A US judge has ordered two NZ incorporated companies to pay US$40 million to 200 American investors for running a "mini Ponzi scheme".

Private equity firms and other big privately-held companies may be forced to open their books.

Proposals to make private companies file financial statements as if they were publicly traded should be scrapped immediately, a lawyer says.

Facebook and other social networking websites have become the hottest tools in the tech-savvy job-seeker's kit in this recession.

Pensioners Bruce and Judy Bartle have lost their case against the finance company that lent them more than their house was worth to invest in Blue Chip.

The High Court has dismissed a claim by Whangarei pensioners Judy and Bruce Bartle that GE Money acted wrongly when it lent them money to buy a Blue Chip apartment.

Commerce Minister Simon Power plans to force out "incompetent and unskilled" liquidators and receivers in a bid to improve regulation of insolvency practitioners.

A High Court decision ordering a financial adviser to pay an elderly widow $250,000 could become a "benchmark" for other claims.

Hanover Finance and its part-owner Mark Hotchin are taking a small investor to the High Court over $697.96 owed to the man's teenage daughter.

Ernst & Young accountant Jo Doolan estimated the "real" value of an average backbench MPs' salary package was $150,454.