Business News
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- Written by: Editor
SACRAMENTO – Seeking to recover more than $200 million in illegal overcharges and penalties, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Tuesday announced that he has filed suit against State Street Bank and Trust – one of the world's leading providers of financial services to institutional investors – for committing "unconscionable fraud" against California's two largest pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS.
The suit, which was unsealed Tuesday by a Sacramento Superior Court judge, contends that Boston-based State Street illegally overcharged CalPERS and CalSTRS for the costs of executing foreign currency trades since 2001.
"Over a period of eight years, State Street bankers committed unconscionable fraud by misappropriating millions of dollars that rightfully belonged to California's public pension funds," Brown said. "This is just the latest example of how clever financial traders violate laws and rip off the public trust."
The case was originally filed under seal by whistleblowers - "Associates Against FX Insider Trading," who alleged that State Street added a secret and substantial mark-up to the price of interbank foreign currency trades. The interbank rate is the price at which major banks buy and sell foreign currency.
Subsequently, Brown launched an independent investigation into the allegations.
Brown's investigation revealed that State Street was indeed overcharging the two funds. Despite being contractually obligated to charge the interbank rate at the precise time of the trade, State Street consistently charged at or near the highest rate of the day, even if the interbank rate was lower at the time of trade.
Additionally, State Street concealed the fraud by deliberately failing to include time stamp data in its reports, so that the pension funds could not determine the true execution costs by verifying when State Street actually executed the trades.
Commenting on this deception, one State Street senior vice president said to another executive that "…if providing execution costs will give [CalPERS] any insight into how much we make off of FX transactions, I will be shocked if [State Street] or anyone would agree to reveal the information."
Brown's office estimates that the pension funds were overcharged by more than $56.6 million over eight years. The lawsuit asks for relief in the amount of triple California's damages, civil penalties of $10,000 for each false claim; and recovery of costs, attorneys' fees and expenses. It is estimated that damages and penalties could exceed more than $200 million.
Under California's False Claims Act, anyone who has previously undisclosed information about a fraud, overcharge, or other false claim against the state, can file a sealed lawsuit on behalf of California to recover the losses. They must notify the Attorney General as well.
Such a case is called a "qui tam" case. If there is a monetary recovery, the law provides that the whistleblower "qui tam plaintiff" receives a share of the amount recovered if the requirements of the statute are met.
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A positive attitude is required.
Duties include clerical and answering phones. You'll learn a lot about Lake County.
For more information, call the Clear Lake Chamber at 707-994-3600.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
On Sunday, Nov. 8, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. a social media meetup workshop is scheduled to be held in the dining area of the Hidden Valley Food Mart. The workshop will be a team effort by Mark Rudiger of Lake County Websites and Lamar Morgan of CDMM-Synergistic Business Marketing.
The workshop will make use of the dining area's 42-inch HDTV to showcase in slides ways small businesses can benefit from being in the social media space on the Internet. This will include ways to help your computer run more efficiently and effectively.
Free flash drives will be handed out with special software programs to enhance your computer's operation. There also will be a hands-on demonstration of how to rid your computer of the old files that slow it down.
Pokens will also be introduced into the mix. A Poken is a flash drive device that transfers social media data between people at the touch of a four-fingered Poken hand. Pokens are spreading in popularity around the world – especially at business networking events – including Tweetups, meetups, BNI functions and chamber of commerce meetings. For some, a Poken is "the new business card" of the 21st century. Pokens have already been utilized by IBM to help conduct major business conferences.
The Hidden Valley Food Mart has set itself up as a free WiFi hot spot. Folks can now do more than simply get the car filled up with gas and purchase groceries at the convenience store off Highway 29.
Soon you should be seeing a large, four-foot blue sign out by Highway29 announcing that Hidden Valley Food Mart is a free WiFi hot spot. The Internet access is made possible by AT&T/Yahoo and is high-speed DSL. However, the WiFi signal is also being made secure. That is being accomplished by The WiFi Co. of Colorado, which also provides an advertising splash page for branding purposes.
All those desiring to attend the upcoming workshop at the Hidden Valley Food Mart are encouraged to call 707-709-8605 for more information and to make a reservation.
The fee to attend the workshop is $30 (which includes a free flash drive you can take home and use with your computer).
Bringing one's laptop is encouraged because hands-on help will be available during the two-hour workshop. Seating is limited.
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- Written by: AAA Northern California
“Although gas prices are trickling down in California, market optimism about the possibility of an improving economy, and thus, an increased demand for oil, has led to a slight increase in the average national price over the past few days.” said AAA Northern California spokesperson Matt Skryja.
According to the latest report from AAA Northern California, which tracks gasoline prices as a service to consumers, California’s average gas price is the third highest among all 50 states. The Golden State’s average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is averaging $3.02, down 9 cents since last month’s report on September 8. For perspective, that’s 45 cents less than California’s average price on this date last year, when it was $3.47.
Northern California gas prices are now averaging $3.02, down 10 cents from last month. In the San Francisco Bay Area, motorists can expect to pay an average price of $3.16, a 3 cent drop. The national average price of $2.48 is down by 10 cents, which is still 73 cents cheaper than the national price on this date last year, when it was $3.21.
Over the past few days, the primary factor behind rising oil prices appears to be optimism among commodities investors that a global economic recovery is developing. Contrary to this view is government data from last week, which showed gasoline stocks were higher than originally anticipated. This may indicate that demand is down and a recovery could be delayed.
“For consumers, keeping a proper perspective is always the key when looking at where gas prices are going,” said Skryja. “Investors are constantly chasing daily economic and consumer demand data as indicators of how much oil they should buy on the market. But for consumers, a long term view is more helpful, because it allows for daily fluctuations that don’t necessarily have much impact on the price at the pump.”
The least expensive average price in Northern California can be found in Marysville where unleaded is $2.79. Of all the metro areas in Northern California where gas prices are tracked by AAA, Eureka and Yreka have the highest average price at $3.29, which is also the highest price in the lower 48 states. Tahoe City is close behind with an average price of $3.28.
The least expensive gasoline in the country is found in Springfield, Missouri where the average price of gas is $2.21. Wailuku, Hawaii, holds the crown for the highest average price in the nation, with $3.63 per gallon.
AAA Monthly Gas Price Averages: October 13, 2009
City/State/Region Price Monthly Change City/State/Region Price Monthly Change
NATIONAL 2.48 - .10 SAN MATEO 3.14 - .07
CALIFORNIA 3.02 - .09 SAN RAFAEL 3.13 - .01
N. CALIFORNIA 3.02 - .10 SANTA CRUZ 3.02 - .10
BAY AREA 3.16 - .03 SANTA ROSA 3.06 - .06
CHICO 2.89 - .18 STOCKTON 2.92 - .14
CONCORD 3.03 - .12 TAHOE CITY 3.28 - .02
EUREKA 3.29 - .06 TRACY 2.97 - .09
FREMONT 2.99 - .09 UKIAH 3.03 - .06
FRESNO 2.97 - .18 VALLEJO 3.01 - .09
MARYSVILLE 2.79 - .25 YREKA 3.29 + .02
MODESTO 2.92 - .14 Elsewhere…
MONTEREY 3.07 - .08 LAS VEGAS 2.62 - .10
OAKLAND 3.08 - .07 LOS ANGELES 3.02 - .07
PLEASANTON 3.10 - .06 NEW YORK CITY 2.75 - .15
REDDING 2.93 - .18 WASHINGTON, DC 2.55 - .10
SACRAMENTO 2.94 - .14
SALINAS 2.94 - .15
SAN FRANCISCO 3.17 - .02
SAN JOSE 3.04 - .08
One way consumers can reduce the amount of money they spend on fuel is to shop aggressively for the lowest price. The AAA Gas Price Finder makes it easy to locate low gas prices at home and when traveling. This online tool provides updated price information for more than 85,000 gas stations throughout the United States and Canada. Start saving today at www.aaa.com/gasprices .
AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report is the most comprehensive retail gasoline survey available, with over 85,000 self-serve stations surveyed everyday nationwide. Data is provided in cooperation with OPIS Energy Group and Wright Express LLC.
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