June 30, 2007 — The founder of one of the nation’s hottest retailing bank empires, Commerce Bancorp, yesterday stepped down amid a widespread scandal involving his friends and family who were collecting millions from the company with insider vendor contracts. The ouster of Vernon Hill, 61, chairman, CEO and president, sent the company stock soaring by 9.4 percent - and even enriched the dethroned star of community banking by $19 million on his own personal stake. Investors said...
NETELLER FOUNDER PLEADS GUILTY
June 30th, 2007
June 30, 2007 — A founder of NETeller PLC, a payment processor for gambling Web sites, pleaded guilty to the illegal transfer of billions of dollars from U.S. citizens to overseas gambling companies.
Stephen Lawrence, 47, a former director of the Isle of Man-based company, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy before U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in New York. He agreed to forfeit $100 million and to help prosecutors with their investigation of the transfers. Lawrence and John Lefebvre, another founder and ex-director, were arrested Jan. 15 on charges of conspiring to promote illegal offshore gambling.
“I became aware that the U.S. had legislation barring certain transactions online,” Lawrence told the judge, who set a sentencing date for Oct. 29. “With this knowledge, I came to understand that providing payment services to online gambling businesses serving customers in the United States was wrong.”
Lawrence faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, the judge said. His arrest is part of a U.S. crackdown on Internet gambling.
« Analysis: Global problem, global solution
By ROSALIE WESTENSKOW UPI Correspondent WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) — A U.S. effort to cooperate with global partners presents the only viable way to mitigate climate change and ease national security threats, experts say. As global temperatures rise, the array of dangers facing the United States will also increase, triggered by foreign forces and natural disasters. A surge in sea levels could cause flooding in America’s coastal areas, where more than half of the population lives,...