Picassos, a glass piano and missing billions: scandal of 1MDB reaches court

It is known as the “largest kleptocracy case in the world”, a tangled tale of Hollywood celebrities, Malaysian politicians, luxury yachts, Picasso paintings, power and mind-boggling amounts of stolen money.

On Tuesday the latest chapter begins in a corruption scandal that not only saw billions of dollars of Malaysian state money disappear, but also entangled Leonardo Di Caprio, Paris Hilton and Miranda Kerr; illicitly funded two Hollywood films and prime Manhattan real estate and dragged the reputation of one of the world’s biggest investment banks into the mud. In a Kuala Lumpur court, the former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak will stand trial for his alleged role in the 1MDB saga and what prosecutors will say were elaborate attempts to cover it up. read more »

KPMG Ex-Partner Goes on Trial in ‘Steal the Exam’ Scandal

Prosecutors say an effort to help the Big Four accounting firm look better to its regulator broke the law

A criminal trial that starts Monday may shed more light on a high-profile scandal at KPMG LLP: an effort to help the Big Four accounting firm look better to its regulator that prosecutors say broke the law.

David Middendorf, a former high-ranking partner at KPMG, is charged with participating in a scheme to improperly obtain confidential information about which of KPMG’s audits the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board planned to review in its annual inspections of the firm. read more »

Atlanta attorney sentenced to 15 years for embezzling millions

An Atlanta attorney who defrauded his law firm out of tens of millions of dollars has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.

Nathan Hardwick IV, a partner with Atlanta-based real estate law firm Morris Hardwick Schneider, was convicted in October of wire fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to a federally insured financial institution.

A federal jury found the 53-year-old had embezzled $26 million from firm accounts and used much of the money to feed his gambling habits and support a lavish lifestyle. read more »

Hedge fund founder gets 30 months in prison in bribery case

Murray Huberfeld was sentenced to 30 months in prison in connection with the transfer of $60,000 prosecutors said was used as a bribe.

Huberfeld, 57, who founded Platinum Partners hedge fund, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in connection with the transfer of $60,000 that prosecutors said was used to bribe Norman Seabrook, the former president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, to invest tens of millions in Platinum.

In all, the union lost $19 million of its $20 million investment with Platinum. As much as $15 million was from a retirement benefits program funded by the City of New York that invests money for correction officers’ retirements. read more »

Former CEO says Insys founder pushed for higher doses of opioid

A pharmaceutical tycoon whose company started selling a new opioid painkiller in 2012 was disgusted with the product launch, telling underlings that doctors weren’t prescribing high enough dosages to keep patients on the addictive drug, according to a key prosecution witness in the mogul’s criminal trial.

In his first day on the witness stand in US District Court in Boston, former Insys Therapeutics chief executive Michael Babich said John N. Kapoor decried the rollout of the drug Subsys as the “worst [expletive] launch in pharmaceutical history” because patients stopped using it after only a few months.

A federal prosecutor asked Babich whether Kapoor expressed a view on why patients weren’t staying on the under-the-tongue fentanyl spray. Babich said, “Because they’re starting on too low of a dose.” read more »

Miami Beach healthcare mogul ‘sold his own patients like cattle,’ jurors are told

Former Miami Beach healthcare mogul Philip Esformes, 50, faced a federal jury Tuesday in the first day of one of the biggest Medicare fraud cases of all time.

Jurors will decide whether Esformes led a 10-year conspiracy to bribe doctors to funnel patients to his 16 South Florida nursing homes and then bill the federal government for services the patients never needed or never received through Medicare and Medicaid.

The government claims the scheme amounted to $1 billion in fraud, including $450 million false claims to Medicare and Medicaid, of which Esformes personally pocketed $36 million through a network of 256 bank accounts. Lawyers for Esformes say he’s a businessman, wholly unaware of which services are medically necessary or not, and that the case is nothing more than an insurance dispute with the federal government.

In her opening statement, Elizabeth Young, a federal prosecutor from the criminal fraud division of the Justice Department, described a “rinse and repeat” scheme in which Esformes would cycle patients through his facilities, billing Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years. read more »

Opioid crisis protesters target New York's Guggenheim over Sackler family link

Demonstrators call on museum to refuse donations from the owners of OxyContin

US art photographer and activist Nan Goldin brought the Guggenheim Museum in New York to a standstill on Saturday night as thousands of fake prescriptions were dropped into the atrium to protest against the institution’s acceptance of donations from the family who owns the maker of OxyContin – the prescription painkiller at the root of America’s opioids crisis.

Tourists and locals gawped in confusion as Goldin and fellow demonstrators began chanting criticism of the Sackler family, who owns Purdue Pharma. The activists handed out fake pill bottles as sheets of paper fluttered down inside the landmark building. read more »

Wall Street’s Biggest Traders Are Building Their Own Exchange

The goal with the proposed Members Exchange may be to pressure existing operators to lower their fees.

Does the U.S. need another stock exchange? There’s no shortage of places to trade: Nasdaq, Cboe Global Markets, and Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s NYSE division each run multiple public exchanges, and there are dozens of private markets housed inside banks. Even so, a group of Wall Street trading titans has announced plans for a platform that it’s calling the Members Exchange. And despite the crowded field, there’s a good chance it could take off—after all, the owners likely will be among the customers. read more »