Ex-GlobeTel CFO Now Faces Tax Charges

A finance executive already facing civil charges from government regulators is now in deeper trouble, charged with criminal tax evasion. If convicted, Thomas Y. Jimenez, former CFO of GlobeTel Communications Inc., could be sentenced to as much as three years in prison and one year of supervised r...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 6, 2009

For Commercial Real Estate: Let’s Make a Deal

As the deteriorating economy spreads to the commercial real estate sector, there could be good news for companies that rent office or industrial space. It figures to become less costly in the near future. In a new study, commercial real estate services and investment firm Grubb & Ellis predic...

By Stephen Taub • Jan. 6, 2009

SEC Names Kroeker Acting Chief Accountant

The Security and Exchange Commission’s deputy chief accountant, James Kroeker, has been named acting chief accountant by SEC chairman Christopher Cox. Kroeker replaces Conrad W. Hewitt, who retired from the position on Monday. Kroeker, who has served in his current position since February 2007, w...

By Kate Plourd • Jan. 6, 2009

Insurance Outlook: Higher Prices by Year’s End

Following five years in the bargain basement, property-casualty insurance prices will start to rise again by the last quarter of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010 and stay high for an unusually long time, according to a new report that attempts to predict the commercial insurance pricing cycle in...

By David Katz • Jan. 5, 2009

Parratt Named SEC’s Corporation Finance Director

The deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance, Shelley E. Parratt, was named the division’s acting director by SEC chairman Christopher Cox. The appointment puts the veteran deputy director at the division — who has served in that position since 2...

By Roy Harris • Jan. 5, 2009

Madoff Case Triggers Wider Probe of SEC

The attempt to determine whether the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to do its job in detecting the $50 billion Ponzi scheme put together by Bernard Madoff will be the launching pad for a wider-ranging investigation of the SEC’s operations, the commission’s inspector general told someti...

By David Katz • Jan. 5, 2009

Rethinking Risk

Last August, when Virgin Mobile CFO John Feehan spotted signs of looming bankruptcy at Circuit City, a retail outlet for his company’s cell phones, he didn’t sit idly by. Instead, Virgin Mobile tightened billing terms, demanded cash payments, and adjusted shipments daily. When Circuit City finall...

By Kate Plourd • Jan. 1, 2009

Contingency Fans

The surplus of corporate litigation in the United States is rarely viewed as a positive, but for at least one British firm it constitutes a unique investment opportunity.Juridica Capital Management, a UK-based investment firm, has put $90 million into 16 U.S. business-to-business lawsuits since i...

By Kate Plourd • Jan. 1, 2009

Top 10 Things to Do with Top 10 Lists

There’s no shortage of city rankings available to companies that might want to pull up stakes. In the aggregate they provide an almost dizzying amount of information that might influence expansion or relocation plans. Want to know which U.S. city is the least expensive, or the most tax-friendly t...

By Alix Stuart • Jan. 1, 2009

SEC: Fair Value’s Savior

The Securities and Exchange Commission, as expected, has decided not to suspend mark-to-market accounting — against the wishes of many banking lobbyists. But the debate over how to measure financial assets and liabilities is far from over. In fact, the SEC’s decision, outlined in a 211-page repor...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 31, 2008

The People Puzzle

Moira McKamey is one of many Americans with more free time than she would like. In November DHL, an express delivery company, said that it would close its American domestic operations at the end of January. Up to 10,000 jobs may be lost in Wilmington, Ohio, where DHL has its main hub for domestic...

By Economist Staff • Dec. 30, 2008

Back to the Backdating Scandal: Today, UnitedHealth

By settling its civil stock-option backdating case, UnitedHealth Group Inc. — and also its former general counsel — has wrapped up one of the biggest and earliest of the Securities and Exchange Commission actions in what became one of the biggest business scandals of 2006.UnitedHealth agreed to s...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 23, 2008

CIT to Qualify for $2.33B in TARP Funds

Commercial finance company CIT Group Inc. expects to receive $2.33 billion from the Treasury Department under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) — a result of the Federal Reserve preliminarily approving its application to convert to a bank holding company.Specifically, CIT has converted CI...

By Stephen Taub and Roy Harris • Dec. 23, 2008

SEC Opens Door to Centralized Credit-Default Swaps

In an attempt to make what it sees as the shadowy dealings of the credit-default-swap market clearer to the outside world, the Securities and Exchange Commission today approved temporary exemptions that allow at least one firm, London-based LCH Clearnet Ltd., to operate as a central counterparty ...

By David Katz • Dec. 23, 2008

Stop Paying Divs, Fed Tells Three Banks

The Federal Reserve Board ordered three small banks to stop paying dividends and make other changes “to maintain the financial soundness” of the institutions. It is also requiring the banks to seek Fed approval before taking certain actions, and in some cases called for the banks to submit progre...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 22, 2008

Ground Zero

Central bankers ordinarily strive to be boring. But these are not ordinary times. On December 16th the Federal Reserve unveiled a three-part assault on America’s slump that lit up the news wires like a pyrotechnic display.The Fed’s policy panel, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), announced...

By Economist Staff • Dec. 19, 2008

Con of the Century

Bernard Madoff worked as a lifeguard to earn enough money to start his own securities firm. Almost half a century later, the colossal Ponzi scheme into which it mutated has proved impossible to keep afloat — unlike Mr. Madoff’s 55-foot fishing boat, “Bull.” The $17.1 billion that Mr. Madoff claim...

By Economist Staff • Dec. 18, 2008

KPMG Tax-Shelter Case Is Mixed Win for U.S.

The long, circuitous prosecution of KPMG LLP executives over the selling of illegal personal tax shelters concluded with a handful of convictions Wednesday afternoon. But some observers saw the mixed-bag result, which included acquittals along with the jury’s guilty verdicts, as a sign that the d...

By Roy Harris • Dec. 18, 2008

Obama Picks FINRA Head Mary Schapiro to Lead SEC

President-elect Barack Obama nominated Mary Schapiro as the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, calling on her to help overhaul the troubled U.S. regulatory system. Obama said Schapiro, a one-time acting SEC chairman and a political independent, who currently heads the Financ...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 18, 2008

FTC Alleges Ovation Has Baby-drug Monopoly

The Federal Trade Commission sued Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc. for antitrust violations over its 2006 acquisition of the drug NeoProfen — which the FTC said sealed a monopoly in the market for products that treat a life-threatening heart defect in premature babies.The complaint, filed in U.S. Dis...

By Kate Plourd • Dec. 16, 2008

Conservatives Oppose Bush Plan to Help Auto Industry

House conservatives, in a letter to President George W. Bush, objected Wednesday to a White House plan to transfer a portion of the $700 billion financial rescue plan to save the Big Three U.S. automakers.The letter, signed by 22 GOP Members including Republican Study Committee Chairman Jeb Hensa...

By Roll Call Staff • Dec. 16, 2008

Judge: Ex-Broadcom CFO, CEO Must Face Charges

A judge ruled that Broadcom’s former chief financial officer and chief executive officer both must face charges in the company’s stock option backdating scandal.Ex-CEO Henry Nicholas and ex-CFO William Ruehle were accused of illegally backdating stock options, causing the chipmaker to restate $2....

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 16, 2008

What Does Madoff’s Auditor Say? No Answer

The tiny auditor of Bernard Madoff’s Wall Street firm, at the center of an alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme, is being investigated by the district attorney in a New York City suburb. Friehling & Horowitz had signed off on the annual financial statement for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securit...

By Stephen Taub • Dec. 15, 2008

New Siemens Fines Bring the Total to $1.6B

Siemens AG’s agreement to pay $800 million to settle civil and criminal bribery charges leveled by U.S. authorities, after a long-running probe, brings the global total of fines paid by the company and its subsidiaries to a staggering $1.6 billion.The latest amount is the largest penalty collecte...

By Sarah Johnson • Dec. 15, 2008

Pelosi Demands Mortgage Aid

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday demanded that the Bush administration spell out a plan to help distressed homeowners before releasing the remaining $350 billion in the $700 billion financial rescue fund.Pelosi said the law’s written intent of providing mortgage relief “has been totally ...

By Roll Call Staff • Dec. 15, 2008