|
The Morning Risk Report: Fiat Chrysler Executive Files Whistleblower Lawsuit
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PHOTO: ANDREY RUDAKOV/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
Good morning. A top executive at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Italian-American auto maker, claiming the company cut his pay in retaliation for cooperating with a federal investigation in the U.S. into its sales-reporting practices.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, Reid Bigland said Fiat Chrysler slashed his pay by 90% to punish him for cooperating with an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC and the Justice Department have been probing whether the company manipulated monthly sales data to inflate its results, people familiar with the matter said.
[Continued below...]
|
|
|
|
Mr. Bigland is head of Fiat Chrysler’s U.S. sales, according to the company’s website, and oversees its Ram pickup-truck brand, one of the auto maker’s most profitable divisions. In the lawsuit, Mr. Bigland claims Fiat Chrysler also cut his pay to retaliate for his selling off shares, a decision he says “highly irritated” the company. In a statement, the company said his compensation is determined by the board of directors but declined to comment on litigation.
Fiat pulls Renault merger offer: News of the lawsuit came on the same day Fiat Chrysler withdrew its proposal to merge with Renault SA after the French auto maker’s alliance partner, Nissan Motor Co., refused to back the deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
|
|
|
|
From Risk & Compliance Journal
|
|
|
Security-Device Maker OSI Says U.S. Ends Bribery Probes
|
|
U.S. authorities have closed foreign-bribery probes into OSI Systems Inc. following the dismissal last month of a shareholder lawsuit against the maker of airport security systems, the company said. The Hawthorne, California-based company last year disclosed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations, which were being conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department, Risk & Compliance Journal’s Dylan Tokar reports.
|
|
|
|
Maluma performs during the 27th American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Latin Music Awards on March 5. Ascap administers public performance rights, which allow businesses to obtain blanket licenses to play catalogs of songs. PHOTO: THAIS LLORCA/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
|
|
|
-
The Justice Department opened a formal review of music-licensing rules that have been in place since 1941, a process that could shake up how businesses, broadcasters and digital streaming services secure rights from songwriters and publishers. The move to reassess the mechanics of music licensing is part of a broader initiative in which Justice Department antitrust officials are revisiting long-ago legal settlements, known as consent decrees, that remain on the books across industries.
-
Federal prosecutors filed a complaint against Mallinckrodt PLC accusing the company of paying kickbacks through a foundation in order to increase prices of a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis. The U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia, which filed the complaint, said the company’s actions related to its H.P. Acthar Gel took place between 2010 and 2014.
-
Switzerland’s competition commission has fined five global banks a total of 90 million Swiss francs ($90.7 million) over manipulation of the foreign-exchange market, adding to penalties previously levied by the European Union. The commission said Thursday that the settlements will close investigations into two cartels formed by employees of Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays PLC., Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and UBS Group AG.
-
An electric utility contractor that turned Puerto Rico’s lights back on after Hurricane Maria now is ensnared in contract-steering probes as federal authorities scrutinize billions of dollars in public reconstruction spending across the U.S. territory.
-
Stockbrokers will be required to act in the best interest of investors and disclose more about conflicts of interest that can skew advice under a regulation approved Wednesday. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to issue what it calls Regulation Best Interest, creating a duty to investors for brokers that the industry says is higher than its current standard.
-
The Senate confirmed Heath Tarbert as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, making him the second Trump-appointed official to lead the top derivatives regulator.
|
|
|
|
PricewaterhouseCoopers said it would spend an additional £30 million a year to improve its U.K. audit business. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
Professional-services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP announced various measures aimed at overhauling its U.K. audit business, amid growing regulatory concerns about the quality of the country’s audit sector. PwC, one of the Big Four accounting firms that also include Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP and KPMG LLP, said it is splitting its current U.K. assurance practice into two distinct businesses, effective July 1.
|
|
|
|
BlackRock is defending its practices in light of two lawsuits filed against it Tuesday. PHOTO: LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS
|
|
|
Saba Capital Management, a $1.7 billion hedge fund run by Boaz Weinstein, has sued BlackRock Inc., arguing the world’s largest asset manager has moved to block outsiders from gaining board seats at three of its funds and effecting change.
In two lawsuits filed late Tuesday, Saba alleged that BlackRock’s actions run counter to the high-profile stance the firm and its chief executive, Larry Fink, have taken on corporate-governance matters in recent years. In annual letters to chief executives and other communications, Mr. Fink and BlackRock have urged companies whose shares the firm holds to more actively engage with investors.
|
|
|
|
Brown-Forman, whose brands include the popular whiskey Jack Daniel’s as well as Old Forester bourbon and el Jimador tequila, said its sales in the latest quarter continued to be hurt by European tariffs enacted last year. PHOTO: TOBY TALBOT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
-
Tariffs keep squeezing the maker of Jack Daniel’s. Brown-Forman Corp., whose brands include the popular whiskey as well as Old Forester bourbon and el Jimador tequila, said its sales in the latest quarter continued to be hurt by European tariffs enacted last year. And now the spirits maker could take a hit on its U.S. tequila sales, if President Trump makes good on his threat to impose escalating tariffs on all imports from Mexico.
-
Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard signaled an openness to lowering interest rates but she didn’t indicate such action was imminent. Ms. Brainard said that trade policy is a negative issue for the U.S. economy’s outlook, and that she would be watching the economic data carefully to determine what the central bank’s next step might be.
-
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings has been scanning the dark web for any signs of its customers’ personal data since learning of a data breach at an outside bill-collection agency last week, but so far hasn’t found anything, the medical-testing company’s chief executive said. “We believe the impact to LabCorp customers will be minimal,” CEO David P. King said during an interview Wednesday.
|
|
|
|
Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says investors are ‘really waking up’ to the problem of climate change. PHOTO: SERGIO MORAES/REUTERS
|
|
|
-
Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC can be both a cash cow and a company trying to meet the challenge of climate change. That is Chief Executive Ben van Beurden’s sales pitch as he meets with investors and analysts in London and New York this week. Shell is slowly transforming into a cleaner business centered on selling electricity. But in the years to come, it aims to pay billions of dollars back to investors—at least $125 billion in dividends and share buybacks between 2021 and 2025 alone—all of it from traditional parts of the oil business.
-
Campbell Soup Co. is planning to bolster investment in its namesake soup business in the U.S., where it has struggled against competition from private-label options. The food company reported flat soup sales in the U.S. for its latest quarter and said its share of the market dropped about 2 percentage points in the 12 months through late April.
-
Peloton Interactive Inc. said it has filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering. The maker of video-streaming exercise bikes said the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering haven’t been determined.
|
|
|
|