business

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office has opened a "major fraud investigation" into the life insurance industry. Cuomo announced that his office had served subpoenas on Prudential Financial Inc. and MetLife Inc. as part of the probe. The attorney general's office is investigating whether insurers are profiting off of grieving families by placing funds from life insurance policies into potentially risky accounts that the companies control. The office says it appears companies are earning interest off the accounts, while paying out low yields to beneficiaries.

Google Inc. triggered a false alarm by posting a notice that its search engine and several other services had been cut off from mainland China -- a key market where the company has been locked in a high-profile battle over online censorship. But what initially looked like a dramatic development turned out to be nothing more than a technological hiccup. After the company's report of a complete blockage in China was relayed by the media, Google backed off the claim.

The U.S. Justice Department said it is joining a fraud lawsuit against Oracle Corp. related to software contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The agency said Oracle failed to offer government customers the same discounts on its software that it offered commercial customers, as it was required to do. As a result, the lawsuit alleges, Oracle overcharged the government on a contract that ran from 1998 to 2006. Paul Frascella, Oracle's senior director of contract services, filed the original lawsuit in May 2007 under the False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to sue on the government's behalf and share in any damages recovered.

Banking titan Citigroup Inc. is paying $75 million to settle civil charges that it misled investors about its potential losses from subprime mortgages as the housing bust hit in 2007. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement with Citigroup. It said the company made misleading statements in calls with analysts and regulatory filings about the extent of its holdings tied to high-risk mortgages. The bank had said the exposure was $13 billion or less. The SEC said it exceeded $50 billion.

Honeywell International Inc. CEO Dave Cote said that the Fortune 500 company has decided to keep its headquarters in New Jersey despite an attractive offer in another state. Cote said the $33 billion company had been seriously considering moving out of New Jersey and taking its 1,800 jobs with it. He said the company was persuaded to stay after getting assurances from Gov. Chris Christie that he will work to expand a tax credit aimed at retaining companies. Cote did not name the state that made the offer.

New jobless claims fell last week for the third time in four weeks but remain elevated. The decline is a sign that the economy likely added jobs in July, although not enough to lower the nation's high unemployment rate. First-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, the Labor Department said. Claims have fluctuated this month because of temporary seasonal factors. The four-week average of claims dropped to 452,500, the lowest level since May.

Mortgage rates dropped to the lowest level on record for the fifth time in six weeks, making homebuying and refinancing the most attractive in decades for those who can get loans. The average rate for 30-year fixed loans this week was 4.54 percent, down from 4.56 last week, mortgage company Freddie Mac said. That's the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. The last time rates were lower was during the 1950s.

FROM NEWS SERVICES