NY Banking Probe Target: $250,000 Bonuses

How big does a bonus have to be to appear on the radar screen of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation of possible compensation abuses by financial firms receiving government bailout money? Apparently, it’s $250,000.According to the Associated Press, Cuomo has subpoenaed Bank of ...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 13, 2008

Ex-HR Exec Charged with Health-care Embezzlement

A former head of human resources for electronics firm Hitachi America Ltd. was charged with defrauding the company’s health care plan of about $8 million.Dennis Dowd, formerly the HR senior manager of the subsidiary of Japan-based Hitachi Ltd., was charged with one count of embezzlement in connec...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 13, 2008

Blue Coat, Ex-CFO Settle over Backdating

Network security company Blue Coat Systems Inc. and its former chief financial officer, Robert P. Verheecke, agreed to settle Securities and Exchange Commission stock-option backdating charges.The regulator accused Blue Coat and Verheecke of providing backdated grants to executives and employees ...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 12, 2008

EU Fails its Spending Audit, Again

The European Court of Auditors has, for the 14th year running, refused to give a clean bill of health to the EU’s spending. In its annual report published on November 10th, the auditors give their verdict on the EU’s budget for 2007. They warn of continuing problems with spending on cohesion, whi...

By European Voice Staff • Nov. 12, 2008

Getting Your Request on Obama’s Agenda

Trade groups see next January 20, President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration day, as their version of Christmas Day. So they’re getting their corporate wish lists ready now. And by petitioning him before he takes office, they hope to see their pet projects addressed in his first three months as ...

By Sarah Johnson • Nov. 11, 2008

White Out at SEC

John White, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance, will leave the agency at the end of the year. He plans to rejoin the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he spent more than 25 years as a partner before joining the SEC in March 2006. White i...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 7, 2008

Ten Top Earnings-Call Questions

Shocked by the suddenness and depth of the economy’s free-fall, many companies are choosing to provide less guidance on future financial performance in their earnings releases and conference calls, investor relations experts say.Some companies that had been giving quarterly guidance are shifting ...

By David McCann • Nov. 5, 2008

Siemens Reserves $1.3 Billion for Probe

Siemens AG said it will set aside $1.3 billion (€1 billion) in fiscal 2008 to settle ongoing corruption investigations with authorities in Germany and the U.S.The German conglomerate said that the current estimate is based on the status of discussions being held between the company and authoritie...

By Stephen Taub • Nov. 5, 2008

Building Up

Three years ago, when Roche UK tired of having its 1,100 staff working at four sites just north of London and decided to build new headquarters at the site, it was visionary. The £50m (€63m), three-storey building features timber-framed walling, ground-water cooling from 100-metre-deep boreholes ...

By Christopher Watts • Nov. 4, 2008

Natural Light

Corporate social responsibility reports have become so bloated that even the World Wildlife Fund doesn’t want to read many of them anymore, says Oliver Greenfield, head of sustainable business and markets at the nonprofit organisation. To recapture the interest of stakeholders such as the WWF in ...

By John Zhu • Nov. 4, 2008

Will Feds’ Subprime Cases Fall Flat?

The government may have a very difficult time pinning fraud raps on financial institutions over their packaging and sales of subprime mortgage-backed securities, according to the former deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division.Peter Bresnan, who won his gre...

By David McCann • Nov. 3, 2008

Duck and Cover

The near collapse of insurer American International Group in September put many corporate executives on edge. The reason for the nervousness is that AIG has enjoyed a market-leading position for directors’ and officers’ liability (D&O) insurance — a cover that, in addition to long-time buyers...

By Graham Buck • Nov. 3, 2008

French, Dutch bail-outs given green light

France and the Netherlands have joined the rapidly growing list of countries whose financial rescue packages have been agreed by the European Commission. The commission, which is charged with ensuring that state aid does not distort the internal market, said today that both schemes, which largely...

By European Voice Staff • Oct. 31, 2008

PCAOB Picks 11 New Advisory Members

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board appointed 11 new members to its Standing Advisory Group for the 2009-2010 term and made three reappointments for additional two-year terms. The 14 new and reappointed members, selected from 80 nominations received by the board, will join the 20 curren...

By Roy Harris • Oct. 30, 2008

Congressional Leaders Fear Misuse of Bailout Money

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday called on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to use his broad new authority to further restrict chief executive officer pay at the financial institutions being aided by the $700 billion bailout package.In a ...

By Roll Call Staff • Oct. 29, 2008

Bank Bonuses Are Under Review in NY

Warning that banks could be prosecuted in New York if their bonus payments are considered “illegal fraudulent conveyances,” state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is demanding detailed information about bonus-pool allocations from the boards of nine institutions that received $125 billion from the F...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 29, 2008

Fed Cuts Funds Rate to 1 Percent

The Federal Reserve statement, on its cut in the federal funds rate to 1 percent, follows.The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1 percent.The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly, owing importantly to...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Oct. 29, 2008

Pension Sponsors Seek to Delay New Rules

With the global stock market collapse sending assets of traditional pensions into a tailspin, a coalition of large companies that still offer defined-benefit plans is seeking a suspension or delay of new rules that would further drain them of much-needed cash.Pensions currently are about 85 perce...

By Stephen Taub and Roy Harris • Oct. 29, 2008

Teva Gets $100 Million ARS Settlement

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries announced it has received $100 million as part of a settlement from an institution that acted as a broker in placing Teva’s auction rate securities investments.The Jerusalem-based drug-making giant did not disclose the name of the institution. “Due to confidentially...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 27, 2008

AIG Pockets $90B in Government Funds

Rapidly tapping into taxpayers’ money, American International Group has accessed about $90 billion from the government since the Federal Reserve came to its rescue last month.AIG said Friday that as of October 22, it had outstanding borrowings of $72 billion under the two-year $85 billion revolvi...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 24, 2008

UBS to Pay HealthSouth $100M for Abetting Fraud

HealthSouth Corp. says it will get $100 million from UBS in partial settlement of a derivative lawsuit over the investment bank’s role in the health-care provider’s $2.7 billion accounting fraud. The settlement agreement relates only to UBS and does not affect HealthSouth’s claims against its for...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 24, 2008

Did Lehman Renege on Stock-Loan Deal?

Evergreen Solar Inc., a small maker of solar power panels that had loaned stock to Lehman Brothers before the investment bank filed for bankruptcy, has sued Lehman, charging that it refused to return the shares. The suit also names Barclays PLC, which subsequently bought Lehman.The suit, which a...

By Stephen Taub • Oct. 23, 2008

The Hot Seat: Cox Deflects Blame for Crisis

During a sometimes intense exchange with congressmen on Thursday, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox defended his agency’s actions — and his own legacy — in the years and months leading up to the implosion of U.S. financial markets.“I would want the agency’s economists an...

By Sarah Johnson • Oct. 23, 2008

The SEC in 2008: A Very Good Year?

It was a great year for Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement, according to the SEC. In a fiscal-year-end summary, it notes, for example, that it brought the highest number ever of insider trading cases.And altogether, it took the second-highest number of enforcement actions in agency hi...

By Stephen Taub and Roy Harris • Oct. 22, 2008

U-turn for Kerkorian: He’s Selling Ford Stake

Kirk Kerkorian is seeking the exit ramp for his investment in Ford Motor, suggesting he will move his holdings back to hotel-casinos and oil and gas.Tracinda Corp., the 91-year-old billionaire’s investment vehicle, said in a press release and a regulatory filing that on Monday he sold 7.3 million...

By Stephen Taub and Roy Harris • Oct. 21, 2008