'Worth Killing Over' How a Plane Mogul Dodged US Scrutiny

When a Kansas strip-mall bank with possible mob ties folded in the mid-1980s, federal authorities investigated whether a shareholder, Iranian-born aviation magnate Farhad Azima, should face criminal charges.

The probe hit a dead end. Azima, a U.S. citizen, essentially had a stay-out-of-jail-free card because of secretive work he had performed for the U.S. government, a former federal prosecutor involved in the case said. Azima, a gunrunner later tied to the CIA and the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan administration, was never prosecuted.

Over decades, Azima has glided among different worlds, flying weapons to the Balkans, selling spy gear to Persian Gulf nations, dealing with a small Midwest bank and navigating Washington's power circles.

If he enjoyed a loose, informal immunity during those years, it is being tested now. Authorities in the U.S. and abroad are investigating Azima as part of a global corruption case. Specifically, they are examining whether Azima, now 75, paid a kickback to a former United Arab Emirates official to reap the profits from a hotel sale in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Reporter Jay Solomon fired by Wall Street Journal over report of business dealings with source

According to the report, Solomon had been offered a 10 percent stake in a new company by an Iranian-born aviation magnate named Farhad Azima. Solomon told the AP he never “entered into any business dealings” with his source and never intended to. The Journal wouldn’t confirm or deny this part of the report but apparently saw enough to let him go. read more »

Mylan shareholders re-elect board, vote against executive pay

Mylan NV shareholders re-elected the generic drugmaker's board at its annual meeting on Thursday, despite a shareholder campaign to vote down most of the directors in the wake of a scandal related to its high prices for emergency allergy treatment EpiPen. read more »

Opioids, a Mass Killer We’re Meeting With a Shrug

About as many Americans are expected to die this year of drug overdoses as died in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.

For more than 100 years, death rates have been dropping for Americans — but now, because of opioids, death rates are rising again. We as a nation are going backward, and drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. read more »

N.Y. designer pleads guilty in scam tied to ex-U.N. chief's relatives

A New York fashion designer who has called himself the "curator of cool" pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from a bribery case that involves a brother and nephew of former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Self-described arts and fashion consultant and blogger Malcolm Harris, 53, entered his plea to money laundering and wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos in federal court in Manhattan, U.S. prosecutors said.

Harris was charged in January with agreeing to act as a middleman in an international bribery scheme involving a potential $800 million international real estate deal, and then running off with his co-conspirators' money.

Also charged were Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki-sang, who was an executive at South Korean construction firm Keangnam Enterprises Ltd, and Ban Ki-sang's son Joo Hyun "Dennis" Bahn, a real estate broker. read more »