An Italian judge ruled on Tuesday that Raoul Weil, the ex-UBS banker wanted in the United States over allegations of helping Americans dodge taxes, must remain in custody while awaiting possible extradition, a judicial source said.  The decision was taken by a judge of the Court of Appeal in Bologna, where Weil, a Swiss citizen and former head of UBS’s global wealth management business, was arrested by Italian police on Saturday.  Dealings with UBS were spelled out in detail in US Senate hearings in 2008.  If the US is going to go after assets hidden in other countries, will legitimate revenue at last go into the coffers of the country of origin?

The US CommodityFutures Trading Commission issued a release detailing the settlement with JP Morgan on the London Whale Trades.

JPMorgan, which admits the specified factual findings in the Order including that its traders acted recklessly, is directed, among other things, to pay a $100 million civil monetary penalty.  “In Dodd-Frank, Congress provided a powerful new tool enabling the CFTC for the first time to prohibit reckless manipulative conduct,” said David Meister, the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement. “As this case demonstrates, the Commission is now better armed than ever to protect the market from traders, like those here, who try to ‘defend’ their position by dumping a gargantuan, record-setting, volume of swaps virtually all at once, recklessly ignoring the obvious dangers to legitimate pricing forces.”  JP Morgan Admits Manipulative Conduct in London Whale Trades

James Surowiecki writes pungent columns on finance for the New Yorker.  This week he discusses one of the crucial topics in the inequality debate:  the ratio of the compensation of CEO salary to the median income of employees.  He argues that the SEC’s new rules for transparency are not a solution.  He looks carefully at how Boards of Directors. who are supposed to supervise corporate governance, fall into geometric increases of executive salaries. Economists at the Wharton School explain the situation in detail in an article. Board of Directors and Executive Compensation

In Washington State, a proposition to say “Yes” to banning genetically modified goods to being fought by the Grocery Manufacturers Association.  This is fine and good and correct in a democracy.  But in releases from the GMA and the Washington State Attorney General, and in court papers filed by the state, it is clear that over 7 million dollars contributed to the “No” campaign were not transparent donations.  The actual donors were hidden by the umbrella GMA.  This violates US and State campaign disclosure laws.

It is our guess that the importance of this proposition on the Washington ballot was made more urgent by California’s support of the ban.  US GMA Complaint 16.10.13    GMA No-522 PressRelease 16.10.13  PDC Contributions No-522 16.10.13

The most important part of this deal struck with Attorney General Eric Holder is that JPMorganChase is not taken off the hook on criminal charges.  Details of reported settlement.