More Madoff Accomplices Nabbed

Federal prosecutors have charged two men with providing the technical support that enabled Bernie Madoff to conduct his massive Ponzi scheme. The Wall Street Journal says, “They face a maximum of 30 years in prison for allegedly conspiring to falsify the books and records of the firm, as well as creating programs that enabled Mr. Madoff to generate thousands of client account statements and fraudulent reports that fooled regulators and investors.” The New York Times says that, according to complaints, “After a confrontation with Mr. Madoff in September 2006, they demanded pay raises and bonuses—what securities regulators called ‘hush money’—and agreed to remain silent about the fraud.”

Also from the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart (WMT) wants to give its suppliers a break in time for the holidays by offering them a new way to finance deliveries. Under the “Supplier Alliance Program,” certain suppliers “can get payment for their orders in 10 to 15 days within its receipt of goods, compared with the more typical 60 to 90 days.” The paper explains: “Under the program, suppliers can sell their Wal-Mart invoices to the retailer's partner banks … at interest rates based partly on Wal-Mart's credit rating. In traditional factoring, lenders give manufacturers cash for their receivables and collect payments on those invoices.”

Two months after Google (GOOG) initiated its map-embedded photography feature, Street View, in Switzerland, the country’s “data protection watchdog” is working hard to get the it taken down, the Financial Times reports. The paper says, “Hanspeter Thür, the federal data protection and information commissioner, said Google had not done enough to make faces and vehicle number plates unrecognisable on the service, which provides panoramic, street-level photos.” While the service has raised privacy concerns in other countries around the world, this marks the first time Google has been sued by a government agency over the feature.

The Washington Post says that Europe “has officially climbed out of its worst recession since World War II.” According to numbers released yesterday, the 16 nations using the euro finished the most recent quarter with 0.4 percent growth, as opposed to a 0.2 percent contraction in the previous quarter. While this may prompt one big collective sigh of relief, the paper says that the good news isn’t cause for celebration just yet. The Post writes, “At the same time, economies in emerging giants such as China and Brazil are roaring ahead. Though several countries in Europe—most notably Britain, Spain and Ireland—are still mired in sharp downturns, even troubled nations such as Italy are beginning to post positive growth.”

Caffeinated alcoholic drinks may soon be banned by the FDA, the New York Times reports. In a statement released yesterday, the agency warned close to 30 drink manufacturers that if their products are proven to be unsafe, they’ll be taken off the market. The FDA is worried about consumption of these beverages—which contain alcohol concentrations of about 10 percent—especially by college students. The paper says, “Caffeine may lead people to underestimate how drunk they are, giving drinkers a false sense of confidence that they can perform tasks they are too impaired to undertake.”

And finally, Congress is investigating the fees that airlines are increasingly using as way to bring in revenue without bumping up ticket prices. While the fees are a bother for travelers, it seems that lawmakers aren’t happy with them either. But it’s not the traveler’s piggy banks they're worried about filling up. The New York Times says, “The reason for the Congressional interest is money. Fees, for the most part, are not taxed, so the government is concerned it is missing out on extra revenue that could help airports.”