FDA's opioids adviser accuses agency of having 'direct' link to crisis

Exclusive: head of Food and Drug Administration’s opioid advisory team says officials are manipulating process to benefit big pharma

The Food and Drug Administration is sacrificing American lives by continuing to approve new high-strength opioid painkillers, and manipulating the process in favor of big pharma, according to the chair of the agency’s own opioid advisory committee.

Dr Raeford Brown told the Guardian there is “a war” within the FDA as officials in charge of opioid policy have “failed to learn the lessons” of the epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people over the past 20 years and continues to claim about 150 lives a day.

Brown accused the agency of putting the interests of narcotics manufacturers ahead of public health, most recently by approving a “terrible drug”, Dsuvia, in a process he alleged was manipulated. read more »

The banker bros who bankrupted Mozambique

"50 million chickens."

This is how kickbacks, destined for Mozambican government officials, were described by one of the co-conspirators in an international corruption scandal that centred around a $2bn project to build shipyards and tuna trawlers in Mozambique.

Make no mistake though, the kickbacks would not be paid in poultry. Instead $50m in hard currency would be deposited into a series of bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Spain.

This is according to the US Department of Justice which filed an indictment in December in a court in New York. read more »

Barclays bosses hid £322m in Qatar fees in 2008, court told

Executive claimed bank was ‘basically dead’ without investment, says UK’s SFO’s barrister

Barclays bosses paid Qatar hundreds of millions of pounds in “secret” fees in order to secure billions of investment without which the British bank would be “basically dead”, a court was told on Thursday.

The first criminal trial investigating bank bosses’ behaviour during the 2008 financial crisis heard on Thursday that the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund had Barclays “by the balls”, leading executives to pay £322m in “hidden” payments to Qatar. read more »

‘Exhibit A’: How McKinsey Got Entangled in a Bribery Case

The consultancy’s report became key evidence in a battle over the extradition of a powerful Ukrainian oligarch charged in a scheme to help Boeing.

Boeing was in a tight spot. Just as it was preparing to roll out its innovative 787 Dreamliner — the plane that was supposed to lead the aircraft manufacturer into the future — a shortage of strong but lightweight titanium parts threatened production.

With titanium prices rising and delivery dates looming, Boeing knew it needed help, so in 2006 it did what many companies do when faced with vexing problems: It turned to McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm with the golden pedigree, purveyor of “best practices” advice to businesses and governments around the world.

Boeing asked McKinsey to evaluate a proposal, potentially worth $500 million annually, to mine titanium in India through a foreign partnership financed by an influential Ukrainian oligarch.

McKinsey says it advised Boeing of the risks of working with the oligarch and recommended “character due diligence.” Attached to its evaluation was a single PowerPoint slide in which McKinsey described what it said was the potential partner’s strategy for winning mining permits. It included bribing Indian officials. read more »