Monsanto Cancer Verdict Rattles Bayer Shares

Shares of German pharmaceutical giant Bayer plunged on Monday as analysts predicted a “litigious headache” in the wake of a $289 million jury award in a cancer exposure case against its Monsanto subsidiary.The case of a California school groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 14, 2018

Some Companies Are Ignoring GDPR Risk

During the six-year lead-up to the May 25, 2018, effective date of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), much attention was focused on the onerous financial penalties for noncompliance.The maximum penalty is so big that it almost defies comprehension: 4% of an offending ...

By David McCann • Aug. 9, 2018

Arista Settles Cisco’s Patent Claims for $400M

Arista Networks has agreed to pay Cisco Systems $400 million as part of a settlement of litigation that has pitted the two computer networking companies against each other for nearly four years.In return for the payment, Cisco will drop all its pending patent infringement claims against Arista. T...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 7, 2018

SEC Deals Another Setback for Bitcoin ETF

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected another effort by entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to list a bitcoin-related exchange-traded fund, citing concerns that the price of bitcoin is susceptible to manipulation.The Winklesvoss twins had proposed an SEC rule change that...

By Matthew Heller • July 30, 2018

Fyre Festival Promoter Settles Fraud Charges

The organizer of an ill-fated music festival in the Bahamas has settled charges that he defrauded investors in the Fyre Festival and two other media businesses of more than $27 million.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said William “Billy” McFarland — with the aid of two associates — in...

By Matthew Heller • July 25, 2018

Mizuho Fined Over Handling of Buyback Orders

The U.S. securities trading unit of Japan’s Mizuho Bank has been fined $1.25 million for failing to prevent material nonpublic information about clients’ stock buybacks from being disclosed to other traders and to hedge fund clients.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Mizuho Securiti...

By Matthew Heller • July 23, 2018

EU Fines Google $5B Over Android Restrictions

The EU’s antitrust regulator has fined Google a record 4.3 billion euros ($5.03 billion) over anticompetitive practices aimed at ensuring it dominates the search engine market on Android mobile devices.After a long-running investigation, the European Commission said Wednesday it had concluded tha...

By Matthew Heller • July 18, 2018

Regulators to ‘Vigilantly’ Monitor Crypto-assets

Global financial regulators don’t see any imminent risk to financial stability from crypto-assets but have identified an analytical framework to monitor them “vigilantly.”In a report released on Monday, the Financial Stability Board, which coordinates financial regulation for the Group of 20 Econ...

By Matthew Heller • July 17, 2018

Ex-Tesla Worker Alleges Production Irregularities

A former Tesla technician has filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the automaker has used defective batteries in its cars and inflated production numbers.Martin Tripp’s complaint was the latest salvo in a legal battle that began last month when...

By Matthew Heller • July 16, 2018

Ex-Heartland CEO Charged With Insider Trading

The former CEO of Heartland Payment Systems has been charged with collaborating in an insider trading scheme with his longtime girlfriend that generated more than $250,000 in illicit profits.According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Robert Carr tipped off Katherine Hanratty to the...

By Matthew Heller • July 11, 2018

Ratings Analyst Accused of Insider Trading

An analyst at a major credit ratings agency has been accused of tipping off two friends about an impending acquisition by a client, enabling them to make nearly $300,000 in illicit stock trading profits.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Sebastian Pinto-Thomaz learned of paint compa...

By Matthew Heller • June 27, 2018

JPMorgan Fined $65M Over ISDAFix Rigging

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $65 million to settle charges that its traders attempted to rig a global benchmark for interest rate products to benefit its derivatives positions.The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Monday that the bank attempted to manipulate the U.S. Dollar Inter...

By Matthew Heller • June 19, 2018

Fitbit Employees Accused of Trade Secrets Crimes

Six people have been charged with being in possession of trade secrets of Jawbone after they left the now-defunct wearables maker to work for arch rival Fitbit.An indictment filed on Thursday accuses the six, who include one current Fitbit employee, of misconduct similar to allegations that Jawbo...

By Matthew Heller • June 15, 2018

U.S. Agrees to Lift American Parts Ban on ZTE

The Trump administration has announced it will lift a ban on American companies supplying ZTE with components as part of an agreement that requires the Chinese smartphone maker to pay a $1 billion penalty.The U.S. decision to end sanctions that had threatened to cripple ZTE’s operations follows t...

By Matthew Heller • June 7, 2018

House Sets Vote on Dodd-Frank Rollback Bill

Republican legislation to roll back the Dodd-Frank reform act is moving closer to clearing a final hurdle before being signed into law by President Donald Trump.CNBC reported that the House will vote on the legislation on Tuesday. It passed the Senate in March by a 67-31 vote with support from mo...

By Matthew Heller • May 16, 2018

Traditional Packaging Fails for E-Commerce

Using traditional product packaging in e-commerce can hurt the bottom line. For many companies, the practice triggers unnecessary, counterproductive costs several percent of their total cost of goods sold (COGS).Vijay Kasi This is a growing problem, with e-commerce rapidly becoming a much bigger ...

By Vijay Kasi and Tom Gildersleeve • May 15, 2018

McKinsey Accused of Running ‘Criminal Enterprise’

The founder of corporate restructuring firm AlixPartners has accused rival McKinsey & Co. of making at least $101 million in bankruptcy consulting fees by concealing potentially disqualifying conflicts of interest from the courts.In a complaint filed on Wednesday, Jay Alix said McKinsey had c...

By Matthew Heller • May 10, 2018

U.S. Parts Ban Forces Halt to ZTE Operations

Chinese smartphone maker ZTE said Wednesday it had ceased “major operating activities” as a result of a U.S. ban on American companies supplying it with parts.The announcement is the first major indication of the fallout from a “denial order” that the Department of Commerce issued on April 20, ci...

By Matthew Heller • May 9, 2018

Global CFOs Still Bullish on America — So Far

Two years ago, the makings of a new world order emerged. Brexit was followed by the 2016 U.S. presidential election and a foreign policy strategy that put “America First.” Since then, news headlines have prominently featured threats of import tariffs, renegotiated trade agreements, anti-immigrant...

By Dalynn Hoch • May 3, 2018

Panasonic Fined $280M Over Airline Scheme

Japan’s Panasonic Corp. has agreed to pay $280 million in criminal and regulatory penalties to settle charges that it engaged in a bribery scheme to secure business from a government-owned airline for in-flight entertainment systems.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the scheme invo...

By Matthew Heller • April 30, 2018

LendingClub Accused of Hiding Upfront Fees

LendingClub has been charged with deceiving consumers by advertising loans as having no hidden fees when it in fact collected “hundreds or even thousands of dollars” as an upfront fee.The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that the peer-to-peer lender effectively hid the upfront fee — a...

By Matthew Heller • April 25, 2018

Procurement Lacks Tech Prowess

Digital technologies may be taking over a broad swath of corporate processes, but the procurement function is lagging far behind in that respect, according to a new Deloitte report.A meager 3% of chief procurement officers (CPOs) said they believe their staffs possess all the skills required to m...

By David McCann • April 18, 2018

China’s ZTE Banned From Using U.S. Parts

The U.S. has sanctioned China’s second-largest maker of telecom equipment for breaching a settlement of allegations that it illegally shipped goods to Iran.Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross on Monday ordered American companies not to supply components to ZTE Corp. for seven years, saying it fa...

By Matthew Heller • April 17, 2018

Ex-Soupman CFO Gets Jail for $600K Tax Fraud

The former CFO of Soupman has been sentenced to nine months in prison for cheating the federal government out of nearly $600,000 taxes on compensation paid to employees of the gourmet soup company that licenses the recipes of the real-life “Soup Nazi.”Robert Bertrand, 63, admitted at his sentenci...

By Matthew Heller • April 13, 2018

Apple Hit With $502M Patent Infringement Award

A Texas jury has awarded $502.6 million in damages against Apple in a long-running legal battle between the tech giant and the holder of four patents for secure internet-based communication.The award came in the second of two lawsuits that Nevada-based patent holder VirnetX has filed against Appl...

By Matthew Heller • April 12, 2018