GE Employees Convicted In Bid-Rigging Scheme

A federal jury convicted three former employees of a General Electric Co. unit for their role in an alleged bid-rigging conspiracy the government said deprived municipalities of competitive investment returns.

WASHINGTON — In a spectacular fall from political prominence, former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife agreed Friday to plead guilty to federal charges growing out of what prosecutors said was a scheme to use $750,000 in campaign funds for lavish personal expenses, including a $43,000 gold watch and furs.

Three former employees of a General Electric Co.

A federal grand jury returned additional criminal charges Monday against a group of former employees of convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff nearly four years after the massive fraud came to light.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced today that it has assessed a civil money penalty of $20 million against Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. ("bank"), and required it to pay more than $14.5 million in restitution for the involvement of the bank's predecessor institutions, Wachovia Bank N.A. and First Union National Bank ("predecessor banks"), in a bid rigging scheme involving the marketing and sale of certain derivative financial products to various municipalities and Section 501(c)(3) organizations harmed by the predecessor banks' misconduct during the period 1997 - 2006.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced today that it has entered into a Formal Agreement with Bank of America, N.A., Charlotte, North Carolina, related to the bank’s participation in a bid-rigging scheme involving the marketing and sale of certain financial products to municipalities and other non-profit organizations, variously, during the period November 1998 through January 2004.

By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former chief executive of a financial firm who pleaded guilty to charges related to bid-rigging in the municipal bond market was sentenced to two years probation on Friday by a judge who cited his cooperation with U.S. investigators. Martin Kanefsky, who was the chief of the now-defunct Kane Capital Strategies Inc, pleaded guilty in April 2010 to fraud and conspiracy charges related to his role in manipulating bids by others from 1999 to 2006. Kanefsky is the only individual sentenced so far in a broad government investigation of the $3.7 trillion U.S.

Bank of America will pay $137 million to settle allegations that it participated in a bid-rigging conspiracy to defraud government entities that sought to invest proceeds raised through municipal bonds.