Herbalife to Revamp Distributor Compensation

Herbalife has agreed to refund $200 million to consumers and revamp its compensation system as part of a settlement of charges that it made false promises to distributors about how much money they could make.The U.S Federal Trade Commission alleged in a consumer fraud complaint that the multi-lev...

By Matthew Heller • July 15, 2016

‘Frack Master’ Accused of $80M Investment Scam

Texas oilman and TV pundit Chris Faulkner has been charged with orchestrating a “massive” scheme to defraud investors in more than 20 oil and gas prospects and using at least $30 million of the proceeds to finance a “lifestyle of decadence and debauchery.”The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissi...

By Matthew Heller • June 27, 2016

Analogic Accused of Improper Foreign Payments

Medical device manufacturer Analogic Corp. has agreed to pay nearly $15 million to settle charges that its Danish subsidiary engaged in a scheme with distributors in Russia and other countries to make improper payments to third parties.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said t...

By Matthew Heller • June 22, 2016

Home Depot Joins Battle Over Chip Card Security

Home Depot has opened a new front in an escalating battle between retailers and credit card issuers over chip-based payment cards, accusing Visa and MasterCard of putting profits ahead of consumer security.The credit card giants and their member banks, Home Depot said in an antitrust lawsuit file...

By Matthew Heller • June 16, 2016

Square-Off: Is Your Data More Secure in a Data Center or in the Cloud?

It was the big system break-ins that changed the corporate approach to data security, observes Ashley Vukovits, the CFO of Interactive Intelligence Group and one of the debaters in CFO’s latest edition of Square-Off.Not that long ago, she writes, “most people would have answered the question of w...

By David Katz • June 15, 2016

Physicist Fined for Tech Deal Insider Trading

A Chinese citizen has agreed to pay more than $756,000 to settle charges that he traded on inside information he obtained while acting as a consultant to two Chinese private-equity firms pursuing a takeover of OmniVision Technologies.One of Guolin Ma’s clients was part of a group of Chinese inves...

By Matthew Heller • June 13, 2016

Ex-Pfizer Employee Accused of Insider Trading

A former Pfizer employee orchestrated an insider trading scheme that netted more than $300,000 in illicit profits for himself and a former Oppenheimer stockbroker who was his childhood friend, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday.In a civil complaint, the SEC alleged Michael Ma...

By Matthew Heller • June 3, 2016

Forex Trader Accused of $23M Investor Fraud

A New York City-based foreign exchange trader has been charged with claiming her investments were profitable when she actually lost more than $16 million since 2012.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Haena Park, 40, misrepresented her investment track record in raising at least $14 ...

By Matthew Heller • June 3, 2016

Brokerage Fined for Anti-Money-Laundering Reporting Failures

Wall Street brokerage Albert Fried & Co. has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle charges that it failed to report suspicious trading by institutional customers.For more than five years, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday, the firm filed no Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR...

By Matthew Heller • June 2, 2016

‘Boutique’ Firm Accused of $10M Ponzi Scheme

Two California men have been charged with operating a Ponzi scheme that fraudulently raised about $10 million from retail investors by promising exclusive investment opportunities “previously only available to the one-percenters.”The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday said Jaswant...

By Matthew Heller • June 1, 2016

Pakistani Accused of Manipulating Tech Stock

A Pakistani man has been charged with manipulating the stock price of Integrated Device Technology Inc. by announcing a bogus takeover offer for the chipmaker.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the announcement on its Edgar system instantly sparked a sharp rise in IDT’s stock price,...

By Matthew Heller • May 25, 2016

SEC Going After Corp. Subsidiaries

Riding a spike in Securities and Exchange Commission civil enforcement actions against corporate subsidiaries, the overall number of SEC enforcements against public companies and their units rose more than 50% in fiscal year 2015, according to a new survey.In fiscal 2015, the SEC filed 52 actions...

By David Katz • May 18, 2016

High Court Sides With Businesses in Privacy Case

The U.S. Supreme Court may have made it harder for consumers to sue companies that handle consumer data for publishing inaccurate information about them.The court agreed with web-based data broker Spokeo that a Virginia man had not shown its erroneous description of him violated the Fair Credit R...

By Matthew Heller • May 16, 2016

Wal-Mart Sues Visa Over Chip Card Verification

Wal-Mart Stores has sued Visa over its policy for verifying chip-enabled debit card transactions, saying the payments giant is favoring shoppers’ convenience at the expense of their security.In court papers filed Tuesday, Wal-Mart said Visa’s requirement that shoppers be allowed to verify with a ...

By Matthew Heller • May 11, 2016

Financial Adviser Accused of Stealing $2.3M

The founder of a financial management firm targeting professional athletes and other wealthy individuals has been charged with stealing $2.35 million from clients to invest in movie projects.The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said Louis Martin Blazer III convinced some of his client...

By Matthew Heller • May 6, 2016

On the Front Lines of Sports Intelligence

Does your company have, or might it consider, any kind of sponsorship or other financial involvement with a major league sports team or athletes? If so, you likely want to investigate ways to protect that investment.One option is provided through a specialized service of PricewaterhouseCoopers. T...

By David McCann • May 6, 2016

Nine Charged in $131M Stock Fraud Scheme

An investment newsletter publisher and eight other people have been charged with taking part in a $131 million scheme to manipulate the stock of ForceField Energy in exchange for kickbacks from the LED lighting provider’s majority shareholder.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a ...

By Matthew Heller • May 4, 2016

Cyberattack Bullseye Is Squarely on Medical Industry

In today’s digital word, the persistent threat of cyberattacks has become a business issue facing all industries, especially health care companies. Globally, two-thirds of 1,100 senior IT security executives at large enterprises worldwide have experienced a security breach, and 20% of them report...

By Tony Consoli • May 2, 2016

Accounting Firm Fined Over Surprise Exams

In more legal fallout from an investment adviser’s theft of $670,000 from clients, accounting firm Santos, Postal & Co. and one of its partners have been charged with improperly performing surprise custody exams of SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises.The Securities and Exchange Comm...

By Matthew Heller • April 29, 2016

Managing Risks at the National Rifle Association

“It’s such a significant part of what we’re doing for the future,” Emily Cummins, the risk manager of the National Rifle Association, says, enthusiastically describing the NRA’s charitable gift annuity program. The focus of the NRA “is always on training, education, and safety of the next generat...

By David Katz • April 22, 2016

Compliance Officers Fear Greater DOJ Scrutiny of Individuals

Two events last fall left corporate compliance officers, and those that they report to, squirming in their seats.Sally Yates, DOJ First, in what’s now commonly referred to as the Yates Memo, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates stressed that the Justice Department will step up efforts to prosecute...

By David McCann • April 19, 2016

Microsoft Sues Over Feds’ Secret Data Searches

Microsoft has sued the U.S. government to overturn a 1986 law that bars the company from telling its customers when federal agents have demanded their digital data, joining other tech companies defending privacy rights against intrusions by law enforcement.According to Microsoft, the Electronic C...

By Matthew Heller • April 18, 2016

When Enterprise Risk Management Gets Strategic

Imagine this scenario. Your company was led by its external auditors several years ago to put in place an enterprise risk management (ERM) program. Its implementation has progressed at a slower pace than you’d expected, mostly because your operational managers perceive ERM to be just another comp...

By John Bugalla and Emanuel Lauria • April 15, 2016

N.Y. Town Officials Accused of Bond Fraud

The deputy finance director of Ramapo, N.Y., and three other town officials “cooked the books” of the New York suburb to hide the true state of its finances from municipal bond investors, federal authorities have alleged.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the officials resorted to a...

By Matthew Heller • April 15, 2016

Supply Chain Anti-Fraud Measures Lacking

A large percentage of companies continue to experience supply chain fraud and many of those may not be doing enough to address the problem, according to a new survey by Deloitte.The consulting firm polled more than 2,600 professionals, finding that for a third consecutive year about 30% of them s...

By Matthew Heller • April 5, 2016