Latest Legal News: Finextra Research

Citi duped into $27 million wire transfer fraud

A Nigerian man has been accused of duping Citibank into wiring $27 million in funds from the central Bank of Ethiopa to accounts controlled by fraudsters in Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Cyprus and the United States.

24 February 2009

News/Legal

UK Government moves to enact EU Payment Services Directive

The UK Government has laid before Parliament regulations to implement the EU Payment Services Directive (PSD) into UK legislation.

11 February 2009

News/Legal

Wall Street M&A advisors charged over insider trading

Mergers and acquisitions professionals from UBS and Blackstone Advisory Service have been charged by US authorities with feeding confidential information to an insider trading ring that generated over $11.6 million.

06 February 2009

News/Legal

Morningstar faces Internet espionage suit

NewRiver, a US software provider to the brokerage industry, has filed a lawsuit against Morningstar, alleging the investment research provider unlawfully accessed its Web-based data warehouse.

03 February 2009

News/Legal

Fannie Mae IT contractor indicted for planting malware bomb

A computer programmer fired by Fannie Mae has been indicted for planting a malicious script on the US mortgage firm's servers designed to spread throughout its entire PC network and destroy all data.

30 January 2009

News/Legal

Man claims $175,000 bank error was "gift from God"

A Pennsylvania man who withdrew more than $175,000 that had been mistakenly placed in his account after a bank error, says he thought the money was "a gift from God", according to an Associated Press (AP) report.

23 January 2009

News/Legal

Hackers accused of £229m Sumitomo fraud plot

A gang of thieves broke into the London offices of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and installed keylogging software on computers in a daring plot to steal £229 million, a court has been told.

22 January 2009

News/Legal

Visa Europe says close to EC deal on interchange fees

Visa Europe's CEO Peter Ayliffe says he expects to reach an agreement with the European Commission (EC) over interchange fees charged for cross-border card transactions by the end of the year.

20 January 2009

News/Legal

Judge dismisses Alliance Data suit against Blackstone

A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Alliance Data Systems (ADS) against Blackstone after the private equity group's proposed acquisition of the card processor fell through.

16 January 2009

News/Legal

Back-office Merrill workers file overtime suit

Merrill Lynch, and its new owner Bank of America, are being sued by two back-office derivatives employees who claim they have not been paid overtime owed under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

13 January 2009

News/Legal

EC initiates antitrust case against S&P

The European Commission (EC) has opened formal proceedings against Standard & Poor's (S&P) to look into whether the US firm abused its dominant market position by forcing financial firms to pay for the use of US securities numbering codes when accessing data from third party vendors.

13 January 2009

News/Legal

Banco Santander signs for Norkom AML software

Spain's Banco Santander is set to roll out anti-money laundering software from Dublin-based Norkom Technologies across its AML units.

12 January 2009

News/Legal

TJX breach suspect jailed in Turkey over bank hacks

A Ukrainian man accused by US authorities of involvement in the TJX data breach has been jailed for 30 years in Turkey after being found guilty of hacking the computer systems of 12 banks in the country.

09 January 2009

News/Legal

Satyam chief quits after admitting cooking the books

The founder and chairman of Indian outsourcer Satyam Computer Services, B Ramalinga Raju has resigned after admitting the company's profits have been falsely inflated for several years, leading to a $1 billion hole in the balance sheet.

07 January 2009

News/Legal

Upaid seeks deposition of Satyam executives

Mobile payments firm Upaid has requested depositions from Satyam executives regarding last week's aborted attempt by Satyam to buy up companies related to its chairman, Ramalinga Raju. Upaid claims this was an attempt to siphon cash out of the business in advance of a US Federal Court jury trial scheduled for June 2009, in which Upaid is seeking up to $1 billion in damages for fraud, forgery and breach of contract by the Indian IT giant.

22 December 2008

News/Legal

Dubai police arrest gang over £40m card fraud

Police in Dubai have arrested three men accused of stealing more than Dh223 million (around £40 million) after obtaining credit card information used in online transactions.

16 December 2008

News/Legal

Australian couple charged with ATM explosion

Australian police have arrested a couple in connection with the explosion of a Bank of Queensland cash machine in the city of Brisbane, the latest in a spate of explosive attacks on ATMs in the country.

09 December 2008

News/Legal

Discover alleges Morgan Stanley had secret talks with Visa and MasterCard

In a lawsuit filed against Morgan Stanley, card scheme Discover claims that its former parent engaged in secret talks with its rivals, jeopardising its antitrust case against Visa and Mastercard and forcing it to agree to a lower $2.75 billion settlement than it might otherwise have been able to claim.

05 December 2008

News/Legal

Prosper pays $1 million to settle securities violation

US person-to-person lending exchange Prosper has paid $1 million to US state securities regulators to resolve a probe into the sale of unregistered securities over the site.

02 December 2008

News/Legal

Leader of US fraud ring pleads guilty

The leader of a criminal gang that cost financial institutions over $20 million in losses through card, wire and bank fraud has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, say officials in New York.

27 November 2008