Ex-Live Well Execs Accused of $130M Loan Fraud

Three former executives of reverse mortgage lender Live Well, including the CEO and CFO, have been charged with defrauding lenders of around $130 million by grossly inflating the value of bonds that served as collateral for loans.The charges against CEO Michael Hild, CFO Eric Rohr, and Executive ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 30, 2019

Third Point Fined Over Antitrust Violations

Activist investor Third Point has agreed to pay more than $600,000 to settle charges that three funds it controls failed to obtain antitrust clearance before acquiring stock in DowDuPont.The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Third Point violated the premerger notification and waiting period requ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 29, 2019

J&J Found Liable for Helping Cause Opioid Crisis

An Oklahoma judge has for the first time found a drug maker to blame for the U.S. opioid epidemic, ordering Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for falsely marketing two painkillers as safe.After an eight-week trial of a landmark case brought by Oklahoma’s attorney general, Cleveland County...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 27, 2019

Overcoming Cybersecurity Communications Barriers

During the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt, a French army officer made a startling discovery. While building Fort Julien in 1799, he noticed a slab with writing on it. Now known as the Rosetta Stone, it provided a translation from hieroglyphics to Greek, finally deciphering ancient Egyptian writing....

By David McCann • Aug. 20, 2019

Kraft Settles Futures Market Manipulation Case

After more than four years of litigation, Kraft Foods Group and Mondelēz International have agreed to a settlement of U.S. allegations that it manipulated the market for wheat futures, ultimately earning more than $5 million in illicit profits.The case arose from alleged improper wheat futures tr...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 16, 2019

IFF Discloses ‘Improper Payments’ by Israel Unit

International Flavors & Fragrances has disclosed that it is investigating whether officials of an Israeli company it acquired last year made improper payments to customers.The $7 billion acquisition of Frutarom reportedly made IFF the largest flavoring company in the world. It was also the se...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 7, 2019

Heads Up: Cybercriminals Are Businesspeople

When the hacker behind the Capital One data breach was presented in the media, she very much fit the eccentric cybercriminal stereotype.However, the truth is that she’s quite an outlier. Most cybercriminals operate in highly organized groups based abroad. They approach their work like any busines...

By Jim Parise • Aug. 2, 2019

Securities Fraud Class Actions Spike Again

Filing federal class-action lawsuits alleging securities fraud is a big-time sport in the United States, and getting bigger all the time.The first half of 2019 brought 198 new cases. Over the past two and a half years there have been more than 1,000 of them, representing over 20% of all such fili...

By David McCann • Aug. 1, 2019

Cisco Settles With Whistleblower in Cyber Case

Cisco Systems has agreed to pay $8.6 million to settle claims that it sold defective software to U.S. government agencies in what appears to be the first payout in a cybersecurity case initiated by a whistleblower.The settlement and underlying complaint were unsealed on Wednesday, 10 years after ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 1, 2019

Mnuchin Warns of Cryptocurrency Security Risks

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin echoed his boss’s concerns about cryptocurrencies, saying he was “not comfortable” with Facebook’s proposed Libra digital currency, in part due to the risk it could be misused by criminals and terrorists.According to The New York Times, Mnuchin’s comments at...

By Matthew Heller • July 16, 2019

SOX Compliance Doesn’t Get Easier With Time

Seventeen years after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, those not involved in SOX compliance might assume that by now it would be a rote activity requiring diminishing effort.They would be wrong. Despite efforts and expectations to the contrary, the time and cost expended on SOX compliance have ...

By David McCann • July 16, 2019

Ex-Illumina Accountant Accused of Insider Trading

A former accountant for Illumina has been charged with leaking the biotech company’s quarterly results to a close friend as part of an insider trading scam that netted more than $6.2 million in illicit profits.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Martha Bustos engaged in the scheme wi...

By Matthew Heller • July 11, 2019

Germany Fines Facebook for Understating Complaints

German authorities have fined Facebook 2 million euros ($2.3 million) for misleading the public about the amount of illegal content, including hate speech, on its platform.The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) said Tuesday that Facebook’s transparency report for the first half of 2018 understated t...

By Matthew Heller • July 2, 2019

EU Regulator Opens Antitrust Probe of Broadcom

Margrethe Vestager EU regulators said Wednesday they will order Broadcom to cease enforcing exclusivity agreements with TV and modem makers while it conducts an antitrust investigation of the chip manufacturer.The European Commission is authorized to impose “interim measures” on companies when it...

By Matthew Heller • June 26, 2019

Leave Room to Negotiate a Future Insurance Claim

There’s a world of difference between an insurer being able to take action solely at its option vs. having to negotiate a claim in good faith. Arranging the right insurance policy language up front is the key to making this happen.Let’s look at three examples in commercial property/casualty insur...

By David McCann • June 17, 2019

Why Effective Compliance Means Making Friends

Amid a climate of increasing regulatory enforcement, demands for companies to be more transparent, and the growing threat that a compliance violation could cause reputational damage, compliance officers are taking a closer look at their internal programs.One major area of concern: the compliance ...

By Sundar Narayanan • June 10, 2019

Insys to Pay $225M to Settle Painkiller Probes

Opioid maker Insys Therapeutics has agreed to pay $225 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to doctors and nurse practitiioners to induce them to prescribe its flagship fentanyl painkiller.As part of the deal, Insys will plead guilty to five criminal counts of mail fraud and pay a...

By Matthew Heller • June 10, 2019

SEC Charges Longfin CEO With Accounting Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed additional charges against the CEO of Longfin, alleging he falsified the cryptocurrency firm’s revenue and fraudulently secured its public listing.The civil fraud complaint filed on Wednesday against Venkata Meenavalli came just over a year af...

By Matthew Heller • June 6, 2019

SEC Sues App Developer Kik Over $100M ICO

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged messaging app developer Kik Interactive with conducting an illegal $100 million initial coin offering in a case that could clarify whether digital tokens are securities.The SEC said in a civil complaint filed on Tuesday that Kik violated sec...

By Matthew Heller • June 5, 2019

CFOs Can Lead Efforts to Manage Water Risk

During the 2019 Ceres Conference, Jack Ehnes, CEO of CalSTRS, one of the nation’s largest pension funds, moderated a discussion during which panelists suggested that CFOs should lead conversations on how to address our world’s biggest threat: climate change.Among the many risks posed by climate c...

By David McCann • June 4, 2019

Court Dismisses Suit Over CBOE’s ‘Fear Gauge’

A federal judge has dismissed an investor class action alleging the Chicago Board Options Exchange facilitated the manipulation of its closely-watched VIX index to benefit itself financially.The VIX, CBOE’s most profitable product, measures stock market volatility and is widely known as Wall Stre...

By Matthew Heller • May 30, 2019

Navistar Settles Defective Engine Suits for $135M

Navistar has agreed to pay $135 million to truck owners who claimed it failed to disclose or correct a defect in engine exhaust-treatment systems.The settlement of several class actions, which was announced in a regulatory filing, covers owners of about 65,000 heavy-duty trucks sold between 2010 ...

By Matthew Heller • May 30, 2019

Senate Passes Bill to Crack Down on Robocalls

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill to combat robocalls, tackling what one sponsor called a “consumer protection crisis.”The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act would, among other things, increase fines for robocallers to as much as $10,00...

By Matthew Heller • May 28, 2019

Major Landlord Accused of ‘Ponzi-Like’ Fraud

One of the largest landlords in the U.S. has been charged with using money raised through private securities offerings to satisfy his obligations to earlier investors in “a Ponzi scheme-like manner.”The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Robert C. Morgan, whose Rochester, N.Y.-based rea...

By Matthew Heller • May 23, 2019

High Court Rejects Extension of Citizens United

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined an opportunity to extend its landmark Citizens United campaign finance decision by striking down Massachusetts’ ban on corporations making direct contributions to political campaigns.Two Massachusetts companies had asked the Supreme Court to review their First ...

By Matthew Heller • May 21, 2019