6/13/2015 Tuesday’s, $663 million settlement against guardrail manufacturer Trinity industries includes the largest-ever award given to a whistle-blower under the False-Claims Act, a whopping $199 million given to former competitor, Virginian Joshua Harman. Harman sued on behalf of the government claiming that Trinity defrauded taxpayers by failing to notify the Federal Highway Administration of a
6/11/2015 The House of Representatives began a two-day debate on Thursday over giving President Obama “fast-track” authorization (FTA) to negotiate the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement on behalf of the U.S., leading to a congressional vote without amendments or filibusters. Friday’s expected House vote is the final hurdle the president needs after the Senate
6/11/2015 It looks like the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into General Motors’ pre-recall knowledge is tightening its grip around the company, as the agency is now considering wire fraud charges against the company. Star Manhattan U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara, and his office are leading the investigation in conjunction with the Department of Justice.
6/10/2015 The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday, June 8th that it will be reviewing a federal appeals ruling in its next term, petitioned by Tyson Foods, challenging a $5.8 million judgment against the company over unpaid work time at an Iowa pork-processing plant. While the sum of the judgment is miniscule in cases of
6/9/2015 A new class of cholesterol drugs will undergo a preliminary review this week from a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel. The drugs, Amgen’s Evolocumab and Alirocumab from Sanofi SA and partner, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, block a protein called PCSK9, which can prevent the liver from eliminating bad cholesterol. Early studies show the drugs
6/8/2015 The global financial world received a huge shakeup Sunday when the co-CEOs of Deutsche Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, announced their resignations. Anshu Jain and Jürgen Fitschen were essentially purged following an emergency meeting by the bank’s board of directors. Jain will be leaving on June 30th, replaced by
6/7/2015 One of the major environmental concerns since the beginning of this decade has been the use of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” to unearth natural gas and oil shale reserves. The process uses high-pressure water among other substances to create or to widen holes into the shale formation in order to release the gas or
6/5/2015 Talks are underway for what could potentially be the third gigantic cross-platform communications merger this year. Dish Network, the nation’s second-largest satellite provider and America’s fourth-largest wireless company, T-Mobile; have begun preliminary negotiations for a merger. This follows the nearly finalized AT&T’s $49 billion acquisition of leading satellite provider, DirecTV, and Charter Communications recent
6/2/2015 Knowing how to kick a law when it’s down, Facebook unveiled a new encryption component to its website, which allows users to send and receive emails as well as Facebook notifications that organizations like the National Security Agency (NSA) are unable to view. In the wake of the temporary halting of the NSA spying
6/1/2015 Somehow, some way, incumbent FIFA president Sepp Blatter was re-elected on Friday, May 29th despite Wednesday’s U.S. Justice Department’s 47-count indictment and the arrests by Swiss authorities of several executives at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters. The shocking nature of Blatter’s election to a fifth term is the fact that it wasn’t really very shocking. This