The IFA’s former general secretary Pat Smith and president Eddie Downey find themselves as household names for all the wrong reasons.

The 500 largest US companies hold more than $2.1trn (€1.87trn) in accumulated profits offshore to avoid US taxes and would collectively owe an estimated $620bn in US taxes if they repatriated the funds, according to a study released yesterday.

Shares in Diageo — owner of Guinness and Smirnoff vodka — fell yesterday after it said the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into its distribution practices in the US, adding to its woes as frustrated investors question the performance of the distiller’s chief executive officer.

Apple has raised a flag about the potential costs if it is required to pay past taxes to Ireland as part of a European Commission investigation that started last year.

Dublin-headquartered aircraft leasing company Avolon has seen year-on-year profits to the end of September climb by more than €11m.

Investors are anticipating a 10% drop in the Argentine peso after the nation defaulted for the second time in 13 years last week.

Barclays has vowed to fight a fraud lawsuit in which New York’s attorney general alleged the banking giant misled large institutional investors.

Citigroup will pay $7bn to settle an investigation into risky subprime mortgages, the type that helped fuel the financial crisis.

Six highflying executives, led by Domhnal Slattery, at the Dublin-based aircraft leasing firm Avolon last year shared a bumper pay pot of $7m (€5.17m).

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said he is not aware of any probe involving him and golfer Phil Mickelson regarding trades related to Clorox and Dean Foods, and called a report by the Wall Street Journal completely irresponsible.

US golfer Phil Mickelson has said he is cooperating with an insider trading investigation involving him, investor Carl Icahn and Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters but maintains he did nothing wrong.

Citigroup has agreed to pay 1.13 billion dollars (€822m) to settle claims by investors who want the lender to buy back billions in residential mortgage-backed securities.

An American investment firm has acquired a quarter of all Manchester United shares available on the New York Stock Exchange.

Facebook and chairman and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg are selling a combined 70 million shares of Class A stock as the social media company prepares to join the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Twitter has set a price of $26 for its initial public offering of stock, which means the company’s shares can begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange.

October often makes investors nervous, since that is when some of the biggest crashes in stock market history happened – but this year the market seemed unstoppable.

Twitter will be coming off its biggest quarterly loss in the past three years when the online messaging service floats on the New York Stock Exchange later this autumn.

Twitter has unsealed the documents for its planned initial public offering (IPO) of stock and says it hopes to raise up to $1bn (€738m).

JP Morgan and Chase, seeking to end probes of a $6.2bn (€4.6bn) trading debacle, admitted to violating federal securities laws and agreed to pay about $920m for failing to implement adequate controls and providing incomplete information to regulators and its board.

Twitter has set the ball rolling for one of the most eagerly anticipated stock market flotations since Facebook took the plunge last year.

A Bitcoin trade group will meet today with the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and an array of law-enforcement officials and regulators to discuss oversight of the digital currency.

A technical glitch halted trading on Eurex, Europe’s largest derivatives market, for about 60 minutes, adding to this month’s tally of exchange breakdowns following a three-hour shutdown of the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Disappointing earnings news and a slump in bank stocks tugged the US stock market down yesterday, giving major indexes their first three-day drop since June.

US investment firm BlackRock has taken a stake in Manchester United FC.

US investment firm BlackRock has taken a stake in British football club Manchester United.

The role that Morgan Stanley and the law firm Matheson played in the ‘Maple Ten’ share transaction will form a key part of the case taken by the DPP against former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick and two directors.

BP has agreed to sell a range of North Sea oil fields to an Arab energy giant in a $1.1bn (€848.5m) deal.

Two men who worked for BP during the 2010 oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico have been charged with manslaughter and a third with lying to federal investigators, according to indictments made public yesterday, hours after BP announced it was paying $4.5bn in a settlement with the US government over the disaster.

A leading Manchester United fans group has launched a stinging attack on the Glazer family’s plans to float part of the club on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Irish technology firm FleetMatics is planning a flotation on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq in either August or September.

Manchester United have applied to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the hope of raising $100m (€80,) from selling shares in the club.

The brother of Ponzi scheme king Bernard Madoff will plead guilty tomorrow to conspiracy and falsifying records, admitting his role in the multibillion-dollar fraud that destroyed the savings of thousands of investors, US prosecutors told a judge.

Two US government panels are to investigate Facebook’s high-profile stock offering amid claims that the bank handling the flotation may have provided only select clients with a negative assessment of the company.

Regulators are examining whether Morgan Stanley, the investment bank that shepherded Facebook through its stock market flotation last week, selectively informed clients of an analyst's negative report about the company before the shares started trading.

Facebook shares are being offered to the public for $38 in one of the biggest ever US stock flotations.

Facebook is heading for one of the biggest ever US stock flotations when it sells hundreds of millions of shares to the public.

Facebook said today that 25% more shares will be sold as investors clamour for a piece of the year’s hottest stock offering.

Yahoo has swept out embattled chief executive Scott Thompson to try to clean up a mess created by an exaggeration about his education that destroyed his credibility as he set out to turn the long-troubled internet company around.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank by assets, says it has suffered a trading loss of at least $2bn (€1.53bn) from a failed hedging strategy, a shock disclosure that hit financial stocks and the reputation of the bank and its chief executive Jamie Dimon.

A crackdown on market abuse by Britain’s financial watchdog that this week claimed a big name banker has sent a shudder through the City of London.

The guilty pleas last week by two former Credit Suisse Group traders, on charges of falsifying their company’s asset values, revive an age-old question: How dumb do you have to be to get criminally convicted for a fraud you committed while working at a bank deemed too big to fail?