NATION

NATION
Aon gets $15M incentivein lower-Manhattan move
NEW YORK -- Aon Corp., which lost 176 employees in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, has moved into permanent offices in lower Manhattan with the help of a $15 million incentive package.
The Chicago-based insurance brokerage, which had 1,100 of its 50,000 workers in the World Trade Center's south tower, said it will maintain at least 700 jobs at a downtown office on Water Street.
Aon received a tax incentive package worth about $15 million over the next 15 years to stay downtown and is eligible for $5 million in grants administered by a job retention and creation program for lower Manhattan.
4 in brokerage houseare convicted of fraud
NEW YORK -- Four associates of a brokerage house were convicted of cheating investors of more than $100 million in a fraud exposed after the World Trade Center attacks.
A federal jury found Polina Sirotina, Mamed Mekhtiev, Albert Guglielmo and Philip Levenson guilty of conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud. Each faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing Sept. 26.
The charges stemmed from an investigation of a Wall Street brokerage, Evergreen International Spot Trading, and First Equity Enterprises, a related firm at the World Trade Center.
Prosecutors said the businesses, owned by Russian fugitive Andre Koudachev, defrauded 1,400 investors worldwide, many in Australia and New Zealand. Koudachev, who denies wrongdoing, is accused in a pending U.S. indictment of wire fraud and money laundering.
WORLD
Bayer says it has settled1,042 cases tied to Baycol
FRANKFURT, Germany -- German drug maker Bayer said it has reached more than 1,000 out-of-court settlements related to the withdrawal two years ago of a cholesterol-lowering drug, paying out a total of $343 million without admitting liability.
Bayer has settled 1,042 cases, spokesman Michael Diehl said. About 9,400 cases are still pending.
Leverkusen-based Bayer pulled Lipobay, marketed as Baycol in the United States, in August 2001 after it was linked to a rare muscle-wasting syndrome and about 100 patient deaths.
As of last month, the company had paid $240 million for 785 settlements.
Separately, Bayer faces shareholder suits in the United States from people seeking damages for declines in the company's share price caused by Baycol.
Associated Press