Equifax Fallout - FTC Launches Probe, Websites and Phones Jammed With Angry Consumers

In an unusual move, the FTC announced Thursday it had launched a probe into the Equifax data breach, turning up the heat on the credit bureau after it revealed that data on 143 million Americans had been hacked.

"The FTC typically does not comment on ongoing investigations,” Peter Kaplan, acting director of public affairs for the agency, said in a statement. "However, in light of the intense public interest and the potential impact of this matter, I can confirm that FTC staff is investigating the Equifax data breach."

The move by the top consumer watchdog only underscores the severity of the data heist and the importance for consumers to take immediate steps to secure their identities. Experts say the strongest, though not most painless, way to protect yourself after the breach that is to freeze your credit — but the surge in demand has overloaded the credit bureaus' abilities to handle the influx of requests. read more »

ICO stands for Investor Caution Obligatory

Regulators signal alarm at a frenzied investment craze

HERE is the deal. You can buy an entry in a computer ledger issued by a startup company on the basis of an unregulated prospectus. It is called an “initial coin offering” or ICO. But though the ledger entry is called a coin, you cannot spend it in any shop. And whereas the use of the term ICO makes it sound like an IPO (initial public offering), the process whereby a firm lists on a stockmarket, coin ownership does not necessarily get you equity in the company concerned.

This sounds like the kind of bargain that would appeal only to people who reply to e-mails from Nigerian princes offering to transfer millions to their accounts. But ICOs may well be the most popular investment craze since the dotcom boom of 1999-2000; even Paris Hilton, a celebrity heiress, has jumped on the bandwagon. The list of active, upcoming and recent ICOs on the website “ICO alert” covers 31 pages of A4 paper and includes around 600 companies. More than $2bn has been raised in total

There is a serious side to the craze, just as there was with the dotcom boom. The technology that underpins digital currencies—the blockchain—is an important development. This is a secure, decentralised ledger that everyone can inspect but that no single user controls. It seems likely to be adapted for use across the financial system—to record property transactions, for example.

Many ICOs are designed to finance applications that will make use of the blockchain—for trading currencies, lending money or searching for jobs. In some cases, the “coins” can be exchanged for services on the site. In a way, this is like selling air miles in a startup airline; investors can either use the miles for flights or hope they can trade them at a profit. For the business, it is also a way of creating demand for the product they are selling.

But in plenty of cases, an ICO is just a way of raising capital without all the hassle of meeting regulatory requirements, or the burden of paying interest to a bank. Businesses are able to achieve this feat because investors hope that the coins will rise rapidly in value, as has been the case with bitcoin or ethereum, the best-known digital currencies, which have seen stellar gains in the past year. Nothing makes individuals more willing to take risks than the sight of other people getting rich. read more »

Bitcoin Crashes After Chinese Exchange Says It Will Halt Trading

Bitcoin fell for a fifth day, the longest losing streak in more than a year, after one of China’s largest online exchanges said it would stop handling trades by the end of the month amid a government crackdown on cryptocurrencies. read more »

Ex-UBS Trader Accused by U.S. of Manipulating Metals Prices

A former trader at UBS Group AG was charged with conspiracy and fraud over his suspected role in manipulating the price of precious metals. 

Andre Flotron, who worked at the bank in Switzerland and Stamford, Connecticut, is the second person publicly charged in the U.S. investigation into the fixing of gold, silver, platinum and palladium prices. Flotron, a Swiss citizen, was arrested while visiting his girlfriend in New Jersey. He was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, commodities fraud and spoofing. He faces as many as 25 years in prison on the most serious charge.

Flotron, 54, appeared Wednesday in shackles in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, where a judge ordered him held without bail after prosecutors said he might flee to Switzerland. Flotron will be held until he makes an appearance in Connecticut, where the case was filed. The judge also set a Sept. 22 preliminary hearing. read more »

New York Hospital Operator Agrees to Pay $4 Million to Settle Alleged False Claims Act Violations

MediSys Health Network Inc., which owns and operates Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and Flushing Hospital and Medical Center, two hospitals in Queens, New York, has agreed to pay $4 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by engaging in improper financial relationships with referring physicians, the Justice Department announced today.

The settlement resolves allegations that the defendants submitted false claims to the Medicare program for services rendered to patients referred by physicians with whom the defendants had improper financial relationships. These relationships took the form of compensation and office lease arrangements that did not comply with the requirements of the Stark Law, which restricts the financial relationships that hospitals may have with doctors who refer patients to them.

“This recovery should help to deter other health care providers from entering into improper financial relationships with physicians that can taint the physicians’ medical judgment, to the detriment of patients and taxpayers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. read more »