CHARLOTTE -- A former Wachovia Bank vice president faces federal charges that he conspired with small-business owners to fleece the big bank out of $11.2 million.
Terry Scott Welch, 47, of Mooresville was charged with mail fraud and tax evasion. Federal prosecutors say Welch had been bilking the Charlotte-based bank for nine years.
Welch oversaw the payment of invoices submitted by outside vendors who provided goods and services to Wachovia, authorities said. He got owners of a string of businesses to turn in fake invoices for goods and services the bank never received, an indictment filed Thursday alleged.
Welch's attorney did not respond to requests for comment Friday. The bank declined comment.
Google purchase of AdMob OK'd
SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc.'s $750 million acquisition of mobile ad service AdMob cleared its final hurdle Friday with a boost from AdMob's jilted suitor, Apple Inc.
The Federal Trade Commission said it unanimously decided to approve Google's AdMob deal mainly because of Apple's recent push into the $600 million mobile advertising market in the U.S. The ruling closes a six-month antitrust investigation.
The emergence of another deep-pocketed competitor eased the FTC's concerns that Google would be able to use AdMob as a springboard for extending its dominance into the nascent field of wireless devices.
GSK's Rotarix vaccine cleared
LONDON -- The European Medicines Agency said the unexpected presence of a pig virus in GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix vaccine poses no threat and should continue to be used, the drugmaker said Friday.
The agency was confirming a statement it made in March, GSK said in a news release. The European agency's statement came after a review by its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use.
The vaccine is designed to protect babies against rotavirus, a leading cause of diarrhea.
In March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urged pediatricians to stop using the rotavirus vaccine after discovering it had been contaminated with the apparently benign pig virus. The FDA cleared Rotarix for use earlier this month.
Treasury hires adviser for IPO
WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department has hired Lazard Freres & Co. as its adviser to prepare for an initial public stock offering by General Motors Co.
Treasury signed the agreement on Monday but did not reveal it until Friday. The agreement says that Lazard Freres will be paid $500,000 a month over the next year for the advice it provides the government.
The agreement says that if no stock sale has occurred during the first 12 months of the contract, Lazard Freres will receive a fee of $250,000 a month until the sale is completed.
The Treasury owns 61 percent of General Motors. The IPO would allow the government to begin recouping its investment.
-- From wire reports
