Posts filed under 'Banks'
August 14th, 2006
Buttoning up white-collar cases (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
When Jack Dodds left the U.S. Attorney’s Office for a big Philadelphia law firm in 1993, he joined two other former prosecutors here and one in Washington in a nascent white-collar defense unit.
Today, there are about 50 lawyers in that unit in offices across the nation and in Paris, and they are busy - helping companies and executives enmeshed in investigations of everything from accounting fraud and health-care violations to price-fixing and insider trading.
But Morgan, Lewis & Bockius L.L.P. is not the only firm enjoying a burst in business in this specialized area of criminal defense: A new era of increased law-enforcement scrutiny of white-collar crime has triggered a boom across the country for defense lawyers who know what to do when FBI agents walk into a business with a grand-jury subpoena.
August 9th, 2006
Scotland’s corporate fraud figures reach record £47m (Edinburgh Evening News)
SERIOUS corporate fraud in Scotland hit a record £47 million over the first-half of 2006 - more than double the £18m rip-off seen over the whole of 2005, KPMG’s latest Forensic Fraud Barometer showed today.
July 23rd, 2006
The Parmalat fraud has generated too little reform (Financial Times)
Parmalat shareholders will tomorrow elect a new board of directors, signalling the revival of the Italian maker of milk, yoghurts and fruit juices less than two years after its collapse in Europe’s biggest corporate fraud. The ripple effect, however, is likely to be felt for years as regulators, banks, auditors and politicians grapple with an uncomfortable question: has enough action been taken to prevent another Parmalat?
July 16th, 2006
An American court is the right place for the NatWest Three (The Sunday Times)
Three former NatWest employees extradited from Britain were bailed on Friday by a court in Texas on charges related to the Enron affair. The relevant law, the Extradition Act 2003, is deficient and should be changed but that is not reason enough to stay their trial. They are a bad example of the act’s failings since there is a clear case for them to answer, and in America. The Enron scandal, one of the biggest frauds in history, ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people. No British court found in favour of the trio’s plea to stay at home.
Britain is widely regarded as liberty hall to financial malpractice, as its auction houses long knew to their advantage. Yet Britain’s treatment of foreigners in its legal system is a disgrace, holding them in prison for long periods without trial and jailing 500 West Indian women, almost all first offenders, for being dupes of Jamaican drug dealers. Britain can hardly criticise American courts on these grounds. Nor do most of these people have “pro bono†public relations firms depicting them as humble citizens with tear-stained families. They have no costly lawyers or sudden parliamentary concern or “white-collar crime†epithets to launder their case. They cannot cry “civis Britannicus sum†and work Fleet Street’s financial pages into a lather of righteous indignation.
July 2nd, 2006
The SmartLogik Action Group thoroughly endorses the UKSA initiative to get full shareholder rights for shareholders in nominee accounts. Please try to support the demonstration taking place outside the Houses of Parliament on 6th July (see the post below). SmartLogik Action Group is affiliated to UKSA, so go for it!
We support this UKSA initiative because we have direct experience of how difficult it is to make contact with shareholders in nominee accounts. Despite a concerted effort in 2004, it was only possible to persuade a few nominees to pass on information to their shareholder clients. We estimate that there are literally thousands of SmartLogik shareholders in nominee accounts. Since the nominees (banks, etc.) do not have to pass information on to them, these people probably have no idea that there is an action taking place on their behalf. This has had the effect of significantly reducing the funding available to us - less action group members, less funding.
In view of the huge profits being made by the banks through irresponsible lending - did you see Panorama on BBC1 tonight, “The Money Trap” - we believe it is time for them to stop using cost as an excuse for not giving full shareholder rights to shareholders in nominee accounts. They have to do it in the USA, Canada and Australia, so why shouldn’t British shareholders also have these rights? We are a democracy, aren’t we?
March 7th, 2006
UKSA: March / April Newsletter
Click on the above link to see the March / April 2006 newsletter from the UK Shareholders’ Association. It contains an update on the campaign to improve shareholder rights for shareholders in nominee accounts and other interesting information for the private investor.
March 3rd, 2006
Corporate Governance Conference
Overview
A year on from the London Stock Exchange’s last conference, the world of corporate governance continues to generate controversy and spark debate. The 3rd annual Corporate Governance Conference will focus on the latest developments in this ever changing regulatory environment on both a UK and global level.
Keynote speaker: Sir Christopher Hogg, Chairman of Financial Reporting Council
This conference is sponsored by www.linklaters.com
The conference will be practical and interactive with key speakers from both the regulatory and corporate fields. Topics will include a review of the Turnbull report, a discussion on the future architecture of UK Corporate Governance and the opportunities of cross-border collaboration. The role and impact of shareholder activism on achieving good governance is also explored in terms of potential legislation and the key challenges for shareholders.
February 11th, 2006
The specter of the Enron bankruptcy has left two lasting legacies: litigation and corporate governance. Whether these issues have been a benefit or a liability continues to be debated.
“The pig may have moved through the python,” said Joseph Grundfest, director of the Class Action Clearinghouse at the Stanford Law School and a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The clearinghouse’s report on litigation shows that the number of securities fraud class actions filed in 2005 declined to 176, down more than 17 percent from the previous year.
“Two factors are likely responsible for the decline. First, lawsuits arising from the dramatic boom and bust of U.S. equities in the late 1990s and early 2000s are now largely behind us. Second, improved governance in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom frauds may have reduced the actual incidence of fraud,” said Grundfest
February 11th, 2006
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Feb. 10, 2006–Companies with the poorest earnings quality and corporate governance underperformed the SandP 500 Index by 11% in 2005, according to a study by RateFinancials Inc., a New York-based independent risk research firm that evaluates the financial reporting of publicly held companies.
Using the firm’s propriety methodology, RateFinancials has identified more than 50 companies whose financial statements should give investors pause for concern. The companies range in size from automakers General Motors and Ford to Jupiter Media and Helen of Troy. The firm’s ratings are heavily based on quality and transparency of earnings disclosures and corporate governance.
“We continue to establish a strong correlation between poor stock performance and companies with questionable earnings quality,” said Victor Germack, founder and president of RateFinancials. “Investors who choose to ignore these warning signs have a high probability of sustaining losses.”
February 9th, 2006
Getting More Truth Is First Step to Fix This, Says Shareholder Activist
PALMETTO BAY, Fla., Feb 7 /PRNewswire/ — Greed rules corporate America, says Gunther Karger. Power-hungry Washington tells us the economy is strong while skyrocketing energy costs suck disposable income from our wallets nearly bankrupting our transportation industry.
Americans must dig out more truth and reality from corporate and government leaders to reduce our risks, says Karger, retired executive and shareholder advocate, in his new book “Wall Street and Government Fraud” (Discovery Group, $14.95) available online including on http://www.guntherkarger.com . He tells us to heed that old Russian Proverb “When money speaks, truth keeps silent.”
Comment from SmartLogik Action Group: Could this equally apply to the UK?
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