On Tuesday December 21, 2010, 5:56 pm EST
Deutsche Bank to pay over
$550M in fraud probe
NEW YORK (AP) -- Deutsche
Bank admitted criminal wrongdoing and agreed to pay more than $550 million in
connection with its participation in tax shelters that enabled the rich to
temporarily avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. taxes,
authorities announced Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors and the
Justice Department's tax division announced the deal, saying a nonprosecution
agreement requires the bank to continue cooperating and to submit to the
appointment of an independent expert who will review its compliance measures
and ensure it does not help people dodge taxes in the future.
Authorities said the
$533,633,153 payment by the bank will include that amount of taxes and interest
that the Internal Revenue Service was unable to collect from taxpayers from
1996 to 2002 because of the misconduct. It also includes a civil penalty of
more than $149 million.
NY AG sues Ernst &
Young in Lehman probe
NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's
attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday accusing the accounting firm
Ernst & Young of helping the defunct investment bank Lehman Brothers
deceive investors about its financial health.
Attorney General Andrew
Cuomo said that in the seven years leading up to the bank's collapse, Ernst
& Young signed off on an accounting practice that allowed Lehman to keep
billions of dollars in debt off its financial statements.
Fed extends program to ease
Europe debt crisis
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
Federal Reserve extended a program set up earlier this year to ease strains
from the European debt crisis.
The program, which was set to
expire in January, will now run through Aug. 1, the Fed announced on Tuesday.
The Fed is lending dollars
to other central banks in exchange for their currencies. The central banks can
lend those dollars out to banks in their home countries to ease financial
turmoil.
The Fed's "swap"
program was set up in May as fears rose that Greece's debt crisis could engulf
other European countries. European banks need dollars to lend to companies
across the continent. European companies that have operations in the U.S. pay
their employees in dollars and buy raw materials with the U.S. currency.
Moody's warns of possible
Portugal downgrade
MADRID (AP) -- Ratings
agency Moody's warned Tuesday it could downgrade Portugal's public debt because
of uncertain economic growth amid the nation's austerity drive, the high cost
of borrowing on global markets and worries about the banking sector.
Portugal's sovereign credit
rating could be lowered a notch or two from A1, Moody's Investors Service said
in a statement. The agency last week slashed Ireland's rating by five notches
and also warned Spain and Greece of possible downgrades.
Portugal is considered one
of the weakest links in the 16-nation eurozone and fears it could follow Greece
and Ireland in needing a bailout have pushed its borrowing costs sharply
higher. It has been struggling with high debt and low growth since before the
global financial crisis, but the government insists it can resolve its problems
without help.
Crisis-hit Greece gets new
ratings warning
ATHENS, Greece (AP) --
Fitch ratings agency on Tuesday warned of a possible downgrade of Greek bonds,
adding pressure on the government as it debates the 2011 budget in parliament.
It follows similar warnings
from ratings agencies Moody's and Standard and Poor's earlier in December.
A series of ratings
downgrades threw Greece into financial turmoil last year -- and sparked a
crisis for the euro -- after the country's new Socialist government revealed
misreporting of deficit figures that raised concern over Athens' ability to
repay its debts.
TD Bank to buy Chrysler
Financial for $6.3B
TORONTO (AP) --
Toronto-Dominion Bank has agreed to buy Chrysler Financial, the automaker's old
lending arm, from private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP for $6.3
billion.
The deal announced Tuesday
is the latest example of a healthy Canadian bank using their muscle to snap up
U.S. institutions battered by the financial crisis.
NY judge revokes bail for
Bernie Madoff secretary
NEW YORK (AP) -- Bernard
Madoff's former secretary surrendered Tuesday in Florida after a judge revoked
her $5 million bail, saying her access to large amounts of money created
"a very real potential" she could flee.
U.S. District Judge Laura
Taylor Swain rejected the arguments by lawyers for 62-year-old Annette
Bongiorno that her husband should be allowed to post money from his bank
accounts to support a bail package. She surrendered to U.S. marshals in West
Palm Beach, Fla., before the 3 p.m. deadline set by Swain, said Bongiorno's
lawyer, Maurice Sercarz.
Pfizer recalls more bottles
of Lipitor over odor
NEW YORK (AP) -- Drug
developer Pfizer Inc. on Tuesday recalled a batch of 19,000 bottles of the
blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor, citing a consumer complaint about an
"uncharacteristic" odor.
The latest announcement
marks the fourth such recall since August over similar issues. Pfizer said the
bottles were supplied by an outside manufacturer, though it did not identify
the party. It also says health consequences appear to be minimal.
The recall covers the lot
of bottles containing 40-milligram tablets and the company said the odor is
consistent with prior recalls, which have been traced to 2,4,6-tribromoanisole,
a chemical used as a wood preservative. The chemical is often applied to
pallets that are used to transport and store products, but Pfizer said it
prohibits its use in the shipment of its medicines.
Top 10 Business Stories
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
struggling economy was voted the top business story of the year by U.S.
newspaper editors surveyed by The Associated Press. The oil spill in the Gulf
came in second, followed by China's economic rise.
UK offers troops, EU seeks
answers for snow chaos
EU seeks answers for snow
nightmare LONDON (AP) -- The snow was melting off London's streets, but
Heathrow Airport told infuriated passengers it won't restore full service until
Thursday -- five days after a five-inch snowfall turned hundreds of thousands
of holiday plans into a nightmare of canceled flights and painful nights
sleeping on terminal floors.
Travelers' anger boiled
over into politics as Britain's prime minister offered to put troops on
snow-clearing duty and Europe's top transport official threatened tougher
regulation of airports unable to cope with wintry weather.
By The Associated Press
The Dow industrial average
rose 55.03, or 0.5 percent, to close at 11,533.16. The Dow is up 4.8 percent so
far this month.
The S&P 500 index rose
7.52, or 0.6 percent, to close at 1,254.60. The Nasdaq composite rose 18.05, or
0.7 percent, to 2,667.61.
Gasoline rose 2.07 cents to
close at $2.3981 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude oil prices
climbed as well, adding 45 cents to settle at $89.82 a barrel.
In other Nymex trading,
heating oil added 2.69 cents to settle at $2.5164 a gallon and natural gas dropped
17.8 cents to settle at $4.059 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude rose
46 cents to settle at $93.20 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.