IBM (IBM) Accused of Bribing Chinese and Korean Officials

Shares of International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) gave up some of their earlier gains on new the company was accused of bribing officials from China and Korea for a period of over a 10-years.

IBM apparently gave cash and gifts to officials in China and South Korea from 1998 through 2009 in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged today in a lawsuit filed in Washington.

The SEC said in the complaint, “Deficient internal controls allowed employees of IBM’s subsidiaries and joint venture to use local business partners and travel agencies as conduits for bribes or other improper payments to South Korean and Chinese government officials over long periods of time."

Wisely, IBM decided to take care of the issue almost immediately, agreeing to pay $10 million to settle the accusations.

The company will pay $5.3 million in disgorgement, $2.7 million in interest and a penalty of $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed today in federal court in Washington.

IBM was trading at $155.63, gaining $1.45, or 0.94 percent, as of 1:00 PM EDT.

Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) Arrange AIG (NYSE:AIG) Credit Facilities

AIG (NYSE:AIG) received $4.3 billion in credit facilities, arranged by Citigroup (NYSE:C), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM).

The main bank subsidiary of JPMorgan was the administrative agent in the deals.

AIG CEO Robert Benmosche said in a press release, "This success is another important vote of confidence by the market in AIG. These credit facilities, combined with the debt offering and contingent liquidity facility, demonstrate that AIG has momentum and has made substantial and impressive progress this year.

"As we approach year's end, we believe we are close enough to completing our recapitalization plan that we can see the finish line."

AIG said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that they have a letter of credit valued at $1.3 billion from its Chartis Inc. insurance subsidiary, and two credit facilities worth $1.5 billion each; one being a three-year facility and the other a one-year facility.

In the early part of December AIG also established a $500 million liquidity facility and raised an additional $2 billion in unsecured notes.

Altogether this month AIG raised $6.8 billion.

AIG closed Monday at $59.38, gaining $5.05, or 9.30 percent.

Royal Gold (Nasdaq:RGLD) Public Offering Closed

Royal Gold (Nasdaq:RGLD) said today it has closed its public offering of 5,980,000 shares of common stock.

The public offering was made pursuant to the Company’s shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a shelf prospectus filed with certain Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The offering was priced at $48.50, and proceeds to the Company from the offering, net of commission and expenses, are estimated to be about $276.4 million.

Joint book-runners for the offering were Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and HBSB Securities. HSBC was also the global coordinator for the offering.

Royal Gold has stated they will use the capital for the funding of acquisitions for additional royalty interests, paying down its debt, and other general corporate purposes.

IAMGOLD (TSX: IMG) Files Form 40-F

IAMGOLD Files Form 40-F

IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD" or "the Company") (TSX: IMG)(NYSE: IAG)(BOTSWANA: IAMGOLD) announced today that a Form 40-F report has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, consisting of 2009 annual audited financial statements, management discussion and analysis and the annual information form. These filings are available through EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

The annual information form was also filed with the appropriate Canadian regulatory bodies. This and the previously filed 2009 annual audited financial statements and management discussion and analysis filings are available through the Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com.

Canadian and U.S. regulatory filings are also available on the Company's website at www.iamgold.com. Hard copies of the audited financial statements and accompanying notes are available, free of charge, to shareholders upon written request.

Please note:

This entire press release may be accessed via fax, e-mail, IAMGOLD's website at www.iamgold.com and through Marketwire's website at www.marketwire.com. All material information on IAMGOLD can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov.

Si vous desirez obtenir la version francaise de ce communique, veuillez consulter le http://www.iamgold.com/French/Home/default.aspx.

Contacts:
IAMGOLD Corporation
Tamara Brown
Director, Investor Relations
416 360 4743 or Toll-free: 1 888 464 9999
www.iamgold.com