Banking, Finance & Services

The city of Denver, Colorado, recently voted 8-4 not to renew $10.6 million in contracts with CoreCivic and Geo Group, the two largest prison contractors in the U.S. The vote was a response to local concerns over human rights abuse at for-profit prisons and undocumented migrant detention centers. Read More

Wells Fargo bank, based in San Francisco, California, has agreed to pay the Navajo Nation $6.5 million for its alleged predatory business tactics. The bank was accused of targeting vulnerable members of the Navajo community, including elderly people who did not speak fluent English, with predatory banking practices. The Navajo Nation is the largest government recognized Native American indigenous community with over 350,000 members and a territory that encompasses lands in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. It has an elected government and its own judicial system. Read More

Billionaire businessmen and lobbyists are lining up to help Donald Trump after his victory in the U.S. presidential election. Trump appears to be welcoming them with open arms, despite his claim to bring change to Washington DC and get rid of special interests. Read More

UBS, the Swiss bank, is being investigated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for failing to carry out adequate due diligence before working on share offerings for several Chinese companies. The bank says that it is at risk of being suspended from doing business in the city. Read More

A number of safari companies in Africa used Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm, to evade taxes on income from foreign clients, according to data from the 'Panama Papers' a leaked cache of 11.5 million documents revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Read More

Greek tax investigators have raided the house of Christos Sclavounis, the former head of investment banking for UBS. The crackdown is part of an agreement that the country reached with international lenders in order to reduce tax evasion by Greek elites suspected of hiding their income in Switzerland. Read More

The UK Serious Fraud Office has notched up another win in the global interest rate setting scandal by sending three Barclays traders to jail. Of the 20 bankers that have been charged to date, five have been found guilty, six have been let go while nine are to face trial. Read More

Bank of America leads the list of companies that have paid over $1 billion in penalties and fines to the U.S. government in the last six years. Violation Tracker, a new corporate misconduct database maintained by Good Jobs First, estimates that the North Carolina bank has paid $56 billion. Read More

The U.S. government is investigating Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge firm and market maker that manages some $25 billion in client money, for allegedly giving smaller investors a bad deal. The Department of Justice wants to know if the firm is taking advantage of the complexity of high-speed trading. Read More

Activists have condemned Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia for lending $850 million to Mozambique in 2013 that was used mostly to buy military equipment, despite telling the public that the money would be used to buy fishing boats. Read More