Author: Justin Lane

Suspected interest-rate manipulators, Tom Hayes, Terry Farr, and James Gilmour, have pleaded not-guilty in court. Hayes, a trader formerly of UBS AG and Citigroup Inc., Farr and James, formerly traders with R.P. Martin Holdings Ltd., have been charged for manipulating the London interbank offered rate, Libor, and other benchmark rates. The not-guilty pleas present a new obstacle for prosecutors. Tom Hayes was expected to be cooperative with prosecutors and plead guilty. Prosecutors expected that Hayes played a central role in the manipulation scheme and would serve as a cooperating witness, according to the Wall Street Journal. “LIBOR has wide...

Last week, the Department of Justice announced recovery statistics for 2013. According to the DOJ’s release, the False Claims Act was responsible for $3.8 billion of recovered funds from settlements and judgments as of September 30, 2013. “The False Claims Act affords individuals seeking to combat fraud against the government with a powerful set of tools and potentially compensates them for their efforts,” commented James Kauffman, an attorney with the Levin, Papantonio law firm who practices in the area of qui tam or whistleblower and False Claims Act Litigation. “Time and again, corporations filing false claims for payment to...

Last week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that in response to market conditions, the Federal Reserve would begin to scale down its bond-buying efforts. “The Fed has scaled back its bond-buying efforts before only to restart them after disappointing performance from the economy,” commented Peter Mougey, a shareholder with the Levin, Papantonio law firm who directs the firm’s business torts and securities litigation departments. In what was his final news conference as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Bernanke commented that the economy is improved to a point that it no longer requires as much assistance from the...

If you haven’t heard about the recent controversy regarding Duck Dynasty “patriarch” Phil Robertson, you haven’t either been near a television or in the vicinity of internet access. To catch you up, Phil Robertson made some remarks in an interview regarding homosexuals. Then, the internet had a collective heart attack. The controversy itself isn’t all that interesting. A Bible-thumping redneck makes unflattering remarks about gays. Who was really, truly surprised? But there are some interesting consistencies that show up among the supporters of Phil Robertson; some predictable brand allegiances pop up again and again. The folks over at Vocativ...

Ring of Fire’s top stories from the past week. Video Rewind Just to Clarify, Limbaugh, Palin & Napolitano, Pape Francis is not a Marxist @Joshual33 Pope Francis has been making waves since his ascension to the Papacy. Referred to by many as the internet’s darling, his increased social cache and ability to garner audiences is causing him to draw fire. Interestingly enough, the fire is coming from a few right-wing talking heads who fear that the pope may be taking a turn for liberalism. … Read more. Just to Clarify, Free Speech Isn’t Guaranteed on T.V. @Joshual33 Unfortunately for the Duck Dynasty...