JP Morgan Chase, other banks fight Madoff trustee over disclosures

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. requested a federal judge stop the trustee unwinding Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme from doing away with agreements the bank, and its peers, signed with the trustee to protect confidential information about internal policies and procedures. Wall Street Journal, Thursday, March 3, 2011

• The Canadian government is hopeful it will quickly pass a new law that will allow Canada to freeze assets of corrupt foreign leaders like that of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family, some of whom have already taken refuge in Montreal. For weeks the government has been under pressure from opposition parties and Canadian-Tunisian community groups to act after antigovernment protesters forced Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, touching off a wave of violent political unrest across the Middle East and northern Africa. Montreal Gazette, Thursday, March 3, 2011

• Austria’s central bank is expanding an asset freeze of 26 Libyans to include the deputy chief executive officer of the North African country’s sovereign wealth fund. The National Bank ordered Mustafa Zarti’s accounts frozen as of tomorrow, a bank spokeswoman said today. Austria’s Foreign Ministry requested the freeze because of Zarti’s close links to Libya’s ruling family, spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said in a telephone interview. Bloomberg, Thursday, March 3, 2011

• The United States has blocked $30 billion in Libyan government assets since President Obama announced his executive order late Friday night imposing unilateral sanctions against Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi and his family, the Treasury Department said Monday. It is the largest amount of foreign assets ever seized in an American sanctions action. New York Times, Monday, February 28, 2011

• Egypt's top prosecutor on Monday barred former president Hosni Mubarak and his family from leaving the country and seized control of Mubarak's assets as the new government moved ahead with an investigation into charges of corruption. The Washington Post, Monday, February 28, 2011

• The Criminal Assets Bureau in the Republic of Ireland (CAB) is to take control of the finances of a convicted IRA terrorist who owes the agency more than €2.5m (£2.1m) The bank accounts and property portfolio of John Noonan, who acted as a bodyguard for U2, will now fall under the control of CAB after the former Provo was made bankrupt. The Belfast Telegraph, Tuesday, March 1, 2011