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The Morning Ledger: Former Bankrate CFO Sentenced For Accounting Fraud |
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Good day. The former chief financial officer of Bankrate Inc., the financial services and marketing company, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for securities and accounting fraud that resulted in $25 million in shareholder losses, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.
Guilty plea: Edward DiMaria, 53 years old, pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to make false statements to the company’s accountants, falsify the company’s books, records and accounts, and commit securities fraud, as well as one count of making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Cookie jar: Mr. DiMaria admitted to conspiring and directing a scheme to artificially inflate Bankrate’s earnings through “cookie jar” or “cushion” accounting, a practice in which a company keeps a large quantity of reserves from an economically successful year on its books to boost its earnings results, while incurring them against losses during weaker quarters.
Pay it back: Mr. DiMaria was also ordered to pay restitution of $21.2 million to Bankrate’s shareholders. “The significant sentence handed down today underscores the serious nature of corporate fraud and the damage it causes to shareholders and to the public’s trust in our financial markets,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski said in a statement.
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The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point after its two-day policy meeting concludes Wednesday. The policy statement is due out at 2 p.m. ET.
The Commerce Department is scheduled to release its report on sales of new homes for the month of August.
CarMax Inc., Actuant Corp. and Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. are among the companies reporting earnings today.
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Some U.K. Firms Fear Brexit Customs Delays Will Trigger Bankruptcy |
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Executives at one in 10 U.K. companies fear their businesses could go bankrupt if imports are faced with 10- to 30-minute customs delays due to Brexit, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply released Wednesday.
The findings from 1,310 supply-chain managers based in Britain and other European countries come a few days after negotiations between the U.K. government and the European Union reached an impasse. Crucial issues relating to the country’s exit in March 2019 remain unsolved, reports CFO Journal's Nina Trentmann.
A so-called hard Brexit—a disorderly breakup between the U.K. and the EU—could result in goods held up at British ports, with costly consequences for companies that currently ship components and products without delays. The number of U.K. companies expecting to go out of business increased to 14% if customs delays reached between one and three hours, and to 15%, should customs procedures take between 12 to 24 hours, the survey found.
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CFO Exit Dings CenturyLink’s Market Value |
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How much is an outgoing finance chief worth to a company? For telecommunications provider CenturyLink Inc. the answer is roughly $2 billion in market value, reports CFO Journal’s Tatyana Shumsky.
CenturyLink stock closed down 8.08% on Tuesday on news that Chief Financial Officer Sunit Patel is leaving the Monroe, La., company to join T-Mobile U.S. Inc. to lead the wireless company’s integration with Sprint Corp. The losses pushed the company’s market value to $22.7 billion as of Tuesday’s close, according to data from FactSet.
Mr. Patel’s departure comes at a vulnerable time for CenturyLink, which is 11 months into its integration with Level 3 Communications Inc., a deal that essentially doubled the size of the company.
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Ryder Chief Financial Officer to Retire in 2019 |
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Truck leasing and fleet-management company Ryder System Inc. said longtime finance chief Art Garcia will retire in April, CFO Journal's Tatyana Shumsky reports.
Mr. Garcia has served as CFO of the Miami company since 2010. He has held several roles of increased responsibility, including a stint as controller, since joining Ryder in 1997.
Mr. Garcia will continue to serve as CFO until a successor is named, the company said in a statement.
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Qualcomm’s accusation of intellectual-property theft intensifies the feud between Apple and Qualcomm. PHOTO: MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS
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Qualcomm Inc. accused Apple Inc. of funneling proprietary information about the chip supplier’s technology to rival Intel Corp.
Daimler AG on Wednesday named Swede Ola Kaellenius as its next chief executive as part of a succession plan that also seeks to install current CEO Dieter Zetsche as chairman of the supervisory board, Reuters reports.
Newell Brands Inc., a struggling conglomerate that is unloading several of its household brands, could end up selling one of its oldest businesses to Martin Franklin, a former Newell director who resigned and tried unsuccessfully to oust the company’s board earlier this year.
Arby’s owner Inspire Brands Inc. is buying burger chain Sonic Corp. for $2.3 billion including debt, broadening a strategy to cover the dining spectrum from takeout to sit-down.
Nike Inc. posted a 10% increase in sales during the summer quarter.
Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. is dropping the word “Donuts” from its flagship brand.
Twitter Inc. is planning to expand its rules to no longer allow content that treats others as subhuman.
Uber Technologies Inc. executive Cameron Poetzscher, who played a key role in negotiating SoftBank’s investment in the ride-hailing firm, was disciplined after a probe found he had a pattern of making sexually suggestive comments about other co-workers.
Shares in BMW AG fell by as much as 6% on Tuesday after the luxury car maker warned that emissions-related costs, product recalls and fierce price competition amid global trade disputes would dampen profit this year.
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U.S. Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim shown above in June. PHOTO: NICHOLAS KAMM/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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The Justice Department’s antitrust chief is pledging to significantly cut the length of time it takes to review proposed mergers, amid complaints from companies that the regulatory clearance process has become painfully slow.
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Wall Street’s top regulator may soon get rid of a controversial metric for exchange-traded funds that just last week warned investors that a popular marijuana fund was trading at inflated prices.
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Uber Technologies Inc. scored a legal victory over drivers after a federal appeals court dismantled the class-action status of a lawsuit that had sought to reclassify independent contractors as employees.
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Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer says the U.S. is ready to go ahead with a new version of Nafta with Mexico, whether or not Canada joins in. PHOTO: MANDEL NGAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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President Trump’s trade czar said the U.S. and Mexico are ready to leave Canada behind in the North American Free Trade Agreement—and move ahead with a new version of the deal in days. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer also said hat changing China’s economic policies to become more market-oriented “is not going to be easy” even with tariffs now in place on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, Reuters reports.
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Home-price gains slowed for the fourth straight month in July, as higher mortgage rates begin acting as a brake on rapid price growth, offering some welcome respite for buyers.
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Consumer confidence hit a new 18-year high in September, a positive indicator for spending going into the holiday shopping season.
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