Mortgage exec accused in multibillion-dollar fraud
Federal prosecutors Wednesday accused the former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, once one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, of masterminding a fraud scheme that cheated investors and the federal government out of billions of dollars and led to last year's failure of Colonial Bank.
Lee B. Farkas was arrested late Tuesday in Ocala, Fla., after a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted him on 16 counts of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against Farkas in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
BP shareholders watch losses grow
BP is so big, and its stock is so widely held, that its troubles are being felt throughout the investment world.
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Large insurance companies in Britain and big money management companies in the United States rank among the company's largest stockholders.
BP may be British, but Americans own half its stock. After weeks of gut-churning market losses, shareholders were dealt another blow Wednesday when BP announced that it would suspend paying dividends for the rest of the year and establish a $20 billion fund to pay claims arising from the worst spill in American history.
