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After 43 Years On Run, Arkansas Asks For Fugitive To Be Returned (WSJ) - For most of his life, Lester Stiggers has lived in Michigan as a fugitive from justice. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr. Stiggers was 15 years old when he murdered his father with a 12-gauge shotgun. He claimed he “took as much as he could” from his father, whom he described as a closeted gay man who beat and threatened to kill him if he told anyone about his secret. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison. In 1970, during a five-day authorized absence from prison, Mr. Stiggers fled to Michigan and never came back....now Arkansas wants him back in state prison.
Ponzi Scheme in India Leads to Victim Suicides (PonziTracker) - As investors begin to come to terms with a Ponzi scheme that is estimated to have duped hundreds of thousands of Indian investors out of billions of dollars, details are beginning to emerge about the scheme and its mastermind, while suicides continue to mount in a grim reminder of the true human toll of Ponzi schemes. In a script perhaps better suited for a Hollywood movie, there are tales of bribes paid to politicians, a factory where workers pretended to work to impress potential investors, and a mastermind so opposed to having his picture taken that his website simply features a picture of an empty chair in his stead. Now, two weeks after the scheme unraveled, many are trying to piece together what is likely the largest scam in India's history.
Justice Safety Valve Act (WSJ) - There are few topics on which leading Democratic and Republican voices agree these days. But the recently introduced Justice Safety Valve Act of 2013—which would authorize federal judges to impose prison terms below statutory mandatory minimums in some cases—represents a new bipartisan effort at addressing America's overcrowded prisons and bloated budget. Passage of the act, though, will depend on President Obama and his Justice Department getting behind it.
Philip Falcone Settles With SEC (WSJ) - Philip Falcone, a onetime hedge-fund star who hit a string of major defeats, is facing his most daunting challenge yet: A two-year ban from the securities industry that made him a billionaire. Mr. Falcone agreed to the ban as part of a pact he and his firm, Harbinger Capital Partners LLC, reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle civil fraud charges. Harbinger will pay $18 million without admitting or denying the allegations, according to a regulatory filing Thursday by Harbinger Group Inc.
Four U.S. Immigration Officials Charged With Bribery (LA Times) - Attorney Kwang Man "John" Lee, authorities say, was a man who could make things happen — for a price. For a pound of marijuana and $44,000, the Koreatown attorney allegedly said, he could get an immigrant client a U.S. citizenship. "Price is OK for the risk," Lee told an associate, according to federal authorities.
U.S. Prosecutors Want 11 Years In Prison for 3 Ex-UBS Execs in Muni-Bond Scandal (Bloomberg) - Three former UBS AG (UBSN) executives convicted of bid-rigging should get prison terms ranging from more than 11 years to almost 20, U.S. prosecutors argued. A New York jury in August found former UBS managing director Peter Ghavami and two co-workers, Gary Heinz and Michael Welty, guilty of rigging auctions for contracts to invest the proceeds of municipal bond sales. They are to be sentenced this month.
Here's what we are reading today:
Here's what we are reading:
