Mondelez in $13 million SEC settlement tied to India payments

Mondelez International Inc agreed to pay $13 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges that its Cadbury unit violated a federal anti-bribery law through efforts to expand a chocolate plant in Baddi, India.

In a statement on Monday, Mondelez said it was pleased to reach the civil settlement, in which it neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

The accord resolves charges that Mondelez violated the internal controls and books-and-records provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. read more »

CBI brings ‘evidence’ from US in Rs 1,350 crore Embraer deal probe

NEW DELHI: Investigating kickbacks in the $208million (Rs1,350crore) Embraer aircraft deal, a Central Bureau of Investigation team recently collected crucial documents from the United States, where its department of justice is probing Embraer's alleged violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Top CBI sources said that a team had recently gone to the US to collect evidence on Embraer which could be useful in proving the corruption charges in the deal signed in India. "The documents are now being scrutinised," said the officer.

The agency is also in touch with Brazilian authorities to seek information about the aerospace conglomerate, alleged middleman Vipin Khanna and route of alleged 'bribe' payments. read more »

Ex-Visium hedge fund manager to face trial on U.S. fraud charges

A former portfolio manager at Visium Asset Management LP is scheduled to face trial on U.S. charges stemming from an investigation that led to the New York-based hedge fund's closure last year.

Jury selection is set to begin on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court in the case of Stefan Lumiere, Visium founder Jacob Gottlieb's former brother-in-law, who is accused of engaging in a scheme to falsely inflate the value of securities in a bond fund.

The trial follows a criminal probe that prompted the $8 billion investment firm's wind-down and charges against three others, including Sanjay Valvani, a Visium portfolio manager who committed suicide in June after being accused of insider trading. read more »

Whistleblower case against Express Scripts dismissed

A federal judge in Delaware has dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit accusing pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions Inc, now part of Express Scripts Holding Co, of taking kickbacks from AstraZeneca PLC to promote its drugs, finding the case was barred by earlier, similar lawsuits.

U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews ruled Thursday that the lawsuit must be dismissed because a similar whistleblower lawsuit was pending in 2011 when it was filed, even though that lawsuit targeted only AstraZeneca and not Medco, and because the alleged scheme was disclosed in a pair of still earlier whistleblower cases against Medco and AstraZeneca read more »

Former Vice President of Publicly Traded Company Charged with Orchestrating $100 Million Securities Fraud Scheme

A former vice president of U.S. operations at a now-defunct publicly traded Canadian oil-services company was indicted with orchestrating a scheme to fraudulently inflate the company’s reported revenue by approximately $100 million. read more »

$11.6 Million in Sanctions for Forex Fraud Scheme

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) obtained judgments against each of the Defendants and Relief Defendants in this fraudulent, off-exchange foreign currency (forex) scheme involving misappropriation of customer funds and false statements to customers to conceal the fraud. The Orders impose permanent registration and trading bans against the Defendants and order the Defendants to pay over $11.6 million in sanctions and the Relief Defendants to disgorge a total of $760,375 of ill-gotten gains. read more »

Supreme Court rejects Dow Chemical bid for $1 billion tax deduction claim

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Dow Chemical's bid to revive its claim to more than $1 billion in tax deductions based on partnerships the company entered into that lower courts said were created primarily to avoid tax liability and had no legitimate business purpose. read more »

'Zombie' Whistleblower, Denied Award for Tip, Takes SEC to Court

They are called “zombie” whistleblowers—tipsters who came forward to federal regulators before the Wall Street reform laws of 2010 and then return to try to reap the benefits of a bounty program created by the postcrisis reforms.

Those award applications have been dead on arrival, the tips deemed to have come too early to be eligible for an award under rules set by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Dodd-Frank Act.

But that hasn’t stopped those whistleblowers from pressing their claims—beyond the SEC—for an award. read more »