'Dieselgate 2' allegations target European car makers

European Commission claims manufacturers are cheating in two ways to undermine its target of reducing CO2 output

European Union car makers may be submitting "inflated" figures for their vehicles' carbon dioxide emissions to soften future targets for reducing the greenhouse gas, European Commission documents seen by AFP Wednesday show.

Authorities are currently switching over from an older emissions testing procedure known as NEDC to a new one called WLTP.

During the changeover, "emission values officially declared by manufacturers may be inflated", Commission officials wrote to senior members of the European Parliament's environment committee and EU Council president Austria.

Declaring higher emissions values now "would cause an increase of the 2021 WLTP targets ... the targets for 2025 and 2030 would also be weakened," the officials explained. read more »

Police Want the Ability to Control Self-Driving Cars

It seems the number of perplexing regulatory questions relating to self-driving cars are piling up as fast as automakers can create workable prototypes. So will we have it all settled by the time these autonomous vehicles are “street-ready?” A new report suggests – maybe not. read more »

$2.481 Million to Settle Claims Related to USAID Aqaba Schools Project

The Justice Department announced today that Sorensen Gross Construction Company and its corporate vice president, Khalil Saab, have agreed to pay $2.481 million to resolve allegations that they submitted false claims for payment under a construction contract funded by the United States Agency for International Development. read more »

The SEC has thwarted the Winklevoss twins’ dreams of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, again

Federal regulators have again rejected efforts by entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss to launch a bitcoin-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF), which could have allowed supporters of bitcoin to invest in the virtual currency without buying and holding the digital assets directly.

In a 92-page order Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said the company behind the listing effort, Bats BZX Exchange, failed to prove that the bitcoin market would be sufficiently resistant to fraud and manipulation. read more »

'Whistleblower' series to explore Northrop Grumman fraud case

Former Northrop Grumman auditor who successfully sued the defense contractor discusses the case and its effect on his family on an episode of the new CBS series “Whistleblower” that is scheduled to air Friday.

James Holzrichter and test engineer Rex Robinson, who died in 2003, accused Northrop Grumman of fraud at its Rolling Meadows facility in a landmark 1989 lawsuit. Holzrichter, who tracked inventory for the company, says on “Whistleblower” he believed Northrop Grumman was double- or triple-billing expensive parts to the U.S. government and “this was adding up to the tune of millions of dollars.” He said he smuggled copies of documents by taping them to his body to give to federal agents later.

Though it denied wrongdoing, Northrop Grumman paid $134 million in 2005 to resolve claims it overcharged for materials used to make devices for warplanes; inflated costs and misrepresented the progress of a radar jamming device for the B-2 stealth bomber. read more »