Eideard

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Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have dropped their criminal investigation into Angelo R. Mozilo, the former chief executive of Countrywide Financial, once the nation’s largest mortgage lender…

The closure of the case after two years of inquiry follows last October’s settlement by Mr. Mozilo of insider trading allegations made by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Regulators had contended that Mr. Mozilo sold $140 million in Countrywide stock between 2006 and 2007 even as he recognized that his company was faltering. Countrywide and Bank of America paid $45 million of Mr. Mozilo’s $67.5 million settlement, and he was responsible for the rest.

Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Mr. Mozilo agreed to be banned from serving as an officer or a director of a public company.

The conclusion by prosecutors that Mr. Mozilo, 72, did not engage in criminal conduct while directing Countrywide will likely fuel broad concerns that few high-level executives of financial companies are being held accountable for the actions that led to the financial crisis of 2008.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been lost by investors while millions of borrowers have lost their homes. Few of the people who ran the institutions that contributed to the disaster have been found liable…

Even as criminal and civil prosecutors are closing investigations into financial executives, private litigation is swelling. Investors who purchased dubious mortgage securities are bringing a wide array of cases against mortgage lenders and the Wall Street firms that enabled them. These investors maintain, citing internal documents and e-mails, that those putting together mortgage securities knew that they contained problematic loans that would likely fail…

In his years at Countrywide, Mr. Mozilo became one of the highest-paid executives in America. From 2000 until 2008, when he left, Mr. Mozilo received total compensation of $521.5 million…

Mozilo received a pat on the butt and wall-to-wall money from Bank of America on his departure. A historically criminal act even if the Department of Justice and the SEC feel successful prosecution at this time is unlikely. The operative phrase being “at this time”.

As civil cases proceed, the Feds retain the right to acquire information from those lawsuits to predicate future criminal prosecution against this creep. Still, it’s a sad day when the attitudes, premises and culture of American jurisprudence continues to bend over backwards to avoid criminal proceedings against the greedy bastards who brought down this economic house of cards.

A group of male commuters travelling in a women-only carriage on New Delhi’s metro system were ordered to do sit-ups on the platform by the furious female passengers.

At least one carriage is reserved for women on every metro train in the Indian capital, where female residents and tourists have complained about sexual harassment on public transport for decades.

The metro has also become severely congested with the lines expanding into the suburbs over the last year and most regular carriages packed to capacity.

Police on Saturday led a crackdown of men using women’s carriages at a station in Gurgaon, a satellite development on the outskirts of Delhi, after a series of complaints – and women passengers joined in the action.

The offending commuters were made to pay a fine of 250 rupees while angry women slapped some of them and forced them to do sit-ups.

Har! That’s a genuine “Gotcha!”

Michael Wiles, 29, was seen on Melbourne’s busy Eastern Freeway effectively “wearing” the barbecue as he carried it home after finding it by the side of the road.

He had inserted his body through the wooden frame and was peering through a protruding steel grate to see his way as he drove along at speeds of up to 46mph.

Police investigated after his antics were photographed from a passing car. The picture later found its way on to the internet and was widely circulated in emails.

Mr Wiles, a New Zealander who lives in the Australian city of Melbourne, admitted the charge when he appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Paul McClure, his defence lawyer, said Mr Wiles’s excuse was “lack of thought processes” at the time and poverty…

Mr McClure said his client had been approached by a barbecue company to appear in an advertisement after his photograph was published but he had declined to do so.

Lionel Winton-Smith, the presiding magistrate, said he could not recall a case like it in his years on the bench. “I’m trying to think of a word to describe it,” he said.

“Ridiculous?” suggested Mr McClure.

“Ridiculous. That will do,” agreed the magistrate.

He fined Mr Wiles A$800 and disqualified him from driving for one month.

Having done similar silliness I can’t really criticize Mr. Wiles for what he did.

No – it wasn’t any brighter when I did it. But, then, I wasn’t caught.

Britain’s financial regulator has fined and banned a former broker for manipulating oil prices by buying more than 7 million barrels while on a drinking binge.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said it fined Steven Perkins, a former employee of PVM Oil Futures Ltd, $108,000 and banned him from working in financial services for at least five years for carrying out trades without the authority of clients or his employer.

The FSA said Perkins bought huge volumes of Brent crude oil

in the early hours of the morning on June 30, 2009 after drinking heavily for several days and then lied repeatedly to his employer to cover up his actions…

The trades landed PVM with a loss of $10 million last summer. The company is the world’s largest independent oil broker, executing trades on behalf of clients but not carrying out trading for its own account…

Perkins’ unauthorized trading pushed the price of Brent crude oil futures up to almost $73.50 a barrel — at that point the highest level prices had hit on the InterContinental Exchange in 2009.

In the days leading up to the trades, Perkins had been drinking heavily at a company golf weekend and had carried on drinking on the Monday afternoon, the FSA said…

The ruling marks only the second action by the FSA against market abuse in commodities in London…

“I suspect they’re trying to seem tough, to look like they’re doing something,” one broker said. “I remain unconvinced they truly understand commodity markets or can get to grips with them.”

What do you think the odds might be, say, of the SEC walking into the NYSE some Monday morning and having traders pee in a cup – to check for cocaine?

Har!

Nine chip makers have been fined 331 million euros by European Union regulators for illegally fixing prices.

The companies involved are Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Elpida and Nanya.

A 10th chip maker, Micron, was also part of the price-fixing cartel but escaped a fine in return for alerting the competition authorities.

The chips – DRAMS – are used in popular items such as personal computers.

Samsung received the biggest single fine of 146m euros. The second biggest was 57m euros, which was levied on Germany’s Infineon…

The cartel, in operation between 1998 and 2002, involved a “network of contacts” who shared secret information. They colluded to set prices for DRAM chips sold to major PC makers and server manufacturers…

All but one of the companies, Germany’s Infineon, are non-EU businesses.

But, they surely were making a bundle from their sales into the European Union.

The next obvious question? What’s happening with these firms in the United States?

German citizens are responsible for the security of their own private wireless connections, a court has ruled.

The ruling comes after a musician sued the owner of a network connection that had been used to illegally download and file-share music.

The owner had proof that the householder was on holiday at the time but the court ruled that the network should have been password-protected.

The court’s verdict was that the owner could be fined up to 100 euros. “Private users are obligated to check whether their wireless connection is adequately secured to the danger of unauthorized third parties abusing it to commit copyright violation,” the court in Karlsruhe said.

While it did not find the owner guilty of actual copyright violation the ruling was that the person must take a degree of responsibility for their connection being used to break the law…

Even if there isn’t a legal issue, there could still be an issue if your broadband provider or package has a limit on how much you can use your connection or terms and conditions about how it should be used.”

Har!

Good thing we needn’t worry about this happening in the GOUSA. Americans aren’t responsible for anything, you know.

A French Muslim woman has been fined for wearing a full-face veil while driving a car.

Police in the western city of Nantes said the veil – which showed only her eyes – restricted her vision and could have caused an accident.

The woman’s lawyer says they will appeal against the decision, which he described as a breach of human rights…

After stopping the 31-year-old woman – who has not been named – police asked her to raise her veil to confirm her identity, which she did.

They then fined her 22 euros, saying her clothing posed a “safety risk“.

“This fine is not justified on road safety grounds and constitutes a breach of human and women’s rights,” her lawyer, Jean-Michel Pollono, told AFP news agency.

He said the woman’s field of vision was not obstructed and added that a veil was no different from a motorcycle helmet in terms of hindrance to vision…

“The ball is clearly in the authorities’ court,” he said. “Currently no law forbids the wearing of the niqab…”

Think about it. Reflect. Who has reason on their side?

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

It was an understated gesture, but one that reverberated around the footballing world.

When Frederic Kanoute scored for Seville against Deportivo La Coruna last week in the Copa del Rey he slowly lifted his jersey and revealed a black shirt embossed with the word ‘Palestine’ in various languages.

Within a few seconds it was gone but by then Kanoute, a French-born Muslim who plays for Mali, had made his political point.

It earned him a booking for lifting his shirt and, later, a €3,000 fine for breaking article 120 of the Spanish FA’s rule book which states that “revealing messages of a religious or political nature on the pitch is strictly prohibited during the time of play.”

High profile players like Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o also lined up to praise Kanoute’s actions.

Good for you. There’s never a shortage of nay-sayers who wish that opposition to the politics of death and destruction was somehow more discrete. I’d hope the next time Freddy Kanoute steps on the pitch, the Seville crowd will applaud a little bit louder.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures

Three Singaporeans have been jailed after being charged with contempt of court for showing up at Singapore’s Supreme Court wearing T-shirts depicting kangaroos in judges robes.

Isrizal Bin Mohamed Isa and Muhammad Shafi’ie Syahmi Bin Sariman were sentenced to seven days’ jail, while Tan Liang Joo John received 15 days imprisonment. They were each ordered to pay $3,305 in costs.

Tan is the Assistant Secretary-General of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, led by Chee Soon Juan.

The three had worn the T-shirts at a court hearing in May to determine the damages that Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin were to pay after being found guilty of defaming Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former leader Lee Kuan Yew.

I think that’s more than apt – describing the courts in modern-day Singapore.