Financial industry

Swiss tax whistleblower to give WikiLeaks new data: report

Topics: 
Wikileaks, Financial industry
Rating: 
0

Emma Thomasson – January 16, 2011

A former Swiss private banker who was one of the first whistleblowers to use WikiLeaks by publishing internal bank documents on the site has pledged to hand over new data on offshore bank account holders on Monday, a newspaper said.

Rudolf Elmer, who was fired from Julius Baer in 2002 and who goes on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for breaching bank secrecy, will hand over more data to WikiLeaks at a news conference in London, Der Sonntag reported on Sunday.

In Corrupt Global Food System, Farmland Is the New Gold

Topics: 
Corruption, Financial industry, Asia, Africa, Food industry
Rating: 
3

Stephen Leahy – January 13, 2011

UXBRIDGE, Canada — Famine-hollowed farmers watch trucks loaded with grain grown on their ancestral lands heading for the nearest port, destined to fill richer bellies in foreign lands. This scene has become all too common since the 2008 food crisis.

Food prices are even higher now in many countries, sparking another cycle of hunger riots in the Middle East and South Asia last weekend. While bad weather gets the blame for rising prices, the instant price hikes of recent times are largely due to market speculation in a corrupt global food system.

Securities Enforcement Reform in Canada: If Not Now, When?

Topics: 
White-collar crime, Financial industry, IMET
Rating: 
3

Canadian News Wire – January 13, 2010

CFA Institute's Board Chair calls for effective Canadian securities enforcement to restore the public's trust in capital markets and the investment profession.

Margaret Franklin, CFA, chair of the Board of Governors of CFA Institute today called for fundamental changes to securities enforcement practices in Canada, including an overhaul of the RCMP's Integrated Enforcement Market Teams (IMET).

Facing Threat From WikiLeaks, Bank Plays Defense

Topics: 
USA, Wikileaks, Financial industry
Rating: 
0

Nelson D. Schwartz – January 2, 2011

By the time the conference call ended, it was nearly midnight at Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., but the bank’s counterespionage work was only just beginning.

A day earlier, on Nov. 29, the director of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, said in an interview that he intended to “take down” a major American bank and reveal an “ecosystem of corruption” with a cache of data from an executive’s hard drive. With Bank of America’s share price falling on the widely held suspicion that the hard drive was theirs, the executives on the call concluded it was time to take action.

Rule of law crucial for safe investment

Topics: 
Corruption, Financial industry, Russia
Rating: 
0

Tony Wilson –January 4, 2011

There is a legal issue that many people in Canada, especially those in business, often take for granted. It is appropriate to raise it here, in my first column for 2011, so keep reading. Your business depends on it.

It’s called the rule of law, and it’s more important than anything else you’ll read about leasing, franchising or trademarks in 2011. Whether it relates to you as an individual or to the operation of your business, you’ll only realize how important the rule of law is when it’s not there, and right now, it’s not there in Russia.

Investor speaks out on mine scam

Topics: 
White-collar crime, Financial industry
Rating: 
3

Elizabeth Nolan - December 29, 2010

A local stock trader and financial expert who lost thousands in the Southwestern gold mine scam has called the case one of Canada’s most serious white collar crimes.

Salt Spring resident Ron Martin characterizes himself as being more savvy than the average investor. As the vice president of Ontario’s public services union for many years, he monitored one of the province’s largest pension plans. He’s also traded a lot of stock personally. But like many other perhaps more naive Canadians, Martin was victim to one of the country’s largest-ever investor frauds, allegedly perpetrated by fellow islander John Paterson.

Why Cash Incentives for Whistleblowers Are So Useful Against Control Frauds

Topics: 
USA, Financial crisis, White-collar crime, SEC, Financial industry, Qui tam or False Claims Act
Rating: 
0

William K. Black – December 27, 2010

Marty Robins' December 15, 2010, column "Blow the Whistle on Pointless Whistleblowing" in The Huffington Post opposed the SEC implementing the Dodd-Franks Act's provision that the SEC should develop a system of financial incentives for whistleblowers.

Marty Robins' December 15, 2010, column "Blow the Whistle on Pointless Whistleblowing" in The Huffington Post opposed the SEC implementing the Dodd-Franks Act's provision that the SEC should develop a system of financial incentives for whistleblowers.

Mr. Robins is a former corporate counsel with strongly conservative, anti-regulatory views. His purpose in writing was to enlist support for businesses lobbying the SEC to adopt a weak rule undercutting the Dodd-Frank's whistleblowing provision.

Insider trading continues to gather steam

Topics: 
White-collar crime, Financial industry
Rating: 
0

Chris Sorensen – December 2, 2010

A U.S. investigation into illegal insider trading continues to gather steam amid reports this week that the FBI raided the offices of three hedge funds, one of which has links to an ongoing probe of Galleon Group, described as the largest hedge fund insider trading case ever.

In Canada, meanwhile, the Ontario Securities Commission levelled its own stock- tipping allegations against Mitchell Finkelstein, a lawyer formerly at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, as well as several traders and brokers who allegedly profited from inside information about corporate deals.

Feds expand study of organized crime to ports, stock market

Topics: 
Organized crime, White-collar crime, Financial industry
Rating: 
0

Andrew Mayeda –December 2, 2010

Not to be outdone by the construction sector, Canada's ports and securities markets are getting their own studies on their involvement with organized crime.

The federal department of Public Safety plans to commission separate studies into the vulnerability of ports and securities markets are to organized crime.

Nortel Disabled-Workers Bill Stalled In Canadian Senate

Topics: 
Financial industry
Rating: 
0

Caroline Van Hassel – December 3, 2010

TORONTO (Dow Jones)--Canada's Senate, the upper chamber of parliament, continues to postpone a vote on a proposed law that is intended to prevent long-term disabled workers from being treated as unsecured creditors in corporate liquidations.

Bill S-216, which moves disabled employees up the queue to creditor status, is meant to help 375 Nortel Networks Corp. employees, who suffer from long-term disabilities such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, who will lose their benefits at year's end because of a court-approved former employees' settlement this year.

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