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FYI: Business

By Staff and Wire Reports
Published: 11/14/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 11/14/2009 5:15 AM

Oklahoma rig count dips by one to 77

The number of drilling rigs actively exploring for oil or gas in Oklahoma edged down by one this week to 77, Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday.

The state's rig count is 59 percent below the year-ago level of 189.

Nationwide, the net number of active drilling units rose by 23 this week to 1,101, said Houston-based Baker Hughes. A year ago, the national total was 1,941.

Of the rigs running this week, 728 were exploring for natural gas and 361 for oil, the report said, while 12 were listed as miscellaneous.

Of the other major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas' rig count jumped by 25, while Alaska gained two rigs and California gained one. Rig tallies for Louisiana and New Mexico each dropped by three. Numbers for Arkansas, Colorado, North Dakota and Wyoming did not change.

Federal regulators shut three more banks

Regulators shut down two banks in Florida and one in California on Friday, boosting to 123 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.

In Florida, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Orion Bank, based in Naples, with about $2.7 billion in assets and $2.1 billion in deposits, and Sarasota-based Century Bank, with $728 million in assets and $631 million in deposits.

Pacific Coast National Bank in San Clemente, Calif., was also shut down. It had $134.4 million in assets and $130.9 million in deposits.

The banks' failures will cost the federal deposit insurance fund about $959 million.

The 123 bank failures are the most in a year since 1992. They have cost the federal deposit insurance fund more than $28 billion so far this year.

Computer programmers accused of aiding Madoff

Two former employees for Bernard Madoff programmed an old IBM computer to generate false records that concealed the crooked financier's massive Ponzi scheme and were given hush money when they threatened to stop lying, federal prosecutors said Friday in New York.

Madoff gave orders to pay the pair "whatever they wanted to keep them happy," a criminal complaint said.

The complaint relies heavily on inside information provided by Madoff's chief financial officer, Frank DiPascali, who is cooperating after pleading guilty in August.

The computer programmers, Jerome O'Hara, of Malverne, N.Y., and George Perez, of East Brunswick, N.J., were arrested at dawn Friday on charges including conspiracy and falsifying records. Both were released later on $1 million bond. Their attorneys had no comment.

Madoff, 71, is serving a 150-year prison sentence.

Drug lord's listing by Forbes irks Mexico

Mexico has blasted Forbes magazine's decision to name the country's most-wanted drug lord to its "World's Most Powerful People," calling it an insult to the government's bloody struggle against drug cartels.

A spokesman for the Interior Department, which oversees domestic security, described the listing of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman as No. 41 of the 67 most powerful people as "a justification of crime."

The listing "is a mockery of the struggle the government is waging against organized crime," Luis Estrada said. "This not only goes against the efforts of the Mexican government, but the international fight to eliminate Mafias and organized crime."

Nearly 14,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

Guzman's vast drug trafficking empire is worth an estimated $1 billion, according to Forbes.

Japan Airlines posts another big loss

Japan Airlines Corp. said Friday it racked up a $356.7 million loss in its fiscal second quarter and was seeking government help to fend off creditors.

The fate of Asia's largest airline was so uncertain that it abandoned any forecasts for the year.

JAL, long seen as the country's flagship carrier, said it lost $1.5 billion in the fiscal first half, which ended Sept. 30.

The first-half loss was its biggest ever for the period and a reversal from last year's profit. Quarterly revenues tumbled 26 percent to $4.8 billion as international and domestic travel, as well as cargo traffic, plunged. By Staff and Wire Reports

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