Banking, Finance & Services

U.S. corporate CEO salaries rose 16 percent in 2012, according to research firm Equilar. Average daily CEO pay is now greater than that of the average annual worker salary. Top salary: Larry Ellison of Oracle - over $96 million. Top exit bonus: James Mulva of ConocoPhillips - $156 million. Read More

Executives at one of Ireland's biggest banks laughed and joked about how they were going to fool the Central Bank into bailing them out, according to a tape recording obtained by the Irish Independent. The failure of Anglo Irish Bank is eventually expected to cost the taxpayer €30 billion. Read More

Steve Cohen, the billionaire founder of the most profitable hedge fund in history with $15 billion in assets averaging 30 percent in annual profits for two decades, has become the most watched man on Wall Street. Will he lose all his outside investors and will he go to jail? Read More

Farmers in North Carolina are regretting the day that they put their trust in the Egg King - Oleg Bakhmatyuk - a billionaire agricultural investor from the Ukraine. Over 100 farmers are suing a subsidiary of his global empire for almost $10 million for reneging on chicken sales contracts. Read More

Record fines adding up to $36 billion have been paid out in the last 12 years by multinational corporations to the U.S. government to settle charges of corruption and fraud. But are they getting away with a slap on the wrist to avoid prosecution for major crimes? Read More

KPMG, the fourth biggest accounting firm in the world, has announced that it has fired Scott London, one of its top partners. New reports indicate that London was let go for providing insider information on two companies - Herbalife and Skechers. Read More

What role did senior executives of the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank play in the collapse of Cyprus banking? Billions of euros - mostly invested by Russians and Ukranians attempting to dodge taxes - have been gambled away in the last few years. Read More

JP Morgan - the Wall Street investment bank - and SAC - a major hedge fund - were hauled up Friday for alleged fraud. JP Morgan was questioned at a U.S. Senate hearing about hiding trading losses while SAC agreed to pay $614 million to settle insider trading charges. Read More

Nearly 70 percent of Swiss voters approved a "fat cat" referendum that would prohibit "golden handshake" bonuses to departing corporate bosses while the European Union approved legislation limiting bankers executive bonuses to a maximum of one year's salary, or twice that amount if a majority of shareholders approve. Read More

SAC Capital is one of the most profitable hedge funds in history with $15 billion in assets averaging 30 percent in annual profits for 20 years running. Today Wall Street is watching nervously as U.S. government lawyers work on a case against billionaire founder Steven Cohen for insider trading. Read More