Business Bits

SEC head says several firms being looked at

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WASHINGTON --- The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed Wednesday the agency is investigating several companies' actions in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said "it would be safe to assume" that the agency is looking very closely at the conduct of a number of firms. She did not name the companies.

Schapiro spoke in testimony to a House Appropriations subcommittee weighing the agency's request for about $1.3 billion for the budget year starting Oct. 1.

Lawmakers want to know whether the sort of accounting gimmick used by the collapsed investment firm Lehman Brothers to mask debt was widely deployed on Wall Street.

Laundering case leads to $160 million fine

MIAMI --- Wachovia Bank agreed Wednesday to pay $160 million to the U.S. government for failing to block Mexican currency exchange houses from laundering billions of dollars -- including drug-trafficking proceeds -- through the bank.

The agreement is the largest penalty ever paid by a U.S. financial institution for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

Authorities said Wachovia's main Miami office and other operations "willfully failed" to monitor potential money laundering activity exceeding $420 billion by the casas de cambio in Mexico -- including at least $110 million authorities were able to positively identify as cocaine proceeds.

"Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels virtual carte blanche to finance their operations by laundering" the millions, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman said.

Wachovia accepted responsibility and agreed to forfeit the $110 million and pay a $50 million fine. It will avoid prosecution if it implements a series of anti-money laundering policies over the next year.

Wachovia, which is merging with Wells Fargo & Co., said that it has already adopted tougher protections, including hiring a Bank Secrecy Act officer.

U.S. oil lease auction nets $949.3 million

NEW ORLEANS --- With oil prices up $30 a barrel from last year, energy companies issued $949.3 million in winning bids Wednesday for federal offshore petroleum leases off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The Minerals Management Service said 67 companies submitted 642 bids on 468 tracts in the central Gulf of Mexico.

Last year, oil was around $50 a barrel, and the sale attracted 476 bids on 348 tracts. That sale garnered $703 million.

Benchmark crude for April delivery rose $1.23 cents to settle at $82.93 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other news

A DIESEL GENERATOR PLANT in Newberry, S.C., plans to add up to 500 jobs in the next four years. The State newspaper reported that Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan says hiring could start late this year, based on the economic recovery. He says Caterpillar is transferring generator work done at its Griffin, Ga., plant to Newberry, allowing the Georgia plant to concentrate on making engines.

SHARES OF FORD Motor Co. surged to a five-year high Wednesday after a ratings agency upgraded the automaker's debt and said Ford has the potential to improve its finances further. The Dearborn, Mich., automaker's stock hit $14.15 per share in afternoon trading, a level not seen since January 2005. It closed at $14.10, up 61 cents, or 4.5 percent.