant
Total SA
was responsible for the
1999 sinking of the oil tanker Erika, and ordered it to pay damages
for one of France's worst environmental disasters. (Reuters)
MORE:
The
scandal of the Erika
Former Norbough head guilty
MONTREAL - A
Quebec judge has convicted Vincent Lacroix, the former president of
Norbourg, of all the 51 charges he faced for defrauding thousands of
investors of millions of dollars. (CP)
PREVIOUS:
Former
Norbourg CEO convicted of fraud
Quebec regulator lays
51 charges against Norbourg founder
Criminal inquiry hits De La Rue
LONDON -
The City of London Police
said that its new anti-corruption unit had launched raids on two
company premises in Hampshire and one in Bedfordshire as part of a
joint investigation with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). De
La Rue
prints more than 150 national currencies as well as passports,
travellers' checks, stamps and passports, through its security paper
and print division. The group also owns 20 per cent of
Camelot Group,
the consortium that operates the National Lottery. (Times online)
Air Canada included in probe
TORONTO - Air
Canada has been included in the European Commission's investigation
into price fixing on freight services, the airline said on Monday,
adding that it might suffer a liability as a result. (CanWest)
MORE:
EU adds to price-fixing probe
Air
Canada gets EC statement of objections
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Aquilini wins Canucks case
VANCOUVER - BC
Supreme Court Justice Catherine Wedge has confirmed
Francesco Aquilini’s
contested ownership of the
Vancouver Canucks.
In a lengthy judgment released Thursday, Justice Wedge said that the
well-known developer did nothing illegal when in Nov. 2004 he
purchased half the hockey team from US billionaire John McCaw. The
decision is a heavy blow to
Tom Galardi
and
Ryan Beedie.
It is estimated they spent some $15 million on the suit and now face
the prospect of having to pay for Aquilini's costs, too. (Vancouver
Sun)
PREVIOUS:
Canucks
ownership on trial |
Farmers complain of 'ruthless buyers'
LONDON - The
messages were allegedly sent by Tesco and Asda, warning suppliers to
reduce the price at which they sell their food to the retailers - or
face being axed. The emails, understood to contain threatening and
aggressive language, have been unearthed by the Government's
monopolies watchdog, the
Competition Commission.
They emerged as the watchdog investigated the practices of the "Big
Four" chains -
Tesco,
Asda,
Sainsbury's
and
Morrisons
- as part of a two-year inquiry into their national dominance.
(Telegraph UK) |
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