Ex-Deutsche Bank traders avoid prison time for Libor scheme

Two former Deutsche Bank AG traders will not serve any prison time for conspiring to manipulate the Libor benchmark interest rate between 2005 and 2011, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, sharply criticizing U.S. prosecutors for treating the two men as “proxy wrongdoers” for a much larger scheme.

Matthew Connolly, who once led Deutsche Bank’s pool trading desk in New York, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan to six months’ home confinement, while Gavin Campbell Black, who worked on the bank’s London desk, was sentenced to nine months’ home confinement, which he will be allowed to serve in England.

The sentence is a setback for U.S. prosecutors in one of the few criminal cases to emerge from a sweeping probe of Libor rigging. The prosecutors had asked the judge to order “substantial” prison time for both men, saying federal guidelines called for close to 10 years, along with a $3 million fine for Connolly and a $2 million fine for Black. read more »

Reckitt inks $700M deal to clear states' probes into Suboxone marketing

After shelling out $1.4 billion this summer to settle a federal probe into its addiction-treatment marketing, Reckitt Benckiser is now looking to wrap up allegations at the state level, too—this time to the tune of $700 million.

Reckitt agreed to settle with New York’s attorney general and five other states that claim its pharma division, spun off in 2014 and rebranded as Indivior, misled doctors on the safety of its Suboxone Film, leading to chronic overprescription of the med. read more »

Two charities to pay $6M to resolve U.S. pharma kickback probe

Two charities will pay $6 million to resolve claims that they operated as pass-throughs for seven pharmaceutical companies to pay kickbacks to Medicare patients using their high-priced medications, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

The settlements with the patient assistance charities Good Days and Patient Access Network Foundation were the first to be reached with foundations linked to an industry-wide probe that has resulted in $840 million in settlements with drugmakers. read more »