Boston, MA 03/04/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) has revealed that U.S. authorities are probing its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and its money laundering controls. This disclosure came in the bank’s regulatory filing and it comes just a few days after the bank announced that it was a victim of about $400 million loan fraud in Mexico. After uncovering the fraud, Citigroup moved to reduce its 2013 profit by $235 million. It is reported that Citi’s Mexican unit Banamex extended loans to an oil services company called Oceanografia, relying on invoices that are now claimed to have been falsified. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) said it could not prove that Pemex, a state-owned oil company, owed Oceanografia money. Thus raising questions over the invoices used as collateral to secure the loan. Shares of Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) were down 2.1 percent to $47.61 in the Monday trading session.
Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) announced Monday that it was conducting feasibility study on its Copper Cliff Mine, initially Copper Cliff Deep. It hopes the study would be completed by end of this year after which work would resume in the nickel project. According to the company’s vice president of UK and Ontario operations, Kelly Strong, about $1 billion could go into the project’s cost and it would be one of their lower-cost operations. The VALE official said that the revised nickel project would be a bit different from what was there originally. Among the differences is that the project would merge about two separate mines into one expanded operation. Note the project was abandoned due to the 2008 financial crisis. Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) had its shares closing at $13.92 after losing more than 1.7 percent in Monday trading.
Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) jumped the most in two years in Monday trading. The rise of the stock came on the back of reports that Reynolds American Inc (NYSE:RAI) was keen on bidding for the company. LO and RAI are regarded as the biggest cigarette sellers behind Atria Group Inc (NYSE:MO). People familiar with the ongoing cite that Reynolds, which has hired an investment bank to explore the deal, could put forward a $20 billion bid for the purchase of LO. If the purchase deal goes through, Reynolds would be able to combine its cigarette brands such as Pall Mall and Camel with LO’s best-selling brand in the U.S. – Newport. Shares of Lorillard Inc. (NYSE:LO) closed Monday session up 9.27 percent to $53.61 per share.
