Senate vote to weaken Dodd-Frank risks another financial crisis

Political tribalism overrules common sense, even on bank regulation

With the 10th anniversary of Bear Stearns’ collapse coming up this week, leave it to Congress to find the perfect way to mark the occasion — by voting for another financial crisis.

This effectively is what the Senate risked late Wednesday in approving, by a vote of 67 to 31, a revision of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that weakens federal oversight of banks with up to $250 billion in assets.

Sold as a softening of regulations hurting community banks (whose real problem is that bigger competitors provide mortgages, credit cards, and other products and services for less), the Senate bill actually favors huge players.

America’s most-hated man, and its golden girl

Martin Shkreli was the most hated man in America, and Elizabeth Holmes was its golden girl. Maybe that explains why he’s heading to seven years in jail and a $7.4 million fine when he lost investors almost nothing, and she will pay only $500,000 when she lost them hundreds of millions of dollars. Holmes has also relinquished voting control of her company (along with 18.9 million shares of near-worthless stock) and is barred from heading another public company for 10 years.

The lesson most people online have drawn from the discrepancy between these fallen financiers’ respective crimes and punishments is a simple one: Don’t be a jerk. But there’s a bit more to it than just that. read more »

Federal Appeals Court Denies Camera Exec Demand For Reward

Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeals rejects $2.3 million reward demand from former Redflex executive vice president.

The former executive vice president of Redflex Traffic Solutions did not find a sympathetic ear in the Seventh Circuit US Court of Appeals on Monday. Aaron M. Rosenberg insisted he was owed $2.3 million as a reward for snitching on his colleagues at the Australian red light camera vendor. A three-judge panel slammed the door on that idea.

"In this classic case of chutzpah, Aaron Rosenberg, a former employee of Redflex Traffic Systems Inc, seeks a share of the proceeds his former employer paid the city of Chicago to settle the case against it arising out of the fraud Rosenberg helped perpetrate," Judge William C. Griesbach wrote for the unanimous court. read more »

U.S. Probes Mexico’s Cemex Over Payments Tied to Colombia Project

Cement maker receives federal grand jury subpoena related to plant it is building

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Mexico’s Cemex over payments made by the company related to a cement plant it is building in Colombia to determine whether they violated federal bribery laws.

Cemex, one of the world’s largest cement producers, said in a filing Monday that it had received a federal grand jury subpoena related to the Colombian project, located in the municipality of Maceo. read more »

Google Bans Bitcoin Advertisements in Policy Change

Google is joining Facebook in banning advertising for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Google, the largest provider of digital advertising on the internet, announced on Tuesday that it plans to change its advertising policy for certain financial services, including cryptocurrencies, starting in June. The new restriction would apply both to space on Google’s platforms, like YouTube, and to third-party websites where Google sells advertising space.

Facebook announced in January that it would ban all ads for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in order to stop misleading and deceptive promotions. Together, Google and Facebook account for the majority of advertising on the internet in terms of revenue.

Alabama Sheriff Legally Took $750,000 Meant To Feed Inmates, Bought Beach House

A sheriff in Alabama took home as personal profit more than $750,000 that was budgeted to feed jail inmates — and then purchased a $740,000 beach house, a reporter at The Birmingham News found.

And it's perfectly legal in Alabama, according to state law and local officials.

Alabama has a Depression-era law that allows sheriffs to "keep and retain" unspent money from jail food-provision accounts. Sheriffs across the state take excess money as personal income — and, in the event of a shortfall, are personally liable for covering the gap. read more »

$12 Million to Settle False Claim Act Allegations

TrellisWare Technologies, Inc., a communications company located in San Diego, has agreed to pay $12,177,631.90 to settle civil False Claims Act allegations that it was ineligible for multiple Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) contracts it had entered into with government defense agencies. read more »

Wells Fargo faces sanctions for auto insurance payouts

U.S. regulators are preparing to sanction Wells Fargo for receiving commissions on auto insurance policies it helped force on more than half a million drivers, people with direct knowledge of the probes told Reuters. read more »