The yearly Corruption Perceptions Index just came out. Who got the gold medal?

Curious about the world’s most — and least — corrupt countries? On Wednesday Transparency International, a well-known NGO devoted to global anti-corruption, released its annual scorecard.

TI’s Corruption Perceptions Index shows the United States now sits in 16th place (of 180 territories), with a score of 75 out of 100. That’s a small improvement on the 2016 index in which the United States was 18th with a score of 74.

The CPI is probably the best-known measure of global corruption. The 2017 CPI takes into account 10 surveys and assessments from a range of institutions. The data come predominantly from surveys of business people around the globe. read more »

How a $1.8 Billion Indian Bank Fraud Lasted Seven Years

The story of how India’s biggest bank fraud went undetected for seven years includes an $81 million cyber-heist in neighboring Bangladesh, penny-pinching lenders and a series of missed opportunities.

In 2016, after revelations that hackers had infiltrated the Bangladeshi central bank’s computer systems to siphon off money, its counterpart in India sensed a danger to its own banking system. The Reserve Bank of India reminded all the country’s lenders to ensure their computer networks were properly integrated with Swift, the global system used to transmit payment instructions in the Bangladesh theft.

Unknown to the RBI at the time, a rogue employee at state-owned Punjab National Bank had allegedly been taking advantage of precisely that flaw in the Indian lender’s computer systems for five years, perpetuating a fraud that would eventually balloon to $1.8 billion, according to PNB’s account. read more »

3M settles groundwater lawsuit for $850 million

3M Co. has agreed to give the state of Minnesota $850 million to resolve the biggest environmental lawsuit in the state’s history over the decades-long contamination of groundwater in the east metro area.

On Tuesday, the day that the trial between the state and 3M was set to begin, Attorney General Lori Swanson said the money will be used to clean up contaminated water in the communities that were affected by the perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) used in consumer products like Teflon and Scotchgard that were dumped for years at four sites in Washington County. The agreement provides money for improved drinking water infrastructure, sustainability and natural resource projects. read more »

SEC Charges Former Bitcoin-Denominated Exchange and Operator With Fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a former bitcoin-denominated platform and its operator with operating an unregistered securities exchange and defrauding users of that exchange.  The SEC also charged the operator with making false and misleading statements in connection with an unregistered offering of securities.

The SEC alleges that BitFunder and its founder Jon E. Montroll operated BitFunder as an unregistered online securities exchange and defrauded exchange users by misappropriating their bitcoins and failing to disclose a cyberattack on BitFunder’s system that resulted in the theft of more than 6,000 bitcoins. The SEC also alleges that Montroll sold unregistered securities that purported to be investments in the exchange and misappropriated funds from that investment as well.

“We allege that BitFunder operated unlawfully as an unregistered securities exchange.  Platforms that engage in the activity of a national securities exchange, regardless of whether that activity involves digital assets, tokens, or coins, must register with the SEC or operate pursuant to an exemption.  We will continue to focus on these types of platforms to protect investors and ensure compliance with the securities laws,” said Marc Berger, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. read more »