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Goldman Sachs & Co. was fined $ 1.5 million to settle Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges that it allegedly failed to supervise its employees for several months in late 2007. Last month, the CFTC disclosed that a former Goldman employee hid an $ 8.3 billion trading position. The CFTC said that Goldman lost more than $ 100 million unwinding the [...]

NEW YORK A U.S. judge has sided with a UBS AG request for arbitration in a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking overtime pay brought by three former financial advisers at a brokerage unit of the bank. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones in Manhattan marks the latest legal skirmish over contract clauses that require arbitration. The court battles follow a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down last year. Arbitration provides companies a way to resolve disputes with employees and customers privately outside the courts. Plaintiffs’ lawyers contend that so-called “class-action waivers” in arbitration agreements prevent workers from suing [...]

Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said on Friday it is offering retirement incentives to about 2,000 U.S. workers, or 10 percent of its employees in the country, in an effort to manage attrition of its aging work force. About 1,600 workers at the Japanese automaker’s Georgetown, Kentucky plant, or about a quarter of the work force there, are eligible, Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said. The rest of the eligible employees work at plants and offices throughout the United States, he said. “We’re trying to spread out the impact of the attrition over some time as opposed to the risk of them [...]

The probe into possible violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribery outside of the USThe suspensions are related to the US retailer’s probe into allegations that employees bribed government officialsOn Friday, Walmart said its Indian joint venture with Bharti Enterprises had suspended “a few associates”Walmart and its partner Bharti Enterprises have been working together since 2007(Financial Times) — Walmart has suspended several employees in India as the world’s biggest retailer by sales pursues an internal investigation into whether its local joint venture in the promising Asian market violated US anti-corruption laws.The suspensions are related to the [...]

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is due to name new partners on Wednesday, but the benefits of receiving the title are not what they used to be. Goldman is the only major Wall Street bank to retain this relic from its private partnership days, when senior investment bankers owned the firm, contributing capital and taking home their share of profits. Employees with the “partner” title still get a bigger portion of the bonus pool than other employees, and more say in Goldman’s strategic direction. But changes to the compensation structure have made the partner paycheck less lucrative, because more of their [...]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s U.S. employees will pay between 8 and 36 percent more in premiums for its medical coverage in 2013, prompting some of the 1.4 million workers at the nation’s largest private employer to say they will forego coverage altogether. In mailings sent to employees for its recently completed open-enrollment period, Wal-Mart noted that its rates would increase because healthcare costs continue to rise. For its most popular plan, which covers individuals, the payment per bi-weekly paycheck is going up by $ 2, or 13 percent. Other plans will see larger increases as the world’s largest retailer, known for [...]

NEW YORK Bank of America Corp employees could face civil fraud charges as part of a federal lawsuit accusing the bank of causing taxpayers more than $ 1 billion in losses by selling toxic mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , a prosecutor said on Thursday. The comments were made at a hearing in Manhattan federal court to set a timetable for the U.S. Department of Justice’s first civil fraud lawsuit over mortgage loans sold to the two big mortgage financiers, which the government had announced on Wednesday. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bailed out and put [...]

U.S. prosecutors on Monday announced expanded charges against five former employees of Bernard Madoff’s firm, in an indictment that dates the conspiracy to defraud clients to roughly two decades earlier than previously alleged. The new charges against former operations manager Daniel Bonventre, former investment advisory employees Annette Bongiorno and Joann Crupi, and former computer programmers Jerome O’Hara and George Perez are contained in a 33-count indictment, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. Bharara said the indictment includes new charges against the defendants, including bank fraud charges related to both corporate and personal loans, as well as new tax offenses. The original [...]

Dear Cashing In, I’m an employer for a small, specialty insurance company, with nine salespeople who travel extensively. The frequent flier advice columns — including yours — that I see have lots of advice for individuals, but could you help out a small-business owner, please? What airline/hotel credit card programs are there to maximize my benefits, while at the same time, giving me good opportunity to share the perks with my salespeople (especially the high producers)?  – Sven S. Dear Sven, You’re right that c Whatever you choose, make sure it’s suited for the kind of travel your business requires [...]