fraud investigation

The theme for Thursday is big players adjusting to a changing world: Citigroup is shutting down a major hedge fund it used for soon-to-be-banned proprietary trading, Goldman has been subpoenaed over its role in the subprime mortgage crisis, and OPEC is thinking that it might need to pump more oil.

Alan Hevesi, the former comptroller of New York state, has pled guilty to corruption charges that he accepted campaign money and gifts from a California venture capitalist in exchange for directing pension-fund money to the donor's firm.

A new report says Wall Street insiders who tip off authorities about securities fraud may end up with big rewards. But will the new system work as intended or just gum up the works with frivolous claims while scamsters go about their business?

In an attempt to recover more than $30 million from Bernie Madoff's family and the family businesses, a court appointed trustee filed three new lawsuits in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Thursday,

The New York attorney general's office has launched what it's calling a "major fraud investigation" into whether life insurance companies are putting clients' money into potentially risky accounts to earn higher interest for themselves.

After a five-year investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, computer maker Dell agreed to pay a $100 million settlement to end civil charges of fraudulent accounting. The agency accuses Dell of pumping up its reported profits with undisclosed payments from Intel.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general, H. David Kotz, says he's expanding his investigation into the agency's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs to include the timing of the settlement, which came the same day as financial reform approval.

Dell is close to a finalizing a deal with the SEC over an accounting scandal, which would include founder and CEO Michael Dell facing allegations of fraud through negligence. Dell, however, is expected to remain as CEO and chairman of the company he founded.

Proliferating probes into Wall Street's activities don't seem to be hindering big banks' ability to make huge profits -- the big banks just ran up a 61 day streak of profitable days. Since profits are what they're all about, perhaps they don't mind that the financial reform lobbying battle is trending against them -- with Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) the latest to call for getting even tougher.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has ordered a Baltimore-area business to stop promising investors profits and use of an apartment for a year -- or a car -- if they bought into its program. The Attorney General office's securities division investigation alleges that through public...