Trial of four former Barclays executives begins

Fraud charges relate to multibillion-pound rescue of bank by Qatar in 2008

Four former Barclays executives have appeared in court charged with fraud in relation to the multibillion-pound rescue of the bank by Qatar during the 2008 financial crisis.

John Varley, the former chief executive of Barclays, is the first bank boss in the world to face a jury trial over alleged crimes during the global financial crisis a decade ago. read more »

McKinsey & Company Is Again Accused of Misdeeds in Bankruptcy Case

McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm whose conduct in bankruptcy cases has already drawn the attention of two judges, was accused before a third on Tuesday of improperly receiving and concealing payments from a client on the verge of bankruptcy. This raised the prospect that the judge overseeing the case could order the return of tens of millions of dollars in fees earned by the consulting company.

Signs that something could be wrong at the client company, SunEdison, began to surface after its board hired an outside firm to investigate unrelated employee claims that managers were misstating cash flows. The outside company, FTI Consulting, described an email exchange between a McKinsey consultant and a SunEdison executive, discussing how McKinsey was going to be paid for the work it had already done for the company.

Ultimately, there was an agreement that McKinsey would not keep billing SunEdison itself — instead, it would call back its unpaid bills and redirect them to four solar-energy projects that SunEdison had set up for various customers. But there was a problem: McKinsey had not done any work for them. read more »

Deutsche faces questions from authorities investigating Danske

Deutsche Bank said on Wednesday it had received requests for information from regulators and law enforcement agencies around the world that are investigating a money laundering scheme involving Danske Bank.

The statement came in response to a Bloomberg report that said the U.S. Federal Reserve was investigating Deutsche Bank’s role in the Danske scandal. read more »

E.U. Fines Mastercard $650 Million Over Fees Merchants Were Forced to Pay

By preventing retailers from paying the lowest payment-processing fees possible, the credit card company hurt sellers and consumers alike, antitrust regulators said.

The European Commission has fined Mastercard 571 million euros, or around $650 million, for breaching antitrust rules by raising payment-processing fees artificially, leading to higher prices for retailers and consumers.

The penalty, announced on Tuesday after a six-year investigation by European antitrust regulators, involves the fees banks charge merchants when purchases are made with credit cards. read more »

Walgreens agrees to pay $269 million to U.S. in fraud accord

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. agreed to pay $269.2 million to settle U.S. claims that the drugstore chain defrauded a federally-funded health-care program over insulin drugs and a consumer-discount initiative.

The two settlements, announced Tuesday, cover allegations over improper billing. In the first one, the company agreed to pay $209.2 million to resolve claims it billed Medicare, Medicaid and other programs for hundreds of thousands of insulin pens it distributed to people who didn't need them. In the second, Walgreens said it would pay $60 million for overbilling Medicaid by not disclosing lower drug prices it offered in a discount program. read more »