Alcatel-Lucent SA has agreed to pay more than $137 million to settle charges brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.

The SEC late Monday accused the Paris-based telecommunications company of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to foreign government officials to illicitly win business in Latin America and Asia.

Alcatel, a top supplier to U.S. and European phone companies, agreed to pay more than $45 million to settle the SEC's charges. It will pay an additional $92 million to settle criminal charges announced by the Justice Department.

A representative for Alcatel couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The SEC's complaint said Alcatel's bribes went to government officials in Costa Rica, Honduras, Malaysia and Taiwan between December 2001 and June 2006.

The SEC complaint said all of the bribery payments were undocumented or improperly recorded as consulting fees by Alcatel subsidiaries and then consolidated into the company's financial statements. The complaint also says leaders of several Alcatel subsidiaries and geographical regions either knew or were severely reckless in not knowing about the misconduct.

Economists, pundits and politicians had little choice but to endorse the tax deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans, because snapping back to pre-Bush tax rates would crush the economic recovery. But Washington exhibited not even the shadow of self-restraint and cut taxes far beyond what is needed or smart.

Newly emboldened Republicans demanded all the Bush tax cuts be extended. President Obama argued the country couldn't afford those for families in the highest tax brackets, but failed to apply such reasoning to temporary benefits bestowed on Democratic constituencies by his 2009 stimulus program.

Instead of compromising, with each side getting half of what it wanted, Washington feasted-everyone got everything they wanted and more. Business got its R&D tax credit and a temporary tax holiday on new investments. The wealthy got Bush-era tax rates and even lower rates through temporary elimination of income-triggered phase outs on deductions and personal exemptions. The poor and middle class got a temporary 33 percent cut in social security taxes.

Since Nancy Pelosi became speaker in 2007, government spending and the federal deficit have jumped from 19.6 percent of GDP and $161 billion to 25.1 percent and $1.5 trillion in 2011. Unfunded, increases in health care spending, the regulatory bureaucracy and fanciful experiments in industrial policy-windmills, electric cars and batteries, and the like-have bloated federal spending without credible plans to pay for it all.

Now Congress and the President compound those sins by both enacting additional "temporary" tax cuts that will be very difficult to ever let lapse. For example, thanks to Clinton and Bush tax cuts, the Social Security tax is the principal tax low- and middle-income workers pay-many pay zero or minimal personal income taxes.

An initial public offering of Gain Capital Holdings Inc. stock raised a total of $81 million in gross proceeds at a price that came in lower than the company expected.

The Bedminster, N.J., company, which is an online foreign exchange trading platform for retail customers, said Wednesday it priced an IPO of 9 million shares at $9 per share. The stock will start trading Wednesday under the ticker symbol "GCAP."

Gain Capital offered 407,692 shares and selling stockholders offered about 8.6 million. The company said it won't receive proceeds from the sale of shares by selling stockholders. Underwriters also have an option to buy more than 1.3 million additional shares to cover excess demand.

The company had said it expected to sell about 11 million shares at a price between $13 and $15. It plans to use the net proceeds to pay the expenses related to the IPO.

Gain Capital was founded in 1999 by a group of trading and technology professionals. It offers global over-the-counter foreign exchange trading where participants trade with one another rather than through a central exchange or clearinghouse. It offers access to global gold and silver markets, stock indices, and commodities.

Several Union City residents have filed a class action lawsuit against United Water on allegations that the company cheated customers by selling them useless warranties that do not cover repairs.

The warranties, which cost about $150 a year, are supposed to cover the repair of broken water pipes, sewer pipes and other items, the attorneys for three 18th Street plaintiffs, said. Although the application says "Guaranteed Acceptance" in large print, there are actually many exclusions, the attorneys said.

Multi-unit dwellings are actually excluded from the warranty, but that has not stopped United Water from marketing and selling the policies to the owners of multi-unit buildings, the lawsuit says.

The suit was recently filed in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, where United Water is based.

Attorneys Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran held a press conference Tuesday at the courthouse. Afran estimated that if all New Jersey residents in a situation similar to the plaintiffs were to join the suit, and the suit was successful, it could cost United Water as much as $50 million.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Robert LeChien agreed on Nov. 9 to substitute attorney Jeffrey Millar's former law firm, Brent Coon & Associates, with his new employer Saville and Flint of Glen Carbon, in a proposed class action against Redbox DVD rental kiosks.

Millar, who used to be employed by the Lakin Law Firm in Wood River (now LakinChapman) before he left to join Coon's firm, is among a group of lawyers that represents Redbox lead plaintiff Laurie Piechur.

Piechur proposes to lead a class of DVD renters who claim that Redbox Automated Retail Inc. charged inappropriate late charges to customers using its kiosks.

The suit seeks damages in excess of $350,000, costs and other relief.

If certified, Piechur's suit would be a nationwide class action.

Redbox denies the claims in the suit.

The company has tried unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed.

The last filing in the case was a move by Redbox asking to be allowed to file additional defenses based on information gathered in the suit's ongoing discovery.

That motion was filed in September.

A move by the owner of Blockbuster Video, a third party in the suit's discovery, is also moving to quash Piechur's discovery requests.

Eric Brandfonbrener of Perkins Coie of Chicago and Robert Sprague represent Redbox.

Millar, Thomas Maag and others represent Piechur and the proposed class.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Patrick Young presides until his retirement Nov. 30.