Swiss UBS pays millions to Germany in settlement over tax evasion

Swiss banking giant UBS has agreed to pay Germany a hefty fine for its involvement in helping German clients hide money from tax authorities. It's the biggest fine ever paid to the country by a Swiss lender.

Deutsche Welle, 29 July 2014

Zurich-based UBS confirmed Tuesday it had settled investigation charges of aiding German clients suspected of evading taxes.

Switzerland's largest lender agreed with prosecutors in Bochum, Germany, to pay a fine of some 300 million euros ($403 million). The payment will put the case to rest in Germany, but UBS continues to face similar punitive action elsewhere.

The Swiss lender also stands accused of aiding account holders from France and Belgium in hiding their money from domestic tax authorities.

Little impact on earnings

As early as 2009, UBS was able to ward off a trial in the US over its role in helping clients avoid taxes by paying a fine of $780 million in an out-of-court settlement.

Despite continued litigation costs, the lender on Tuesday reported a 15-percent net profit jump in the second quarter, compared to its earnings in the same period a year earlier.

UBS said the hike was driven by strong results from its core wealth management and trimmed-down investment banking franchises.

hg/ng (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

Bank of England blasts Lloyds for rigging bailout funding

Taxpayer-owned bank ordered to pay nearly £8m after 'reprehensible and unlawful' manipulation of repo rate – on top of £218m in fines for Libor rigging

The Guardian, Jill Treanor, Monday 28 July 2014

Lloyds Banking Group fined over Libor rigging. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

The Libor-rigging scandal took a new twist on Monday when Lloyds Banking Group faced accusations of unlawful behaviour after being ordered pay compensation to the Bank of England for manipulating the fees it paid for emergency funding during the height of the banking crisis.

In addition to £218m of fines from regulators in the UK and US for rigging the benchmark rate, the 24% taxpayer-owned bank was ordered to pay Threadneedle Street nearly £8m.

The fines imposed on Lloyds cover two main issues – manipulating Libor, for which seven other firms have been punished – and, for the first time, rigging another rate, known as the repo rate. This repo rate was used to calculate the scale of the fees paid to the Bank of England for its special liquidity scheme (SLS) which was created to pump money into the financial system amid fears banks were facing a credit crisis.

The Bank of England said Lloyds' manipulation of the repo rate was "highly reprehensible and clearly unlawful".

As has been the case with other Libor fines – Barclays was the first to be penalised in June 2012 – regulators on both sides of the Atlantic published emails and electronic chats exposing evidence of manipulation. In one exchange, a Lloyds trader remarks when asked about reducing a Libor rate: "every little helps... It's like Tescos".

Unlike other Libor penalties, Lloyds is also paying the Bank of England £7.8m in compensation because of the lower fees being paid for the SLS, which was introduced in April 2008 and closed in January 2012.

In a harshly worded letter, the Bank of England governer Mark Carney said this scheme was intended to help banks get through the worse of the financial crisis as Lloyds TSB rescued HBOS, which owned Halifax and Bank of Scotland.

"Such manipulation is highly reprehensible, clearly unlawful and may amount to criminal conduct on the part of the individuals involved," Carney said.

The Lloyds chairman, Lord Blackwell, replied: "I absolutely share your concern about the nature of the SLS conduct and in particular its implications for reducing fees. This was truly shocking conduct, undertaken when the bank was on a lifeline of public support".

Tracey McDermott, the FCA's director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "The firms were a significant beneficiary of financial assistance from the Bank of England through the SLS. Colluding to benefit the firms at the expense, ultimately, of the UK taxpayer was unacceptable.

"The abuse of the SLS is a novel feature of this case but the underlying conduct and the underlying failings - to identify, mitigate and monitor for obvious risks - are not new. If trust in financial services is to be restored then market participants need to ensure they are learning the lessons from, and avoiding the mistakes of, their peers. Our enforcement actions are an important source of information to help them do this," she said.

The Financial Conduct Authority, which issued fines alongside two US regulators, shows a manager from Bank of Scotland and a trader at Lloyds acknowledging their influence over the repo rate used to price the SLS. "While we've got two votes we should use this to our advantage, you know what I mean?" the Bank of Scotland manager told his colleague in 2009, four months after the two banks merged.

Four individuals at Bank of Scotland and Lloyds were involved in or knew about the repo fixing while 12 were involved in or knew about rigging Libor when priced in sterling, US dollars and Japanese yen, where there was collusion with the Dutch bank Rabobank.

The Libor fine also covers a period when Bank of Scotland was still part of HBOS and as it was being rescued by Lloyds. Bank of Scotland submitters to Libor were given direct instructions to ensure their rates did not appear too high. Submitting a higher rate than rivals may have indicated their bank was in financial distress. An individual at Bank of Scotland responsible for submissions to Libor sent a message to a rival: "I've been pressured by senior management to bring by rates down into line with everyone else". Only days previously, the rate had been half a percentage point higher than rivals.

Libor has been overhauled since the furore caused by the fines on Barclays and others, including Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS. During the period of the offences it was based on submissions from banks at the rate they believed their rivals would charge them to borrow for a number of periods, ranging from overnight to 12 months.

Related Article:

Lloyds suspends seven people after £226m bill for rigging interest rates

Top 1% control a third of China's wealth - report

The top one percent of households in Communist-ruled China control more than one third of the country's wealth, while the bottom 25 percent control just one percent, official media said, citing an academic report.

MSN – AFP, 26 July 2014

A woman collects construction waste in a rubbish dump in Hefei, central
China's Anhui province in December 2012

The 2012 figures contained in a Peking University report released late Friday reveal the massive breadth of China's social inequality, a widespread source of anger in the country.

The wealth gap is also of significant concern for the ruling Communist Party, which places huge importance on preserving social stability to avoid any challenge to its grasp on power.

"One percent of households at the top level nationwide control more than one third of the country's wealth. Twenty-five percent of families at the bottom level only own one percent of the country's wealth," the website of the People's Daily newspaper said late Friday in a report on the university's statistics.

"The difference between wages in the cities and the rural areas is the main reason behind China’s unequal wealth," the newspaper added.

The report includes an alarmingly high Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality with 0 representing total equality and 1 representing total inequality.

Government statistics claim the figure stood at 0.47 in 2012, which would put it close to the US, which had an index figure of 0.56 in 2009, according to the World Bank.

The Peking University report puts the figure for "family households" in China in 2012 at 0.73, the People's Daily said.

It is unclear if the social groups analysed in the report are different to those surveyed by authorities.

Since taking office as president last year, Xi Jinping has touted the catchphrase "Chinese dream" which, though vaguely defined, is meant to encourage unity, national rejuvenation and pride.

World Cup tickets official arrested over illegal sales

Yahoo – AFP, Claire De Oliveira Neto, 8 July 2014

The CEO of Match Hospitality Raymond Whelan sits at a police station in

Rio de Janeiro after being arrested on July 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Tasso Marcelo)

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazilian police have arrested a director from the FIFA partner company handling World Cup ticket packages, accusing him of leading a network that illegally sold game passes.

Ray Whelan, a director at Match Hospitality, was detained Monday at Rio de Janeiro's luxurious beachfront Copacabana Palace Hotel, a police spokesman told AFP, days after 11 people were rounded up in a raid to dismantle the network.

Local media said Whelan is a 64-year-old British citizen, but police were not immediately able to confirm that.

The arrest was made on the eve of the tournament's first semi-final game between Brazil and Germany in Belo Horizonte. Argentina and the Netherlands will face off for the final's last spot on Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

Police say the international scalping syndicate sold thousands of tickets worth millions of dollars, going back to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

The scandal is the latest to hit FIFA, which is already battling allegations that members accepted bribes from a Qatari football official to secure support for the emirate's campaign to get the 2022 World Cup finals.

Security personnel stand guard outside the Copacaban Palace Hotel following

the arrest of Ray Whelan, a director of Match Hospitality, a subsidary company

of FIFA, over illegal cup tickets in Rio de Janeiro on July 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Yasuyoshi Chiba)

One of Match Hospitality's shareholders is Swiss-based Infront Sports and Media, headed by Philippe Blatter, the nephew of FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

A French-Algerian suspect, Mohamadou Lamine Fofana, was initially thought to be responsible for the ticket scheme after he was among 11 people arrested last week in Rio and Sao Paulo.

But suspicions moved toward an individual at Match Hospitality, the official World Cup ticket agency, which sells deluxe packages that include private suites at stadiums and gourmet catering.

Authorities intercepted phone calls between Fofana and Whelan, according to the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo.

Tickets canceled

Match Hospitality said earlier that it had canceled the tickets bought by Fofana's company, Atlanta Sportif, for the semi-finals and the final.

The hospitality firm warned that it would cancel the remaining tickets of three other companies whose names appeared in tickets seized by police unless they cooperate with the probe.

The CEO of Match Hospitality Raymond Whelan arrives at a police station

 in Rio de Janeiro after being arrested accused of leading a network that illegal

sold game passes, on July 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/Tasso Marcelo)

Match identified the companies as Reliance Industries Limited, Jet Set Sports and Pamodzi Sports, but did not give details about the companies' ownership.

Reliance Industries bought 304 packages for 19 matches worth $1.2 million, including access to a private suite for all games in Rio, Sao Paolo and Belo Horizonte. Match Hospitality said 59 tickets seized last week had the company's name on them.

One ticket was imprinted with the name Jet Set Sports, which purchased 40 packages for two games worth $108,250. The package had been allocated to an individual who resides in Australia, Match Hospitality said, without naming the person.

Another ticket had the name Pamodzi, which secured 350 packages for 18 games -- including private suites and business seats - worth more than $1.2 million.

Byrom plc, a Manchester, England, company, has a 75 percent stake in Match Hospitality. It also owns Match Services. Both Match firms are based in Zurich and provide World Cup ticketing and hospitality services.

Ray Whelan was first arrested on Monday and released

after questioning

Related Articles:

Fifa partner boss Ray Whelan surrenders in Brazil - New

World Cup tickets: Ray Whelan 'flees arrest' 

World Cup: FIFA member behind illegal ticket sales

Citigroup agrees to pay historic fine

US bank Citigroup will fork out a total of $7 billion to settle a federal investigation into how it misled investors into buying risky mortgage-backed securities with flawed loans ahead of the 2008 financial meltdown.

Deutsche Welle, 14 July 2014

The settlement announced by US Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, included a $4-billion (2.9-billion-euro) civil penalty that is not tax-deductible and which is the largest handed out so far since the shake-up of the banking sector in the wake of the financial crisis. Another $500 million will go to the US federal government and the remaining $2.5 billion are to be paid in various forms of consumer relief by the end of 2018.

"This historic penalty is appropriate given the strength of the evidence of the wrongdoing committed by Citi," said Holder, adding that the bank's activities "contributed mightily to the financial crisis that devastated our economy in 2008."

Citigroup and other US banks have been investigated for allegedly misleading customers over loans before bundling these into mortgage-backed securities and selling them.

"They did so at the expense of millions of ordinary Americans and investors of all types - including other financial institutions, universities and pension funds, cities and towns, and even hospitals and religious charities," said Holder.

But despite the historic fine and the possibility that Citigroup and its employees could face criminal charges, the bank's chief executive Michael Corbat was optimistic the deal would help the bank in the long run.

"We believe that this settlement is in the best interests of our shareholders, and allows us to move forward and to focus on the future, not the past," Corbat said.

The settlement weighed on Citi's second-quarter earnings reported on Monday. The company took a $3.8 billion pre-tax charge, which dragged Citi's earnings down 96 percent to $181 million. But excluding the legal settlement, the bank's results translated to profits of $1.24 per share, beating market expectations and sending shares up by more than 3 percent in midday trading.

In recent months other US banks also agreed to pay hefty fines and damages to resolve government claims over mortgage-backed securities. JPMorgan Chase, America's largest bank, for instance agreed to pay $13 billion in fines and damages. Bank of America is also under investigation and could itself face billions in penalties, according to news reports.

nk/uhe (AP, dpa)

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy,Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) -(Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Phantom tech firm worth billions, inexplicably

Yahoo – AFP,  Luc Olinga, 10 July 2014

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on
June 20, 2014 in New York City (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt)

New York (AFP) - It has no assets, no revenues and no business plan to speak of. But a company called Cynk Technology has seen its value soar as high as $4.7 billion.

Wall Street analysts have been at loss to explain the spectacular 24,000 percent rise in Cynk, which trades on the lightly regulated over the counter (OTC) market.

While its share price and market value fell at the close of trade, the company unknown in the technology or financial communities for a time traded in the range of the value of firms such as Groupon, Pandora Media or Yelp.

"We must sadly conclude that the company is nothing but a fraud," said the financial news website Zero Hedge.

"And it is nothing short of a testament to just how broken this excuse for a market is that a company with no assets, no revenues, no website and one employee can go from zero value to nearly $5 billion in market cap in a few days."

The stock trading at six cents on June 16 inexplicable surged to $2.25 the next day, and rose to as high as $16 on Thursday, before slipping to around $14 at the close -- making its paper value still an eye-popping $4 billion or so.

The company avoided scrutiny until its disproportionate value drew the attention of Wall Street veterans.

The phone number listed on company documents was out of service.

Richard Green of the market analysis firm Briefing.com examined the company's regulatory filing, which indicated Cynk had no assets, no cash and an accumulated loss of $1.5 million.

Cynk calls itself a social network, based on its early incarnation as introbiz.com, which offered to put people in contact with celebrities like Angelina Jolie or Johnny Depp for $50.

"The company is no more of a functional business than your average college student's entrepreneurial dream," Green said.

"There was no news or other recognizable event to explain such stock trading activity."

Analysts note that the market value is merely on paper, based on trades of a small number of shares.

"We want to stop short of directly calling Cynk Technology a 'scam operation,' as we have not yet been able to find a reason for the unusual trading, but it certainly has all the appearances of the typical 'pump and dump' scheme used to deceive ignorant investors into buying into 'the next social media' giant,'" Green added.

One concern is that certain "momentum" investors who use algorithms to trade can be attracted to the stock simply because of its rise.

"There is no rational explanation for yesterday's trading activity and the $4 billion market capitalization," Green said.

"In short, Cynk has 'stynk' written all over it and we think the best approach to this stock is to avoid it entirely."

Whistleblower law expands protection to US intelligence agents

US President Obama has signed into law expanded whistleblower protections that cover intelligence agents for the first time. But the protections still do not apply to contractors, such as ex-NSA analyst Edward Snowden.

Deutsche Welle, 10 July 2014

Five years after vowing to strengthen whistleblower rights, President Barack Obama has extended statutory protections to intelligence agency employees who report abuse, closing a major gap in a law at least ostensibly designed to shield federal workers from retaliation.

Part of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2014, the provisions would protect intelligence agency employees from retaliation if they report waste, fraud or abuse to designated entities. Those entities include superiors at the agency in question, one of the inspector general watchdogs, and the House and Senate intelligence committees.

For the first time, intelligence agency employees can use whistleblowing as an affirmative defense if they suffer retaliation; for example, if their security clearance is taken away. In addition, they are protected from retaliation for cooperating with an investigation or providing testimony under oath. They can also appeal to an internal administrative board to have their grievances redressed.

"It's a significant precedent," Shanna Devine, the Government Accountability Project's legislative director, told DW. "No time before in history have there been enforceable statutory protections for intelligence community government employees."

Rights codified into law

In 2012, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA), which sought to bolster safeguards for federal employees who reveal waste, fraud or abuse. Although the WPEA originally included protections for intelligence agency employees, that language was removed from the legislation before the president signed it into law.

"Historically speaking, the intelligence community has rejected these types of protections and has been able to muster enough persuasive strength on the congressional intelligence committees to have language stripped from it," Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents intelligence agency whistleblowers, told DW.

The White House subsequently sought to close the gap in the WPEA by issuing a presidential directive that extended whistleblower protections to intelligence agency employees. Although the directive carried the force of law, it could have been reversed at anytime by the current president or one of his successors.

"The presidential policy directive largely mirrors the protections included in the Intelligence Authorization Act, but the directive was not a statute," Devine said.

"Those rights couldn't be codified; it was essentially an executive order," she added. "These protections are very similar, but they have become law."

Lack of independent hearing

Although intelligence agency whistleblowers are now protected by an act of Congress, some lawyers are concerned that, in practice, the law could fall short of its aims. According to Zaid, internal reporting channels are often used to identify and punish whistleblowers instead of actually redressing their grievances.

Intelligence agency contractors still
do not have whistleblower protections

"Now we supposedly have a substantive package, but we have to determine whether its effective or legitimate and that's only going to be determined by time when we have our first cases," Zaid said.

For example, whistleblowers can appeal to an administrative board under the new law, if they believe that they've been retaliated against for reporting abuse. But the board's members will all be selected by the director of national intelligence.

"In practice there are serious concerns about the access to a fair and independent hearing," Devine said. "You simply don't have an independent hearing, per se, through this new law. No, it's not a guarantee that a whistleblower will be protected when they exercise their rights under this new provision."

Contractors not covered

In addition, if an intelligence agency employee signs a non-disclosure agreement, they won't enjoy whistleblower protections at all. And defendants are not allowed to view the evidence against them if it's classified.

But perhaps most glaringly, intelligence agency contractors are not protected under the law. Former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst Edward Snowden, who revealed the agency's massive surveillance operations to the press, was a contractor employed with Booz Allen Hamilton.

According to Devine, the House intelligence committee, chaired by Representative Mike Rogers, stripped protections for contractors from previous legislation.

"From 2007-2012, through the stimulus law and the National Defense Authorization Act, contractors at select intelligence agencies did have very strong whistleblower rights, including access to due process and an independent hearing," Devine said.

"Those rights were removed in 2012, really just months before Snowden made his disclosures."

Andy Coulson to spend weekend in prison as 18-month jail term starts

Judge tells David Cameron's disgraced former spin doctor his achievements as News of the World editor 'count for nothing'

The Guardian, Lisa O'Carroll, Friday 4 July 2014

Andy Coulson is to spend the weekend at HMP Belmarsh before he
is likely to be moved to an open prison. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

David Cameron's disgraced former spin doctor Andy Coulson is spending the weekend at Belmarsh prison after being jailed for 18 months for plotting to hack phones while in charge of the News of the World.

His reputation in tatters, Coulson was spared the maximum tariff of two years, but the judge told him his achievements as editor of Britain's largest selling newspaper now "count for nothing".

Mr Justice Saunders said Coulson had presided over an unedifying period at the News of the World between 2003 and 2007 when staff routinely trampled on rights to privacy. Not only did journalists hack phones, they deceived phone companies, rifled through bins and spied on people, all in a cynical attempt to increase sales.

Saunders said the 46-year-old "has to take the major share of the blame" for the hacking that took place on his watch. "He knew about it. He encouraged it when he should have stopped it," the judge said.

Coulson has said he did not know phone hacking was illegal but the judge said this was no defence in the eyes of the law and the former editor knew it was "morally wrong".

Saunders highlighted the hacking of the phone of Milly Dowler, rejecting arguments that the paper was merely trying to assist police in the hunt for the 13-year-old missing schoolgirl, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2002.

He said Coulson's co-defendant Neville Thurlbeck, a newsdesk executive who was also sentenced on Friday, had dispatched a team of reporters to the Midlands to try to find her after a voice message led the paper to believe she had run away from home.

It was Thurlbeck who ordered the investigation into Milly that led to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire hacking her phone, but the paper failed to tell police for 24 hours it had a lead that she may have been alive. Saunders said this was "unforgivable" and could only have happened with Coulson's knowledge.

He said the true motive of the paper was not to help police but to "get credit for finding her and thereby sell the maximum number of newspapers".

Coulson was convicted last week after an eight-month trial triggered by the scandal that led Rupert Murdoch to shut down the News of the World in July 2011. Another former editor, Rebekah Brooks, and four others were acquitted.

In handing down the prison sentence, Saunders noted that Coulson and three former colleagues also sentenced for their part in the hacking conspiracy were "distinguished journalists who had no need to behave as they did to be successful". He said they had "all achieved a great deal without resorting to the unlawful invasion of other people's privacy. Those achievements will now count for nothing".

Thurlbeck and his predecessor on the newsdesk Greg Miskiw pleaded guilty to their part in the phone hacking plot before the trial and were sentenced on Friday to six months in jail. They will serve 37 days after getting a discount of 53 days on curfew last summer.

A third former newsdesk executive, James Weatherup, got four months suspended while Mulcaire, who pleaded guilty to three other counts of hacking was told he was "truly the lucky one" and given a six-month suspended sentence.

Cameron, who employed Coulson as his director of communications after he left the newspaper, said the jail sentence showed "no one is above the law".

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said his thoughts were with the victims of phone hacking, who included royals, politicians, celebrities, members of the public and victims of crime.

"I think it's right that justice has been done. I think, once again, it throws up very serious questions about David Cameron's judgment in bringing a criminal into the heart of Downing Street despite repeated warnings. This is a verdict on Andy Coulson's criminal behaviour but it is also a verdict on David Cameron's judgment."

Coulson received a discount on his sentence of six months for his previous good character. He will serve half his sentence and be released under licence in March. It is likely, however, that he will be released earlier as a non-violent offender.

He will be processed at HMP Belmarsh and is likely to be sent to an open prison early next week, possibly on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

The judge said there was "insufficient evidence" to conclude Coulson started phone hacking at the News of the World but there was "ample evidence that it increased enormously while he was editor", taking in politicians such as David Blunkett, royals including Prince William and Harry and crime victims such as Milly.

"The true reason for the phone hacking was to sell newspapers," said Saunders who noted that Coulson was undoubtedly under pressure to maintain or increase market share.

The judge described him as ambitious and said "it was important for him to succeed" as a young editor, but that he had passed down that pressure to others fostering competition between newspaper departments. The culture he created "demonstrates that rights to individual privacy counted for little".

Dressed in a grey suit and white shirt, as he frequently was during the trial, Coulson stood in the dock emotionless as Saunders handed down the sentence. His wife, Eloise, who loyally appeared in the public gallery during the trial despite revelations over his affair with Brooks, was not present.

All five defendants face financial ruin in addition to prison time after the crown notified them it would be seeking to recoup £750,000 in costs.

Occupy activist Cecily McMillan released from jail after two months

McMillan, 25, served two thirds of three-month jail sentence for assaulting a police officer during Occupy protest in 2012

theguardian.com, Jon Swaine in New York, Wednesday 2 July 2014

Cecily McMillan said: 'We will continue to fight until we gain all the rights
we deserve as citizens.' Photograph: Jon Swaine

Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street activist who was imprisoned for assaulting a police officer, was released on Wednesday after spending eight weeks at New York’s Rikers Island jail.

McMillan, 25, left the facility after serving two thirds of the three-month jail sentence that she received in May for deliberately striking NYPD officer Grantley Bovell as he led her away from a protest in lower Manhattan in 2012. She now faces five years of probation.

At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon beside the entrance bridge to Rikers Island, in Queens, McMillan read a lengthy statement that she said was on behalf of a group of female inmates in which she called for better access to healthcare, drug rehabilitation services and education inside the jail.

"I am inspired by the resilient community I have encountered in a system that is stacked against us," she said. Promising to continue her activism, she said: "The court sent me here to frighten me and others into silencing our dissent, but I am proud to walk out saying that the 99% is, in fact, stronger than ever. We will continue to fight until we gain all the rights we deserve as citizens".

McMillan has previously said that she was placed in a barracks-like room with almost 100 other women. A friend of McMillan’s told the Guardian that the New School graduate student and community organiser was made to wait almost three weeks before she received a necessary prescription medication, before then being denied it for two days, given it for two days, and then denied it again.

McMillan was found guilty by a jury of intentionally elbowing Bovell in the face as he walked her out of Zuccotti Park, where demonstrators had gathered on 17 March 2012 to mark six months of the protest movement. The police officer, a US navy veteran who typically patrols the Bronx, suffered a black eye and later reported dizziness and sensitivity to light.

McMillan, who had pleaded not guilty, maintained throughout her trial that while stopping at the park briefly to collect a friend, she had swung her arm instinctively after having one of her breasts grabbed from behind. She also said that she suffered bruising and a seizure after being wrestled to the ground during her arrest.

However, assistant district attorney Shanda Strain said at McMillan’s sentencing hearing: “The defendant not only physically assaulted the police officer but also levelled false accusations of misconduct against him in an effort to avoid her own criminal responsibility for the assault.”

McMillan’s felony conviction for second-degree assault is thought to be the most serious against any of the more than 2,600 members of Occupy who were arrested for alleged offences around protests after their movement began in 2011. Most had proceedings against them dismissed or “adjourned contemplating dismissal,” meaning they will not end up with police records.

McMillan, the last Occupy defendant to go through the New York courts system, had rejected an earlier offer from prosecutors that would have seen her plead guilty in exchange for a recommendation to the judge that she not receive a prison sentence. The deal would still have resulted in her being classed as a felon.

On the day of her conviction in May, she told the Guardian that she was “done” with New York. She said that she planned to move back to Atlanta, Georgia, where she spent much of her childhood, to work as a community organiser.