U.S. Seeks To Extradite 3 Ex-Credit Suisse Bankers Accused Of Fraud in Mozambique

The scandal started with surveillance and tuna fishing, and ended with the cratering of Mozambique's credit rating. On Thursday, three ex-Credit Suisse Group AG bankers were arrested in London and face possible extradition to the U.S. on charges related to bribery of officials in Mozambique.

U.S. Justice Department prosecutors say the bankers, along with the former finance minister of Mozambique and an executive at Privinvest Group, an Abu Dhabi-based holding company, committed fraud connected to some $2 billion in loans to finance fake projects meant to benefit Mozambique, according to court documents filed with the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of New York. read more »

Chipotle may have outsmarted itself by blocking thousands of employee lawsuits over wage theft

Fast-food companies accused of nickel-and-diming their workers through wage theft? That’s become almost a dog-bites-man story in today’s workplace environment. The same companies forcing the workers to bring their claims in arbitration rather than taking them to court? Ditto.

Chipotle has been fighting claims of wage theft lodged in federal court by current and former workers since July 2013, with the army of plaintiffs having grown to about 10,000 strong. Back in August, the company won a major victory by persuading a federal judge in Denver to eject more than 2,800 of those workers from the court proceedings because they had signed an agreement to bring their claims only via arbitration.

But was it really a victory? As a result of the judge’s ruling, Chipotle could be facing thousands of individual arbitration cases spread across the country, almost all the expenses of which it may have to shoulder itself — potentially tens of thousands of dollars per case. Already 150 arbitrations have been filed by workers.

Now Chipotle is squealing for mercy. In November, the company pleaded that the tide of arbitrations could cause it “irreparable harm” and asked Judge John L. Kane of Denver, who is presiding over the federal case, to suspend the filings read more »

Rajat Gupta Fails to Have Insider-Trading Conviction Tossed

Former Goldman Sachs director served 19 months in prison

Gupta was convicted in 2012 of passing tips to Raj Rajaratnam

A federal appeals court in Manhattan declined to throw out former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta’s 2012 insider-trading conviction, upholding a lower-court ruling.

Gupta, who was released from prison in 2016 after serving 19 months, argued that the conviction should be thrown out because U.S. prosecutors failed to prove he got a personal benefit for passing tips to his friend, billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. read more »

California utility PG&E faces at least $30 billion fire liability, sources say

The $30 billion in possible liabilities doesn’t include penalties, fines or punitive damages, sources tell CNBC.

The utility is considering bankruptcy protection for some or all of its businesses, according to reports over the weekend.

Shares of the utility tumbled 21 percent in midmorning trading Monday. read more »