Madoff to be charged this week

Bernard Madoff exits Manhattan federal court.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Tuesday unsealed a document that charged Bernard Madoff with 11 felony counts including securities fraud, money laundering, perjury and making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The charges against Mr. Madoff underscore that much of the money stolen from investors ended up paying other investors. The revelations in the document likely will dash the hopes of Mr. Madoff’s burned investors that he stocked away a large cache of money that could be retrieved and returned to them.  Mr. Madoff is expected to plead guilty to the charges on Thursday. If found guilty of all counts, Mr. Madoff, who has been free on bail since his arrest on Dec. 11, faces a maximum of 150 years in prison. Legal experts expect the actual sentence to be much lower but would still be an effective life sentence for the 70-year-old.  The charges were filed in what is called a criminal information, a document that details the crimes prosecutors say he committed. The document was filed by prosecutors in lieu of a grand jury indictment, which Mr. Madoff waived        Breaking news

Spitzer is back: in realestate

Eliot Spitzer is buying 1615 L St. NW in Washington, above.

Eliot Spitzer is returning to Washington, D.C., but this time as an investor in the commercial real-estate market.

The former New York governor, who resigned in disgrace a year ago after getting caught patronizing a prostitute in a Washington hotel, has purchased a prominent office building blocks from the White House through his father’s real-estate company.

The Spitzers are paying $180 million to buy 1615 L St. NW, a 13-story dark-glass building whose tenants include the public-relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, the Washington outpost of the Nixon Presidential Library and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

The move is part of the ex-governor’s re-emergence into public life and a renewed interest in the successful real-estate business founded by his father, Bernard Spitzer. In an interview, Mr. Spitzer spoke about the investment, the economy and about his new life in business after “a detour along the way” as New York’s attorney general and governor.

“Obviously it brought great joy for a great period of time,” Mr. Spitzer said about his years in government. Mr. Spitzer declined to discuss the scandal that led to his resignation.        Breaking News

Manufacturing and Construction showing persistent weakness

WASHINGTON – A private measure of the nation’s manufacturing sector contracted for the 13th straight month in February, but at a slower pace than expected. Construction spending also shrank.

The reading suggested to some economists that the decline of the ailing factory sector could be bottoming out, though they expect a recovery is still far in the future.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said Monday its manufacturing index actually rose to 35.8 from 35.6 in January. Analysts had expected a drop to 33.8, and a reading below 50 indicates the sector is shrinking.        Breaking News

AIG: Fourth installment, 30 billion in loan guarentees

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Struggling insurer American International Group Inc. will receive up to $30 billion in additional federal assistance in the fourth government rescue of the company, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The new infusion is intended to prop up AIG — once the world’s largest insurer — as it is expected to announce $60 billion in quarterly losses early Monday, the source said on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are still ongoing. The company, which is considered too large to fail, previously received about $150 billion in loans from the government, which now has an 80 percent stake in the company.

Under the new deal, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve would provide about $30 billion in fresh capital to AIG from the government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP. The money would be provided as a standby line of equity that AIG could tap as its losses mount, the source said.        Breaking News

Worst year ever for Berkshire Hathaway

Insurance, Stock Holdings Are Hit; Buffett Warns of Bubble in Treasurys

The man considered by many to be the greatest investor of all time just had his worst year ever.  Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the large holding company steered by Warren Buffett, reported Saturday that its far-flung empire, ranging from insurance to ice cream to underwear, took some big hits from the sharp economic downturn in 2008.

A common metric Berkshire uses to track performance, book value per share, fell 9.6% in 2008, its biggest decline since Mr. Buffett took over the company in 1965 when it was a family-run East Coast textile maker.  Berkshire’s report was yet another stark sign of the severity of the financial crisis that continues to roil stock markets and businesses around the world. It was only the second year in more than 40 years that Berkshire’s book value per share fell; it was down 6.2% in 2001.         Breaking News

GM says Opel will be a seperate unit

GM Europe CEO Carl-Peter Forster says Opel is in need of capital.

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) — General Motors’ European division announced Friday that its German subsidiary, Opel cars, will become an independent unit of the company.

Under the restructuring plan, announced by GM Europe on Friday, the company will ask for a more than $4 billion bailout from Germany and the governments of other European countries that have Opel plants, GM Europe CEO Carl-Peter Forster said at a news conference.

“We are in need of capital that we hope to get with the help of the public sector of about 3.3 billion euros,” said Forster, who was speaking at Opel’s main plant in Ruesselsheim, Germany. “With this aid, we believe that we can lead this company to a very profitable future.”  The plan will be presented to the German government Monday, he said. Opel would like to become fully independent of GM, but it will need taxpayer money to stay alive.        Breaking News

Parked boxcars raise complaints among residents of an Indiana Hamlet

Rail cars idled by the slump in shipping caused by the recession, have sat for months on tracks in New Castle ind. Residents complain the cars cause shadows over homes that sit as close as 10 feet from the tracks.

NEW CASTLE, Ind. — Folks here figured the mile-long stretch of a hundred-plus yellow rail cars, which divides this small town like a graffiti-covered wall, would leave soon after it arrived.

That was a year ago.

“They stayed and they stayed and they stayed,” says Bruce Atkinson, a local resident. “Then more moved in.”

Tens of thousands of boxcars are sitting idle all over the country, parked indefinitely by railroads whose freight volumes have plummeted along with the economy.

Residents of the communities stuck with these newly immobile objects, like the people of New Castle, are hopping mad about it.

Before February 2008, boxcars were a fleeting sight in this hamlet of 17,500 people 50 miles east of Indianapolis. For decades, no more than one or two trains a day traveled down the sleepy short-haul line that cuts through town.        Breaking News

Beating up bernie takes on a new meaning

An Australian toy designer has created a surprise hit with a doll of the US financier, Bernard Madoff, who is accused of a $50bn (£35bn) fraud.

The Smash-Me Bernie figurine wears a devil’s red suit, carries a pitchfork and comes with a golden hammer for smashing the doll into pieces.

Creator Graeme Warring said he came up with the idea after a friend of his lost money in the scandal.        Breaking News

Stanford probe widens

R. Allan Stanford

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford was operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors around the globe, people familiar with the matter said.

These people said the Justice Department is investigating Mr. Stanford, who was hit with civil charges Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with an alleged $8 billion investment fraud.

On Thursday, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents served Mr. Stanford with the SEC civil lawsuit in Fredericksburg, Va., the FBI and SEC said.

SEC officials had said this week that Mr. Stanford’s whereabouts were unknown.         Breaking News

The demand for gas is creeping upward, pushing up oil prices

Months after soaring fuel prices spurred U.S. drivers to cut back on their driving, demand for gasoline is slowly coming back, helping to push up depressed oil prices.

Demand for gasoline has nudged up above last year’s levels for the past couple of weeks, government data released Thursday show. Gas prices have been hovering under $2 a gallon since November, but now that they have been low for a while, consumers might be getting bolder about their gasoline use, analysts say.

In response, refiners who had dramatically curtailed production have begun ramping up gasoline output, drawing an additional 16,000 barrels of oil a day from storage last week, compared with the previous week. The nation’s oil stocks, which had been swelling to record levels, dropped last week for the first time in almost two months, driving crude-oil futures up $4.86, or 14%, to settle at $39.48 a barrel Thursday after two days of declines.        Breaking News