Financial PR Firms Walk a Thin Line

$4.8m conspiracy earned cash, luxe rewards

(NEWSER) - A former Lehman Brothers broker was charged yesterday in a $4.8 million insider trading scheme built on his PR-exec wife’s knowledge of upcoming mergers, the AP reports. Matthew Devlin passed information to friends and associates (including former Playboy model Maria Checa), and won cash, luxury goods, and tuition for a Porsche driving school in return, the SEC said. His antics earned the couple the nickname “the golden goose.” More»

Three employees accessed confidential medical records

(NEWSER) - The University Medical Center in Tucson has fired three employees for illicitly accessing confidential medical records on the victims of Saturday’s shooting. The hospital is playing host to six of the people injured in the shooting, including Gabrielle Giffords, according to the Arizona Daily Star . Administrators announced the firings yesterday, saying they didn’t believe any of the patients’ confidential info had been made public. The families of the affected patients have been notified. More»

Oracle of Omaha missed message that may have saved Lehman Brothers

(NEWSER) - If Warren Buffett knew how to use his cell phone, the financial world might be in better shape, blogs Karen Tumulty of Time. Just before Lehman Brothers collapsed last year, a Barclays executive attempting to rescue the firm with an assist from Buffett left a message on the Oracle of Omaha's phone. Problem is, Buffett never got the message—until 10 months later, when he noticed the blinking indicator and asked his daughter to figure it out. More»

Deal to give UK giant a US presence believed to be worth about $2B

(NEWSER) - Barclays has reached a deal to buy part of Lehman Brothers’ US business, the Financial Times reports. Lehman’s international divisions could eventually be brought into the deal, or the deal could allow for their acquisition later. Exact terms are unclear, but the Wall Street Journal adds that the figure will be around $2 billion. More»

(NEWSER) - In a day of toppling dominoes on Wall Street, Bank of America agreed to buy Merrill Lynch for $44 billion, or $29 a share—about two-thirds of what it was worth a year ago and 50% of its highest value in 2007, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal, struck over 2 days of intense negotiations, reconfigures the US banking world by making the nation's biggest bank even more powerful. More»