A round-up of today's other stories in brief.
Thirteen face insider trading charges in US
The US government yesterday charged 13 people, including employees at major Wall Street banks, with securities fraud, wire fraud, bribery and other charges in what authorities are calling one of the most pervasive insider trading rings in years.
Michael Garcia, US attorney for the southern district of New York, said the insider trading schemes involved a UBS Securities executive who is accused of selling information about upcoming analyst upgrades and downgrades, and a former Morgan Stanley attorney accused of giving out information about mergers and acquisitions.
Prosecutors said that two brokers at Assent LLC found out about the scheme involving the UBS executive and blackmailed some of the people involved.
In addition, prosecutors charged that a Banc of America Securities representative allocated shares of initial public offerings and secondary offerings to a hedge fund, Q Capital, for cash kickbacks.
Prosecutors said that all 13 people had been arrested and four had pleaded guilty .- (Reuters)
Microsoft warned of more EU fines
Microsoft was yesterday dealt a serious setback in its long-running antitrust battle with the European Commission, when Brussels threatened to impose yet another massive fine on the US software group for failing to comply with a landmark competition ruling handed down almost three years ago.
Europe's top antitrust regulator yesterday issued a new set of charges against Microsoft, a step that is likely to result in another ruling and a new fine.
Since the inquiry opened more than eight years ago, Microsoft has been fined close to €780 million for abusing its dominant market position and failing to respect the regulator's ruling.
The Commission refused to comment on the size of any new fine that could arise from yesterday's charges.
However, Brussels could - in the worst-case scenario for Microsoft - hit the group with a penalty in excess of €800 million.
Viacom website traffic soars
Viacom said yesterday that traffic to its MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon websites rose sharply over the past month, validating its decision to force YouTube, the video sharing site bought by Google, to remove all Viacom video clips.
The media group said it had been "heartened by the broad industry support" for its move against YouTube last month to force it to remove more than 100,000 video clips from the site.
The action followed a break- down in negotiations between Viacom and YouTube to license video content that was being widely watched without copyright permission on YouTube.
Since Viacom's move last month, NBC Universal and CS have also taken a more aggressive stance towards YouTube. - (Financial Times service)
Gazprom, BP may form joint venture
Gazprom yesterday said it was discussing forming an international joint venture with BP to sell liquefied natural gas, which the Russian energy company said could presage further co-operation with the British oil group.
Lord Browne, BP's chief executive, held talks in Moscow yesterday with Alexei Miller, his counterpart at Gazprom, as the two companies sought ways to settle a stand-off that has dogged TNK-BP, BP's Russia venture.
A Gazprom official said the discussions could mark the beginning of "wider co-operation between the two companies in oil and gas development in Russia and abroad".
BP said talks on an international joint venture were "in the very early days". - (Financial Times service)
