Boeing’s 737 Max May Stay Grounded Until 2020, WSJ Says

Boeing Co.’s 737 Max may stay grounded until early 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported, months later than the guidance the planemaker is privately providing customers for resolving a software issue that surfaced last month.

The plane is expected to start flying again in January 2020 “under the latest scenario,” the Journal said, citing unidentified sources within the Federal Aviation Administration and pilot-union leaders. read more »

Facebook $5 Billion U.S. Privacy Settlement Approved by FTC

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved a record privacy settlement against Facebook Inc. requiring the social-media company to pay about $5 billion to resolve an investigation stemming from the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

The FTC’s settlement was approved by a vote of 3-2, according to two people familiar with the matter. It caps a probe that opened in March 2018 after news that Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign, obtained user data from a researcher who created a personality quiz app on the social network.

The FTC’s settlement, the largest privacy fine in the agency’s history, marks the most significant action yet against Facebook over a series of mishaps that have compromised users’ data and sent the company reeling from one crisis to another. read more »

Reckitt Benckiser's $1.4bn settlement over Suboxone verges on the farcical

The UK company may have avoided a day in court, but its claims of innocence will never be tested

One can say it is entirely logical for the board of Reckitt Benckiser to write a cheque for $1.4bn (£1.1bn) to end US authorities’ investigation into how opioid treatment Suboxone Film was marketed by a former subsidiary. One can also call the outcome ridiculous.

The logical aspect lies in the commercial opportunity to make a serious legal headache go away with no admission of wrongful conduct. Fighting the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in front of a jury would be a high-risk strategy for a UK company, especially against the backdrop of an opioid crisis in the US that has claimed 200,000 lives. The detail that Suboxone was meant to be treating addiction could become lost in the anger.

For Reckitt, a conviction would have been doubly dangerous, because other products in its portfolio, notably an infant milk formula, would have been thrown off US government-backed healthcare programmes. So, yes, the board is entitled to say a settlement with the DoJ and FTC, covering the 2010-14 period, is “in the best interests of the company and its shareholders”. Investors thought so, and the shares rose by 2.5%. Incoming chief executive Laxman Narasimhan will arrive to a cleaner in-tray. read more »

Nomura to Pay Misled Bond Customers $25 Million to Settle SEC Charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission today instituted two related enforcement actions against Nomura Securities International Inc., which has agreed to repay approximately $25 million to customers for its failure to adequately supervise traders in mortgage-backed securities.  

The SEC orders find that Nomura bond traders made false and misleading statements to customers while negotiating sales of commercial and residential mortgage-backed securities. read more »

$32m stolen from Tokyo cryptocurrency exchange in latest hack

Bitpoint suspends services after apparent theft of virtual monies including bitcoin

A cryptocurrency exchange in Tokyo has halted services after it lost $32m (£25m) in the latest apparent hack on volatile virtual monies.

Remixpoint, which runs the Bitpoint Japan exchange, discovered that about ¥3.5bn in various digital currencies had gone missing from under its management.

The apparent hack emerged after an error appeared in the firm’s outgoing funds transfer system on Thursday night. It said the cryptocurrency went missing from a so-called hot wallet. read more »