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US paper round-up: Galleon, General Electric, Vivendi
Monday, October 19, 2009 12:11
Category : Uncategorised
The criminal insider trading case against billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam and his Galleon hedge funds represents a significant ramping up of the US commitment to tackle market abuse, says the Financial Times.
The criminal insider trading case against billionaire investor Raj Rajaratnam and his Galleon hedge funds represents a significant ramping up of the US commitment to tackle market abuse, says the Financial Times.
Court documents in the case claim to reveal extensive use of confidential witnesses and the first wiretaps in an insider dealing case. Such tactics are reminiscent of the full-bore approach the US has long used to tackle mobsters and drug gangs but their use is novel in this kind of white-collar crime.
The Wall Street Journal adds that Galleon Group, the hedge-fund firm at the center of the biggest insider-trading case in decades, pushed its traders so hard to get market-moving information that those who failed were frequently berated or pushed out, former employees and people familiar with Galleon said.
General Electric and Vivendi are about $500 million apart in talks over what Vivendi should be paid for its minority stake in stake in television and movie company NBC Universal, according to people familiar with the matter, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Large banks are on the verge of losing a key legislative battle over the shape of financial reform, an unusual setback that reflects the continued political backlash over their role in creating the financial crisis. The House Financial Services Committee is expected to vote Tuesday to let state governments protect bank customers by imposing restrictions that go beyond existing federal laws, according to congressional and industry sources, reports the Washington Post.
A Goldman Sachs executive has been named the first chief operating officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division. The market watchdog agency said Friday that Adam Storch, vice president in Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group, is assuming the new position of managing executive of the SEC division, says USA Today.
Reported vehicle theft has fallen to a 20-year low even as the number of vehicles on the road has doubled, as manufacturers install sophisticated anti-theft technology in cars and police target organized car-theft rings. The FBI estimates 956,846 motor vehicles were stolen in 2008 — 315 cars for every 100,000 people, according to USA Today.
Industry should embrace stronger environmental controls, a leading chemicals manufacturer has urged, as ministers from the world's biggest polluting countries meet in London for the final stages of climate change talks that will culminate in Copenhagen in December. Peter Huntsman, chief executive of Huntsman, told the Financial Times that the US and European Union should act together to raise environmental standards for manufacturing and force global competitors to comply as a condition of access to their markets.
Global demand for business jets, already near a five-year low, is likely to erode further before rebounding slowly in 2011, according to the latest forecast by Honeywell International, says the Wall Street Journal.
The Pritzker family, which controls Hyatt Hotels, has been feuding on and off for a decade. So it follows that the dynastic squabbling continues as they plan for a Hyatt stock offering that should help reduce the family tensions. The family in-fighting is a big enough issue that recent revisions to the prospectus for the Hyatt initial public offering include a specific warning about it, writes the Wall Street Journal.
