Swiss probe former Gunvor employee

MEXICO CITY — Rescuers searched for survivors Friday and authorities promised a thorough investigation after an office building blast killed 32 people and injured 121 at the headquarters of Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos. The cause of the basement explosion in an administrative building next to the iconic, 51-story Pemex tower in Mexico City remained a mystery, with President Enrique Pena Nieto urging people not to speculate. Theories ranged from an electrical fire to an air conditioning problem to a possible attack.

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.

Total SA and Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie will fight charges stemming from the United Nations oil-for-food Iraq relief program scandal at a trial in Paris. The program, meant to ease conditions in Iraq after sanctions imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, was used by Iraqi officials to evade UN limits. At issue in the French trial starting today is whether the defendants, including 18 people and two companies, aided the Iraqis activities and to what degree.

UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, may be fined more than US$1-billion by U.S. and U.K. regulators for trying to rig global interest rates, more than double the amount levied against Barclays Plc, according to a person familiar with the probe.

Amid one of the the world’s most troubled regions, Simon Village maintains that it is business as usual for his company. All the same, he will admit to being a little alarmed by recent events near his operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “If you remember, the M23 were just sitting in the bushes north of Goma. And then, all of a sudden, they were in Goma. It caught people by surprise,” the chief executive of gold miner Banro Corp. said in a phone interview from the DRC.

AP - Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into suspected money-laundering after a U.S. investor claimed that Russian tax officials used Swiss bank accounts to engage in fraud.