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Senate report slams Riggs bank

A Senate report scheduled to be released today draws a scathing portrait of money-laundering controls at the Riggs National Corp., taking the bank's management to task for failing to monitor financial dealings involving Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, and officials of Equatorial Guinea, a West African country in the midst of an oil boom.

The report offers an account of dealings since the mid-1990s that included suitcases stuffed with cash; offshore accounts set up to avoid regulatory scrutiny; millions of dollars wired worldwide with few questions asked; and questionable transactions involving three oil companies.

The report said there had been an overly cozy relationship between Riggs and its federal regulators, and asserted that the bank's management was enamored of courting questionable clients and openly resistant to regulatory entreaties to close those clients' accounts.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. described the report as a "sordid story about a bank with a distinguished name that was blatantly disregarding its anti-money-laundering obligations."

SEC questioning Time Warner

Time Warner Inc.'s cable unit, the second-biggest U.S. cable operator, received a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for information about how it counts subscribers.

Time Warner received the letter earlier this month, said Mia Carbonell, a company spokeswoman. The company considers its subscription accounting practices to be proper and is cooperating with the SEC's inquiry, said Tricia Primrose Wallace, another Time Warner spokeswoman.

The letter to New York-based Time Warner is part of a larger inquiry into how some cable television, satellite television and telephone companies account for subscribers.

Kleenex to debut anti-viral tissues

DALLAS » First it was everything from dish soap to toothbrushes that promised protection against bacteria. Now the maker of Kleenex plans a tissue that kills viruses.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. said yesterday its newest product will be on store shelves in time for the winter cold and flu season.

The consumer-goods giant has been working on an anti-viral tissue for several years, and company officials believe they've got a winner in Kleenex anti-viral. Their optimism is rooted in the huge success of anti-bacterial products.

"The consumers immediately understand the benefits. It's very intuitive," said Steve Erb, who manages the Kleenex brand.

The tissue serves no direct benefit to the person using it to blow his nose -- and who already has a cold or the flu. Kimberly-Clark, it might seem, is counting on consumers' altruism -- their desire to spare others from getting sick.

"We're not curing the common cold or the flu," Erb said. "We're hoping to reduce the amount of the virus that gets spread. Coughs and sneezes contain plenty of yucky stuff."