Whistleblowers: Snitches or heroes?

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Whistleblowers have met with ambivalence throughout the history of whistle-blowing — and that history is a long one. Policies enabling the rank and file to expose wrongdoing by people in power have been in place since Beowulf battled Grendel. “Qui tam” provisions — short for the Latin phrase “qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur,” meaning “He who sues on behalf of our Lord the King and on his own behalf” — date as far back as the early Middle Ages. read more »

False Claims Act applies to banks seeking Fed emergency loans - 2nd Circ

REUTERS

A federal appeals court on Thursday revived a whistleblower lawsuit against Wells Fargo & Co after concluding the False Claims Act can be used to sue companies who defraud the Federal Reserve System’s emergency lending facilities.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging the bank and Wachovia Corp, now owned by Wells Fargo, during the 2008 financial crisis misrepresented their financial condition to obtain emergency loans from Federal Reserve Banks. read more »

Flash Crash: Definition, Examples, and Implications

YAHOO FINANCE

A flash crash occurs when electronic securities trading systems trigger a dramatic drop in price and rebounds within minutes. While flash crash occurrences are happening more often, many investors still don’t understand what causes them. read more »

Facebook agrees to provide additional documents in California AG data privacy probe

REUTERS

Facebook Inc has agreed to turn over additional documents after the California state attorney general’s office went to court earlier this month to compel the social media firm to comply with requests for information in its privacy investigation.

In July, Facebook agreed to pay a record-breaking $5-billion fine to resolve a Federal Trade Commission probe into its privacy practices and said it would will boost safeguards on user data. read more »