SEC Charges Cognizant and Two Former Executives With FCPA Violation

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation has agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and two of the company’s former executives were charged for their roles in facilitating the payment of millions of dollars in a bribe to an Indian government official.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint alleges that in 2014, a senior government official of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu demanded a $2 million bribe from the construction firm responsible for building Cognizant’s 2.7 million square foot campus in Chennai, India.  As alleged in the complaint, Cognizant’s President Gordon Coburn and Chief Legal Officer Steven E. Schwartz authorized the contractor to pay the bribe, and directed their subordinates to conceal the bribe by doctoring the contractor’s change orders.  The SEC also alleges that Cognizant authorized the construction firm to make two additional bribes totaling more than $1.6 million.  Cognizant allegedly used sham change order requests to conceal the payments it made to reimburse the firm.. read more »

Apple’s insider-trading policy enforcer accused of insider trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission has brought suit against Gene Daniel Levoff, who was Apple's senior director of corporate law until September 2018. Levoff is accused of using his position to make illegal trades of Apple shares.

Levoff was part of Apple's Disclosure Committee—one of the people who could review the company's quarterly financial reports ahead of their publication. The SEC maintains that he used nonpublic information obtained as part of the committee to inform trades he made of Apple shares. For example, in July 2015 he learned that Apple was going to miss analyst estimates for iPhone unit sales. Between July 17 and July 21, when Apple published its quarterly earnings report, he sold nearly his entire holding of Apple stock, totaling nearly $10 million. read more »

Ex-Goldman Banker to Be Extradited to U.S. for 1MDB Charges

Malaysia will extradite former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Roger Ng to the U.S. to face charges linked to troubled state fund 1MDB.

Ng, 46, will be sent to the U.S. pending an order from the Ministry of Home Affairs, according to a decision reached in a Kuala Lumpur court on Friday. He was said to have earlier fought his extradition in November, according to people with knowledge on the matter.

Ng was deputy to Tim Leissner, the former Southeast Asian chairman at Goldman who has pleaded guilty to U.S. charges including conspiring to launder money. The bank itself is preparing to “vigorously defend” against allegations that it submitted false statements to a Malaysian regulator in arranging three bond sales for 1MDB while knowing the money raised would be misappropriated. read more »

Associate of PixarBio founder pleads guilty in fraud scheme

A friend of the controversial founder of a Medford biotech has pleaded guilty to two federal charges in connection with a scheme to defraud investors and manipulate the company’s stock price.

M. Jay Herod, 52, of Cambridge, pleaded guilty Friday to securities fraud and to obstruction of an agency proceeding. The latter related to an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. read more »