Swiss court acquits banker in corruption case

Switzerland's highest criminal court on Thursday acquitted a private banker of charges of running slush funds allegedly used by French engineering giant Alstom to bribe foreign officials.The Bellinzona-based Federal Criminal Court threw out the public prosecutor's case against Oskar Holenweger, and ordered the state to pay him 395,862 francs in damages and interests as well as 35,000 francs for moral tort.No reasons were offered in the immediate ruling issued by the court.

A Swiss banker went on trial in Switzerland's highest criminal court on Monday on charges of running slush funds allegedly used by French engineering giant Alstom to bribe foreign officials.The Swiss federal prosecutor is pressing charges of corruption and fraud related offences against former private banker Oskar Holenweger over Alstom's suspected transfer of about nine million Swiss francs (6.9 million euros) into secret funds.

Swiss prosecutors have reportedly indicted a former top executive of Canadian engineering and construction giant SNC-Lavalin, alleging he helped launder millions of dollars used to win contracts in Libya and other North African countries. Riadh Ben Aissa, a former vice-president at the Montreal-based company who has been detained since the spring, is now facing charges related to his role in an alleged scheme connected to $139-million in payments made by SNC-Lavalin, Swiss broadcaster RTS and CBC News reported.

A Saskatchewan judge says he hopes awarding nearly $5 million in damages to a man who was treated in an “abhorrent” manner by insurance companies after getting injured on the job will get the industry’s attention. Luciano Branco, now 62, was working as a welder for a Cameco subsidiary in Kyrgyzstan when his foot was injured in two incidents in December 1999 and March 2000.

The Swiss federal prosecutor's office said Thursday that it has formally accused a Swiss private banker of laundering and managing corruption money for French engineering giant Alstom.Although the company was only identified in a statement as a "French industrial group", federal prosecutor Lienhard Ochsner later said that the charges related to transfers of 9.0 million Swiss francs from Alstom into slush funds.Alstom confirmed in March that it had been targeted by a three-year Swiss investigation into alleged bribery.The company has denied wrongdoing.

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner with progress on the negations for the fiscal cliff. Toyota with record fine of $17.4 million. Switzerland heaven might have to be ruined. Apple requested veto on Samsung products.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Joseph Lau, the flamboyant tycoon who heads developer Chinese Estates Holdings , will face prosecution over bribery and money laundering in a land deal in Asia's gambling capital, Macau, the second high-profile corruption case involving a Hong Kong property company in two months. Hong Kong's clubby business community is already captivated by the arrests in late March of the billionaire Kwok brothers who run Asia's largest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties . ...