Orascom plans phone service in NKorea
Miami Herald - Egyptian wireless company Orascom plans to invest up to $400 million in a new mobile phone network in North Korea, one of the world’s poorest and most tightly controlled societies. Hatim E. El Gammal, an investor relations official with Orascom

Nexity Financial Announces Fourth Quarter Results
MSN MoneyCentral - Nexity generates the majority of its income through wholesale correspondent banking activities. Nexity is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Customer Service Representatives can be reached at 1-877-738-6391. To learn more about Nexity Bank

Forecast of further writedowns adds to gloom in Swiss banking
Times On the internet - Switzerland’s banking regulator sent another shudder through the sector yesterday by hinting that further credit-related writedowns were imminent. Swiss banking is reeling from the big provisions taken by UBS to prop up reserves against investment

Microdynamics Group Acquires MetroGroup Transaction Services
Forbes - The transaction was facilitated by the investment banking firm Duff & Phelps in their capacity as advisor to MetroGroup Holding. MetroGroup Transaction Services (”MTS”) has highly specialized facilities in Glendale Heights, Illinois and Seward

The CEO Shuffle
Forbes - For 2007, the industries with the highest overall CEO turnover are banking (19%), petroleum refining (8.5%) and utilities (7%). In 2006, none of the banking CEOs who left were from American companies, while in 2007, it’s been a very different story

Morgan Stanley Investment Management Releases Institutional Closed-End
Forbes - Morgan Stanley is a leading global financial services firm providing a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services. The Firm’s employees serve clients worldwide including corporations

Tokyo shares outlook - Higher on Wall Street’s rally after bond
Forbes - Stocks to watch include Mizuho Financial Group (nyse: MFG - news - people ) after the banking group said it now anticipates group-wide losses stemming from subprime loans and other securitized investment cars to reach 395 billion

F.N.B. Capital Corporation Invests in Regional Steel Company
Forbes - PITTSBURGH, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — F.N.B. Capital Corporation, LLC, the Pittsburgh-based merchant banking subsidiary of F.N.B. Corporation (NYSE: FNB), has provided capital financing for the buy of Marwas Steel Company of Scottdale

Tiger Woods takes lead at Dubai Classic
Miami Herald - Tiger Woods from the U.S. drops his club after playing his second shot into the water on the 13th hole during the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. Tiger Woods picked up right where he left

Teen sobs after admitting role in fatal beating
Miami Herald - ”I feel like I want to die,” an 18-year-old Fort Lauderdale boy sobbed to his stepfather after a grilling by Fort Lauderdale detectives investigating the fatal beating of a homeless man. After initially denying all involvement in that beating

Trying to tap into home equity? We’ll see
Los Angeles Times - Our goal is to always make sure that for both our sake and our customer’s sake that our customers don’t owe more than their equity,” said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for Chase, a unit of banking giant JP Morgan Chase & Co. At the same time, Fannie Mae

Inside Entrepreneurship: Tax code can help startups with a loss
Seattle Post Intelligencer - She has an investment banking and buyout background and serves as a coach to entrepreneurs and consultant to corporations. Find more Inside Entrepreneurship columns at seattlepi.com/venture. Send questions about small-business management or raising

UPDATE 1-Suncorp raises synergy benefits from Promina purchase
Reuters - Its full-year profit forecast for its wealth management and banking division was unchanged, the company stated. Chief Executive Officer John Mulcahy stated the claim costs related to weather events in the first half of the current fiscal year were

Nomura Profit Falls as Banking Fees Slump, Costs Rise (Update4)
Bloomberg - Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s largest securities firm, stated third-quarter profit dropped 71 percent on lower income from investment banking and costs for shutting its U.S. residential mortgage unit. Net income declined to 22.6

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Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams

Yes, that’s the going rate this year for a 30 second advertisement during the Super Bowl… $2.7 million. If that sounds too high, you should purchase in bulk like Anheuser-Busch, and pay only about $2 million per spot.

And don’t forget, that only gets you the airtime. You still have to pay to have a commercial created and filmed. And with that much money on the line, you can be sure that companies are spend a bundle to try to make their commercials memorable.

But how memorable is advertising these days? How many commercials can you remember from last year’s Super Bowl? I’d be surprised if you remembered any more than one or two. So there’s a lot of hype and prestige that goes along with advertising during the year’s most popular sporting event on television, but who knows if it’s really worth the money. With traditional media outlets losing importance in this on the internet age, I’d rather bet a company’s money on other advertising avenues.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Bookkeeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams

As they think about their end of days, many people opt to prearrange their funeral services, both to save money and save their bereaved loved ones the distress of managing what can be an costly process. According to an article in the AARP magazine, though, for some, this considerate behavior has opened them up to a financial mess.

Buying a package from a funeral home or cemetery, often including a burial site, ceremony and casket, can seem like a bargain– if the vendor stands by its commitment.

Here’s where the problem lies, though. If the company doesn’t price it properly, doesn’t project enough inflation, if other prices rise faster, the money to cover the cost of the promised services might not be adequate when needed. Depending on how the contract is worded, the vendor may not be liable for the shortfall, leaving you six feet high and dry.

Worse, if the company falls upon hard times and goes belly-up, all of those long-term agreements could be invalid. Also, any large pool of funds set aside against future claims is always a temptation to those not adverse to a little fraud.

The AARP report also warns of bait and switch tactics that are sometimes used to wring more money out of the bereaved. Canceling the agreement or transferring it to another part of the country is also often difficult.

The AARP wisely advocates having your attorney look over any such contract. Or, better yet, instead of buying a program put the same money in a secure investment with a pay-on-death option to the person making arrangements for your funeral.

Go ahead and make your plans, but don’t bet the ranch on a pre-paid funeral. And, after all — what if you live forever?

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Filed under: Extracurriculars, Ripoffs and Scams, Shopping

My wife has always been serious about skincare, but when she started working for a premium cosmetics company, she became downright obsessive. She started poring over makeup reviews, lurking around Paula Begoun’s website, and having heated arguments with herself about different ingredients, cleansers, and product lines. It was a tiny like watching Jack Nicholson’s character in The Shining descending into madness, except that he sported a five-o’clock shadow, while Virginia’s skin was radiant.

Although my wife’s employer gave her a steep discount and provided a big amount of free samples, I started noticing that her medicine cabinet was filling up with skincare products from several different companies. When I asked her about it, she told me that many of her company’s competitors sold what were essentially the same products for far less money. Even with her discount, it was often cheaper to purchase comparable skincare from other product lines.

Part of the reason for this is that many of the different brands are owned by the same parent companies. For example, Estee Lauder owns both the upscale “La Mer” brand and the less expensive “Clinique” line. Similarly, Lancome sports both a costly mall brand and the bargain-priced “L’Oreal” brand. Even though the parent companies vary their product lines somewhat, many of the active ingredients that are sold at a premium in one line are available at a discount in the less high-priced lines.

Another reason that skincare lines are so similar is the fact that most of them use the same compounds. For example, most skincare creams use one or two “secret” ingredients. The first is Dimethicone, a silicone derivative that sits on the skin and prevents light from hitting the bottom of a pore or wrinkle, giving the appearance of smoother skin. The second is Sodium Hyaluronate, which also sits on top of the skin and draws water. The water, in turn, penetrates the skin, giving it a plumper appearance. These ingredients are the same across the board, regardless of price.

Here are a few examples of skincare products that have remarkably similar formulas and effects:

Lancome’s Absolue Ultimate BX Serum ($130 for 1 oz) and L’Oreal’s Skin Genesis Daily Treatment Skin Concentrate ($18.74 for 1.7 oz) have many of the same ingredients and very similar effects. In fact, both brands claim the same secret: “Pro-Xylane complex.” This, by the way, is pseudo-scientific gobbledygook. There is no such thing as “Pro-Xylane” in the chemistry literature. It sure sounds impressive, though!

After buying out La Mer, Estee Lauder co-opted its Creme de la Mer ($220 for 2 oz) product and remixed it as Estee Lauder’s Re-Nutriv Ultimate Youth Creme. The funny thing is that Lauder’s brand ($250 for 1.7 oz) is much more pricey than the original premium La Mer formulation!

Estee Lauder’s Idealist ($46.50 for 1 oz) is remarkably similar to Clinique’s Turnaround Concentrate Visible Skin Renewer ($36.50 for 1 oz), yet costs $10 more. Similarly, Clinique’s Repairware Deep Wrinkle Concentrate ($55 for 1.4 oz) has a similar principal, formula, and effect as Estee Lauder’s Perfectionist ($55 for 1 oz), yet gives you 40% more product for exactly the same price.

Finally, in terms of makeup removers, Lancome’s Bi-Facil ($26), Clinique’s Take the Day Off Makeup Remover ($16.50), and Neutrogena’s Oil Free Eye Makeup Remover ($7.73) all have similar formulas, are oil-free, and have the exact same effect. The massive difference is that Neutrogena is available at drugstores, while the other two are mall brands.

This is only scratching the surface. If you are interested in exploring this further, check out Paula’s Choice; even though she also offers her own skincare line, Paula’s reviews of other product lines are often quite complimentary. At the very least, her cosmetic ingredient dictionary will give you a superior idea about what you’re putting on your skin!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and co-author of Military Lessons of the Gulf War and A Chronology of the Cold War at Sea.

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Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams, Tax

Just when millions of Americans are busy mentally spending their likely tax rebate check from the government (’hmm… a new flat-screen Television or a vacation to Disney this Easter?’), comes a new scam.

The Internal Revenue Service is warning that email and telephone con artists are attempting to grab taxpayers personal financial information (all the better to steal your identity with, my dear), by saying that if they hand it over, they’ll get their rebate check all the sooner.

One reported phone scam asks people for their bank account information so the rebate could supposedly be supplied direct deposit. An email scam sends a message, supposedly from the IRS, and asks the recipient to click over to a site and enter personal information in order to claim their rebate (a new flavor of ‘phishing.’)

The IRS wants to remind everyone that not only does it NOT COLLECT INFORMATION BY TELEPHONE (got that?), but Congress hasn’t even enacted the legislation that would allow for the tax rebate to be sent. Last week the House voted for a plan that would supply most Americans a rebate of $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples, plus an extra $300 per child. The Senate will vote on a different version.

Once they vote, the check will show up in the mail. There will be anything else you need to do to claim it, besides filing your income tax.

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Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams

Stephen David and his wife Linda sold a business and had $1 million from the sale to carry them through retirement and pay for college for their youngest child. They put their $1 million plus $500,000 of savings to work with investment broker Charles Moni, hoping to get about $150,000 a year out of their account. That would have meant they needed a 10% a year return on their money, yet they wanted to be conservative in their investments.

The investment account started losing money right away, and the Davises complained to the broker, who told them they’d regain their value. They took $625,000 out of their account and put it in a savings account for safekeeping. The broker put the remaining money in one stock: Rigel Pharmaceuticals.

In one day, the couple lost $450,000 in this stock. The couple has sued the broker, claiming that he put them in bad investments and traded excessively to net himself nearly $200,000 in fees. Their losses total $680,000 plus the money they would have made on that balance if they’d it to invest.
Yikes! Buyer beware… working with an investment advisor can be risky business. You really need to check out who you’re working with. But most importantly, you need to be actively involved in the management of your money. You can’t let an advisor just run off and do whatever he pleases with your money.

Give your broker very clear guidelines about what risks you’re willing to take. When in doubt, be conservative. If a strategy or an investment sounds too risky and makes you uncomfortable, say no. You often can’t ever recover from a devastating loss like this, especially if you’re retirement age. Your number one concern should be protecting your money, and your investment advisor must be forced to respect that and play by your rules.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Finance, Internet, Google

For those of you that have been itching to get a pulse on more European company information and UK mutual fund data, Google Finance has just opened Google Finance UK.

Following in the footsteps of Google Finance Canada, the Google Finance Blog states that this is another implementation of a series of sites that’ll aim to bring localized financial information to users.

Even though there aren’t any hints of which country will be graced with the next Google Finance localization, 2008 will supposedly see some new features. Hopefully, the people that have been having issues with Google Finance’s lack of dividend information will have their wish fulfilled.

[via Googlified]

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Mizuho’s Third-Quarter Profit Falls 65% on Subprime (Update1)
Bloomberg - The firm joined local rivals Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. in reporting larger-than-expected credit market losses. “They’ll probably be exploring ways to take advantage of Merrill’s U.S. franchise

New York’s Presidential Primary
Miami Herald - Delegates at stake: Democratic 232; Republican 101. Polls open: In New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Erie, polls open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST. In all other counties, polls open at noon and

Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ April-Dec net profit falls 54.4 pct on bigger
Forbes - TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Japan’s largest banking group, said Thursday its net profit fell 54.4 percent in the nine months to December, reflecting writedowns for its struggling credit card business and losses

Oil falls on economy worries, huge U.S. stockbuild
Guardian Unlimited - The Fed’s action has brought U.S. rates to their lowest since June 2005. But the rate cut was overshadowed by speculation of more credit rating downgrades of U.S. bond insurers, which could bring further pain for the banking sector, already nursing

THAIN UNEXPLAINS CDO EXIT PLAN
New York Post - Perhaps Thain misspoke,” said analyst Peter Cohan of Peter A. Cohan Associates, which tracks banking. “But if a CEO makes an announcement, you’d think they’d all be on the same page. Maybe they need to spend some time getting all their ducks in a row

Prague shares TFN at a glance outlook
CNBC - PRAGUE (Thomson Financial) - Shares are expected to open slightly higher, with banking stocks expected to gain, while Orco Property Group will be in focus after posting a blended set of full year results late yesterday. Yesterday, Prague’s main PX

GLOBAL MARKETS-Credit worries offset Fed rate cut boost
Guardian Unlimited - If bond insurers lose their top “AAA” ratings, U.S. financial institutions will face fresh write-downs of as much as $70 billion, according to Meredith Whitney, banking analyst at brokerage Oppenheimer & Co.

New powers for Bank to stage secret rescues
Guardian Unlimited - Tough new regulatory powers designed to prevent a repeat of the Northern Rock fiasco and to make the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority more effective in a future banking crisis were announced by Alistair Darling yesterday. The

Society Generale chairman to stay
Baltimore Sun - told reporters afterward. Folz, former chief of PSA Peugeot Citroen, was named to head a committee that the Societe Generale board is setting up to investigate the billions in losses that the bank announced last week, stunning an already shaky banking

European Two-Year Notes Rise, Headed for Best Month Since 1995
Bloomberg - It’s being driven by equities,” said Orlando Green, a fixed-income strategist at Calyon, the investment-banking arm of Credit Agricole SA. “The markets demanded a 50 basis-point” rate cut. “The Fed treads a fine line in tempering market

UBS, Credit Suisse face more writedowns - watchdog
Guardian Unlimited - ZURICH, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Swiss banking watchdog EBK stated on Thursday UBS AG and Credit Suisse may face writedowns from investments other than subprime-related assets, in “hotspots” such as credit cards and commercial and retail loans. Daniel

Hearty Italians for your game-watching get-together
Miami Herald - It’s appropriate that the new Italian wines are arriving just in time for Super Bowl celebrations. Red-blooded Americans want no wimpy wines with their two-fisted, game-day fare. If you’re grilling chicken or fish, try a white vernaccia from San Gimignano

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