Health-care law: Arizona tries new approach to get by federal Medicaid rules
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post
January 23, 2011
Republican efforts to repeal or limit the reach of the new health-care law took a new direction last week when Arizona lawmakers approved a novel and controversial attempt to cut Medicaid for 280,000 of the state's poor.
The bill, requested and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R), empowers her to make a formal request, most likely this week, for a federal waiver to avoid complying with provisions of the law that prohibit states from tightening their eligibility requirements for Medicaid.
Twenty-nine Republican governors, including Brewer, have signed a letter calling on President Obama and congressional leaders to remove the provision from the law.
But Arizona is the first state to, in effect, play chicken with the Obama administration by directly requesting a reprieve and daring Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to refuse.
The move is widely regarded as a long shot. While a spokesman said the White House had no comment on Arizona's request, administration officials have shown scant interest when asked about the idea in the past.
Still, Arizona's move reflects two pressing realities: Many states face large budget shortfalls because of continuing economic difficulties, and Republican governors point to Medicaid cuts as one of the most logical ways to balance those budgets...
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
NY case alleges Ernst & Young fraud as Lehman auditor
NY case alleges Ernst & Young fraud as Lehman auditor
Dec 21, 2010
Reuters
New York prosecutors accused accounting firm Ernst & Young of helping to conceal Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's financial problems before it collapsed in 2008.
The following are highlights from the civil fraud complaint filed by the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in New York State Supreme Court:
- Ernst & Young approved Lehman's policy on Repo 105 transactions created in 2001 that allowed Lehman to park tens of billions of dollars of highly liquid fixed income securities with European banks for the sole purpose of reducing Lehman's balance sheet leverage.
- Senior Lehman personnel, including Kristine Smith, discussed the proposal with Kevin Reilly, the E&Y "engagement partner" in charge of E&Y's relationship with Lehman, and with E&Y partners William Schlich and Matthew Kurzweil.
- E&Y knew Lehman was treating the transfer of tens of billions of dollars of securities in Repo 105 transactions as "sales," not "loans" according to the complaint.
- Rather than expose this fraud E&Y year after year gave clean opinions on Lehman's financial statements even though they concealed massive Repo 105 transactions.
- In 2006, one of E&Y's auditors, Bharat Jain, became concerned about the heavy use of the Repo 105 transactions.
In a September 7, 2006, email to his senior manager, Jennifer Jackson, Jain noted that he would "like to know what is our thought process behind how much of these Lehman should do from reputational risk, etc. perspective. Are we comparing to other competitors, are we referring to any industry publications, any regulatory guidance, etc.?"
- In May 2008, E&Y was given a copy of a letter to senior financial executives at Lehman from Matthew Lee, an executive responsible for Lehman's global balance sheet, which raised serious questions about Lehman's financial statements.
- In June 2008, Lee told Schlich and another E&Y partner, Hillary Hansen, that Lehman was removing $50 billion in fixed income securities from its balance sheet each quarter by purporting to "sell them" to European counterparties.
-- Hansen raised concerns about Repo 105 with Schlich "who casually dismissed the concerns" by telling Hansen that they were being properly recorded as sales.
- In subsequent meetings about Lee's allegations, Repo 105 was not even mentioned even though E&Y had been instructed to tell Lehman's audit committee about Lee's concerns.
- E&Y misrepresented Lehman's compliance with applicable accounting standards, the complaint said.
- It said E&Y failed to challenge public statements by Lehman's management concerning the reductions in leverage that E&Y knew had been accomplished largely by the use of Repo 105 transactions.
(Compiled by Grant McCool; Editing by Gary Hill)
Dec 21, 2010
Reuters
New York prosecutors accused accounting firm Ernst & Young of helping to conceal Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's financial problems before it collapsed in 2008.
The following are highlights from the civil fraud complaint filed by the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in New York State Supreme Court:
- Ernst & Young approved Lehman's policy on Repo 105 transactions created in 2001 that allowed Lehman to park tens of billions of dollars of highly liquid fixed income securities with European banks for the sole purpose of reducing Lehman's balance sheet leverage.
- Senior Lehman personnel, including Kristine Smith, discussed the proposal with Kevin Reilly, the E&Y "engagement partner" in charge of E&Y's relationship with Lehman, and with E&Y partners William Schlich and Matthew Kurzweil.
- E&Y knew Lehman was treating the transfer of tens of billions of dollars of securities in Repo 105 transactions as "sales," not "loans" according to the complaint.
- Rather than expose this fraud E&Y year after year gave clean opinions on Lehman's financial statements even though they concealed massive Repo 105 transactions.
- In 2006, one of E&Y's auditors, Bharat Jain, became concerned about the heavy use of the Repo 105 transactions.
In a September 7, 2006, email to his senior manager, Jennifer Jackson, Jain noted that he would "like to know what is our thought process behind how much of these Lehman should do from reputational risk, etc. perspective. Are we comparing to other competitors, are we referring to any industry publications, any regulatory guidance, etc.?"
- In May 2008, E&Y was given a copy of a letter to senior financial executives at Lehman from Matthew Lee, an executive responsible for Lehman's global balance sheet, which raised serious questions about Lehman's financial statements.
- In June 2008, Lee told Schlich and another E&Y partner, Hillary Hansen, that Lehman was removing $50 billion in fixed income securities from its balance sheet each quarter by purporting to "sell them" to European counterparties.
-- Hansen raised concerns about Repo 105 with Schlich "who casually dismissed the concerns" by telling Hansen that they were being properly recorded as sales.
- In subsequent meetings about Lee's allegations, Repo 105 was not even mentioned even though E&Y had been instructed to tell Lehman's audit committee about Lee's concerns.
- E&Y misrepresented Lehman's compliance with applicable accounting standards, the complaint said.
- It said E&Y failed to challenge public statements by Lehman's management concerning the reductions in leverage that E&Y knew had been accomplished largely by the use of Repo 105 transactions.
(Compiled by Grant McCool; Editing by Gary Hill)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
Daniel Singer runs a heating oil company in Elmsford, N.Y., and is a derivatives customer. In order to offer homeowners fixed-rate oil plans, he buys derivatives contracts. But since the trading system is not transparent, he can’t tell whether the prices he gets are fair or not.
A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
By LOUISE STORY
New York Times
December 11, 2010
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.
The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.
Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.
In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.
The banks in this group, which is affiliated with a new derivatives clearinghouse, have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available.
Banks’ influence over this market, and over clearinghouses like the one this select group advises, has costly implications for businesses large and small, like Dan Singer’s home heating-oil company in Westchester County, north of New York City.
This fall, many of Mr. Singer’s customers purchased fixed-rate plans to lock in winter heating oil at around $3 a gallon. While that price was above the prevailing $2.80 a gallon then, the contracts will protect homeowners if bitterly cold weather pushes the price higher.
But Mr. Singer wonders if his company, Robison Oil, should be getting a better deal. He uses derivatives like swaps and options to create his fixed plans. But he has no idea how much lower his prices — and his customers’ prices — could be, he says, because banks don’t disclose fees associated with the derivatives...
A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
By LOUISE STORY
New York Times
December 11, 2010
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.
The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.
Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.
In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.
The banks in this group, which is affiliated with a new derivatives clearinghouse, have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available.
Banks’ influence over this market, and over clearinghouses like the one this select group advises, has costly implications for businesses large and small, like Dan Singer’s home heating-oil company in Westchester County, north of New York City.
This fall, many of Mr. Singer’s customers purchased fixed-rate plans to lock in winter heating oil at around $3 a gallon. While that price was above the prevailing $2.80 a gallon then, the contracts will protect homeowners if bitterly cold weather pushes the price higher.
But Mr. Singer wonders if his company, Robison Oil, should be getting a better deal. He uses derivatives like swaps and options to create his fixed plans. But he has no idea how much lower his prices — and his customers’ prices — could be, he says, because banks don’t disclose fees associated with the derivatives...
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
U.S. Lays Out AIG Exit Plan
DECEMBER 8, 2010
U.S. Lays Out AIG Exit Plan
Treasury Looking to Unload $15 Billion of Its Shares in First Quarter of 2011
By SERENA NG And ERIK HOLM
Wall Street Journal
American International Group Inc. on Wednesday entered into an agreement with the U.S. government that details, among other things, the rights the Treasury Department will have as it begins to sell its controlling stake in an accelerated exit plan.
The Treasury is aiming to sell at least $15 billion of its shares in the giant insurer in the first of a series of stock offerings starting in the first quarter of 2011, people familiar with the matter said.
Executing the share sales, which are expected to total over $60 billion over two years, will involve a careful balancing act that aims to disentangle the government from the company without destabilizing it. While Treasury wants to exit its ownership as quickly as possible, it doesn't want to get in the way if AIG needs to buttress its capital position or that of its insurance subsidiaries by selling shares.
Under the agreement released on Wednesday, the government will essentially be able to dictate the terms and frequency of AIG share sales until U.S. ownership drops below 33%...
U.S. Lays Out AIG Exit Plan
Treasury Looking to Unload $15 Billion of Its Shares in First Quarter of 2011
By SERENA NG And ERIK HOLM
Wall Street Journal
American International Group Inc. on Wednesday entered into an agreement with the U.S. government that details, among other things, the rights the Treasury Department will have as it begins to sell its controlling stake in an accelerated exit plan.
The Treasury is aiming to sell at least $15 billion of its shares in the giant insurer in the first of a series of stock offerings starting in the first quarter of 2011, people familiar with the matter said.
Executing the share sales, which are expected to total over $60 billion over two years, will involve a careful balancing act that aims to disentangle the government from the company without destabilizing it. While Treasury wants to exit its ownership as quickly as possible, it doesn't want to get in the way if AIG needs to buttress its capital position or that of its insurance subsidiaries by selling shares.
Under the agreement released on Wednesday, the government will essentially be able to dictate the terms and frequency of AIG share sales until U.S. ownership drops below 33%...
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Madoff trustee files lawsuit against US banking giant JPMorgan Chase
Madoff Trustee Picard Sues JPMorgan
Fox Business
Dec. 2, 2010
The trustee for the victims of the multi-billion dollar Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme filed a lawsuit against US banking giant JPMorgan Chase on Thursday, saying the bank enabled Madoff to conduct “massive fraud” against his victims.
Fox Business
Dec. 2, 2010
The trustee for the victims of the multi-billion dollar Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme filed a lawsuit against US banking giant JPMorgan Chase on Thursday, saying the bank enabled Madoff to conduct “massive fraud” against his victims.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
School insurance company prevents parents from testing syringe that poked their son
"[The principal] invited the Kuertens to pick up the needle for possible testing, but George Hills [insurance] Co. claimed the needle first."
I have long thought that insurance companies and their lawyers do a great deal of harm to schools, but in this case, I must admit that there was really nothing to be gained by testing the syringe eight days after the needle stuck the students. Viruses are unlikely to survive that long.
But why didn't the school turn over the needle right away? Who spread the bogus story of the syringe being used to water plants?
Needle poke turns into big problem at L.A. charter school
April 19, 2010
Howard Blume
Los Angeles Times
When 6-year-old Kristopher Kuerten pricked himself with a syringe found at his school, his Redondo Beach parents had no idea they would end up locked in a complicated dispute over the needle.
The school's insurance company seized the needle and won't release it, saying no lab is willing to test it. The family is worried about their son's health and wants the syringe tested.
The incident, which happened at Goethe International Charter School, underscores the unusual problems that can be especially challenging for a school with no support from school district bureaucracy. Charters are independently managed, a freedom considered crucial to their success. But it also means they function outside of long-developed procedures.
Goethe, which shares a Marina del Rey campus with a Los Angeles Unified School District middle school, offers German-language immersion.
Kristopher hasn't experienced any medical problems, and experts say his risk for infection from HIV, hepatitis or other pathogens is low. But his parents are unhappy about how matters were handled.
During a school day in February, a classmate apparently found a syringe in an electrical box and gave it to Kristopher. The prick probably happened when he played with the syringe during the after-school program. A staff member attended to the minor wound.
Jean and Thomas Kuerten said they learned what happened from Kristopher.
School Principal Luci Fowers declined to discuss the matter, but in an earlier e-mail to the Kuertens, she wrote that after-school program workers, who aren't employees of the school, "had been [given] misinformation about the use of the syringe to nourish plants apparently from one of our interns."
Fowers added: "No one from our [permanent] staff was on our campus at that time nor were we informed about the incident until we returned from the weekend."
At a Los Angeles Unified School District school, the nurse or a designated staff member would have provided first aid and notified the parents and the needle would have been placed in a "sharps container," said Connie Moore, the district's director of nursing.
At Goethe, the principal was out ill for a time, and it was not until eight days after the incident that she alerted the parents that the syringe was not for plants, according to e-mails from the school provided by the family.
She invited the Kuertens to pick up the needle for possible testing, but George Hills Co. claimed the needle first.
I have long thought that insurance companies and their lawyers do a great deal of harm to schools, but in this case, I must admit that there was really nothing to be gained by testing the syringe eight days after the needle stuck the students. Viruses are unlikely to survive that long.
But why didn't the school turn over the needle right away? Who spread the bogus story of the syringe being used to water plants?
Needle poke turns into big problem at L.A. charter school
April 19, 2010
Howard Blume
Los Angeles Times
When 6-year-old Kristopher Kuerten pricked himself with a syringe found at his school, his Redondo Beach parents had no idea they would end up locked in a complicated dispute over the needle.
The school's insurance company seized the needle and won't release it, saying no lab is willing to test it. The family is worried about their son's health and wants the syringe tested.
The incident, which happened at Goethe International Charter School, underscores the unusual problems that can be especially challenging for a school with no support from school district bureaucracy. Charters are independently managed, a freedom considered crucial to their success. But it also means they function outside of long-developed procedures.
Goethe, which shares a Marina del Rey campus with a Los Angeles Unified School District middle school, offers German-language immersion.
Kristopher hasn't experienced any medical problems, and experts say his risk for infection from HIV, hepatitis or other pathogens is low. But his parents are unhappy about how matters were handled.
During a school day in February, a classmate apparently found a syringe in an electrical box and gave it to Kristopher. The prick probably happened when he played with the syringe during the after-school program. A staff member attended to the minor wound.
Jean and Thomas Kuerten said they learned what happened from Kristopher.
School Principal Luci Fowers declined to discuss the matter, but in an earlier e-mail to the Kuertens, she wrote that after-school program workers, who aren't employees of the school, "had been [given] misinformation about the use of the syringe to nourish plants apparently from one of our interns."
Fowers added: "No one from our [permanent] staff was on our campus at that time nor were we informed about the incident until we returned from the weekend."
At a Los Angeles Unified School District school, the nurse or a designated staff member would have provided first aid and notified the parents and the needle would have been placed in a "sharps container," said Connie Moore, the district's director of nursing.
At Goethe, the principal was out ill for a time, and it was not until eight days after the incident that she alerted the parents that the syringe was not for plants, according to e-mails from the school provided by the family.
She invited the Kuertens to pick up the needle for possible testing, but George Hills Co. claimed the needle first.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Former Glaxo Lawyer Indicted
I don't think our Judge Judith Hayes of San Diego is going to be happy about this. The Justice Department has indicted a lawyer, Lauren C. Stevens of Durham, N.C.. Hayes doesn't even want lawyers to be criticized on the Internet, much less indicted for concealing evidence and obstructing justice.
Here's what our Judge Hayes had to say on the subject to a woman who criticized a law firm on the Internet:
"Take this law firm off the website...save yourself some trouble. A lawyer does what a lawyer does in every case, and if we had people putting up websites for every lawyer they didn't like we'd have so many websites the Internet would be boggled, if that is something that can happen electronically."
--Court Reporter's transcript April 6, 2009 Dept. 68 San Diego Superior Court
Note to Judge Hayes: The Internet seems to be doing just fine despite the burden of the millions of people who express their views online. What would happen if every victim decided to expose wrongdoing by lawyers? I think the result would be a more reliable justice system in which lawyers turn over evidence instead of hiding it.
November 9, 2010
Former Glaxo Lawyer Indicted
By DUFF WILSON
New York Times
A former vice president and associate general counsel for the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been indicted on charges of making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation into illegal drug marketing, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
The criminal charges are part of the government’s long-promised crackdown on individual executives for their roles in pharmaceutical company cases, which have resulted in billions of dollars in fines and payments by the companies.
Lauren C. Stevens of Durham, N.C., is accused of lying to the Food and Drug Administration in a series of letters in 2003 denying the company had promoted a drug for off-label uses, according to federal prosecutors. She had claimed the company did not have promotional slides the F.D.A. had sought during its investigation, the indictment said...
Here's what our Judge Hayes had to say on the subject to a woman who criticized a law firm on the Internet:
"Take this law firm off the website...save yourself some trouble. A lawyer does what a lawyer does in every case, and if we had people putting up websites for every lawyer they didn't like we'd have so many websites the Internet would be boggled, if that is something that can happen electronically."
--Court Reporter's transcript April 6, 2009 Dept. 68 San Diego Superior Court
Note to Judge Hayes: The Internet seems to be doing just fine despite the burden of the millions of people who express their views online. What would happen if every victim decided to expose wrongdoing by lawyers? I think the result would be a more reliable justice system in which lawyers turn over evidence instead of hiding it.
November 9, 2010
Former Glaxo Lawyer Indicted
By DUFF WILSON
New York Times
A former vice president and associate general counsel for the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has been indicted on charges of making false statements and obstructing a federal investigation into illegal drug marketing, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday.
The criminal charges are part of the government’s long-promised crackdown on individual executives for their roles in pharmaceutical company cases, which have resulted in billions of dollars in fines and payments by the companies.
Lauren C. Stevens of Durham, N.C., is accused of lying to the Food and Drug Administration in a series of letters in 2003 denying the company had promoted a drug for off-label uses, according to federal prosecutors. She had claimed the company did not have promotional slides the F.D.A. had sought during its investigation, the indictment said...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)