. . . American-style
The man with the $6,000 shower curtain – former chairman and chief executive of Tyco Dennis Kozlowski – is on trial with his former finance director for stealing $600m of company cash.
US domestic goddess Martha Stewart was indicted for obstruction of justice. She also faces civil charges for making false statements related to sales of ImClone stock. The company’s boss, Sam Waksall , was her daughter’s former partner. He is serving seven years for insider dealing.
Oklahoma filed criminal fraud charges against former WorldCom chief executive Bernie Ebbers and five others.
US federal authorities rounded up 300 illegal employees at Wal- Mart stores across 21 states. Agents also raided the company’s headquarters, looking for evidence that top executives knew of the employees’ status.
The former chief energy trader at Merrill Lynch, Daniel Gordon , was alleged to have embezzled $43m in what would be the biggest theft by a single employee from a bank.
Nigel Potter , chief executive of dog racing group Wembley, stepped down in September to fight a $4.5m bribery charge in Rhode Island.
The FBI filed charges against 48 Wall Street foreign exchange traders after finding fraud and corruption “at every level” of the forex markets.
. . . in Europe
BAE Systems dismissed allegations that it had endorsed the use of government money to “entertain” Saudi military officials, insisting it always acted within the laws of the UK.
The Serious Fraud Office began investigating former Iceland supermarkets boss Malcom Walker ‘s sale of pounds 13m of shares weeks before it emerged that the company’s strategy had gone awry and Iceland was heading for huge losses.
Jon Johannesson , chief executive of the Icelandic retail investment group Baugur and new owner of Hamleys toy store, was accused of failing to pay for the services of escort girls hired to make business hospitality events on his 62ft Florida boat go with a swing. A settlement was reached.
Mutual funds in the US and unit trusts in Britain have always had a fine reputation. But in September New York attorney general and scam-buster Eliot Spitzer revealed that hedge funds might have been skimming off other investors’ profits. Spitzer launched an investigation, then the securities and exchange commission followed suit. In Britain, the Financial Services Authority also woke up to the problem.
The London Stock Exchange took the unprecedented step of issuing a statement to reject “outrageous, totally unfounded and offensive slurs” about the private life of its chief executive Clara Furse
The Financial Services Authority expanded its investigation into the collapse of split capital investment trusts , involving 21 firms.
Five former executives of the condoms and corn plasters group SSL International were charged with fraud after a two-year SFO investigation.
