Israeli bank helped U.S. account holders avoid taxes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

As part of a settlement reached on Monday with the U.S. Department of Justice, Bank Leumi Group will pay $270 million in fines. It's the first time an Israeli bank has admitted to this type of criminal activity.

The bank put its clients' money into accounts in tax haven countries such as Switzerland and Luxembourg and helped its clients create false tax returns over a 10-year period, the Justice Department said.

"IRS will not tolerate the use of offshore accounts to illegally escape paying taxes and we will continue to focus on this priority area," said Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen.

Leumi is one of the largest banks in Israel. It has offices in New York, Florida, Illinois and California.

A spokesperson for the bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

First Published: December 22, 2014: 4:59 PM ET

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IRS to auction remainder of Darryl Strawberry's Mets salary

Strawberry took home four World Series titles over his 17-year Major League Baseball career.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The Internal Revenue Service is putting outfielder Darryl Strawberry's retirement annuity on the auction block next month.

The annuity, seized by the IRS because Strawberry owed back taxes, was part of a contract he signed in 1985, back when he was slugging home runs for the New York Mets.

The annuity will be worth about $1.3 million, to be paid out over nearly 19 years, when it goes up for sale on January 20, according to court documents.

The starting bid is $550,000.

The IRS filed a lien against Strawberry because he owes the IRS back taxes from 1989, 1990, 2003 and 2004. A court document from 2012 said he owed the IRS nearly $543,000.

Related: $325 million deal may be riskiest contract in sports

The auction was authorized by a court, which will divide the money between the IRS and other parties.

The IRS will get to exchange two decades worth of monthly installments for an immediate lump sum that would settle Strawberry's outstanding tax debt.

Strawberry signed with the Mets in 1993 and over the course of his 17-year Major League Baseball career, took home four World Series titles. He was named an All-Star for eight consecutive seasons and had 335 career home runs. But he was plagued by a cocaine addiction and other troubles.

The auction is set to take place in Illinois, but bids will also be accepted by mail.

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First Published: December 22, 2014: 4:02 PM ET

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A peek into North Korea's Internet

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

For most North Koreans, it's nonexistent. There are only 1,024 known IP addresses in the entire country. The Internet is typically reserved for government officials, a few foreign ambassadors and outside assistance groups, according to a North Korean defector-turned-journalist.

By comparison, the United States has 1.5 billion IP addresses.

It's important to note that it's not one IP address per device, so there could be thousands of devices hooked up to the Internet in North Korea. Still, it still has one of the smallest Internet presences in the world.

All sorts of devices are hooked up to the Internet there, however. There are a few Sony PlayStations and XBoxes, and some of those ubiquitous voice-over-IP office phones, too. Researchers have even spotted a MacBook -- one single Macbook -- connected to the world-facing Internet.

Companies like Apple (AAPL, Tech30), Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) aren't permitted to sell to North Korea, so these devices are probably bought by third parties, said HP security research director Ted Ross.

Still despite these details, little is known about all the devices in North Korea connected to the Internet. The country is notoriously secretive and isolated. What we know is that Internet access there is small and tightly controlled.

Some clues are offered by security researchers at HP (HPQ, Tech30). Others come from an anonymous person who claims to have mapped some of North Korea's computer network and provided unique data to prove it.

Nearly all of the country's Internet traffic is routed through China. Firms that monitor that traffic say it is comparable to only about 1,000 high-speed homes in the United States.

All of it went offline Monday in a mysterious blackout. Matthew Prince, president of CloudFlare, which monitors Internet traffic worldwide, said three scenarios are likely.

Either the North Korean government pulled the plug (like Syria did in 2012). Or its main Chinese telecom provider turned it off. Or a few computer-savvy misfits overloaded North Korea's tiny Internet "tube" with garbage traffic, a relatively simple tactic known as a Distributed Denial of Service attack.

"It's as if North Korea got erased from the global map of the Internet," Prince said.

Whereas the real Internet is reserved for a select and trusted few, everyone else in North Korea gets access to a national, walled-off intranet, a "pseudo Internet," available for public use called Kwangmyong.

That tiny network has maybe 5,500 websites at most, so users only see what the North Korean government wants them to see.

And yes, they get their own computer operating system. It's called Red Star.

Related: North Korea's attack should scare every company

Related: Sony doesn't know how but says 'The Interview' will be shown

Related: BitTorrent to release 'The Interview'?

First Published: December 22, 2014: 7:45 PM ET

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Sony doesn't know how but says 'The Interview' will be shown

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

But that's not so, says an attorney for Sony Pictures.

"Sony only delayed this," attorney David Boies said on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

He was speaking of Sony (SNE)'s decision to cancel the Christmas Day release by pulling the movie from theaters. That followed decisions by the country's largest theater chains to not show the movie, because of an online post threatening a "bitter fate" to anyone who sees the controversial comedy, which depicts an assassination attempt on North Korean Kim Jong-Un.

The theater owners were concerned the audience for other films would stay home on Christmas, when Americans turn out to theaters in droves. But Sony is under all sorts of pressure to get the movie out somehow.

"Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed," Boies said. "How it's going to be distributed, I don't think anybody knows quite yet, but it's going to be distributed."

Related: A defiant Sony scrambles to find a way out for 'The Interview'

That was very different from the studio's simple message last Wednesday: "Sony Pictures has no further release plans for the film."

On Sunday, Sony representatives declined to elaborate on Boies' remarks.

But Sony did refute a New York Post report that the company plans to release the film for free on Crackle, the online video site it owns.

"No decisions have been made," said a company spokesman. "Sony is still exploring options for distribution."

Crackle makes money through ads but not through subscriptions or rental transactions, thereby limiting its revenue potential and its appeal to Sony. (After all, "The Interview" cost a reported $44 million to make, and Sony would like to recoup at least some of those costs.)

But the company's statement does not rule out Crackle altogether, it just indicates that there is no firm plan in place yet.

In a CNN interview on Friday, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said the studio had not "given in" to pressure from hackers and was still considering ways to distribute the movie.

Besides Crackle, possible options include a release in willing theaters, distribution through a cable video-on-demand service or an online streaming release, on a service like Netflix (NFLX, Tech30), Google (GOOG)'s YouTube or Hulu.

Netflix, YouTube and the theater owner association declined to comment over the weekend.

Related: Steve Carell project canceled because of the Sony breach

The pressure on Sony is piling up.

President Obama on Friday said "I think they made a mistake" by pulling the movie. And on Saturday the Republican National Committee urged theater owners to show the film.

On CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday, famed defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz said he thought Sony had moved too slowly to stand up for the First Amendment.

"What they should have said on Day One is, 'We may have to cancel the theatrical release, but let me tell you, North Korea, more people will see this film because of what you did than anything that would have happened, had you not done this,'" Dershowitz said.

Andrew Wallenstein, a co-editor in chief of Variety, said that "Sony wants to strike while the iron is hot" and release the film in some fashion.

"There's a lot of controversy generating publicity," he said. "They spent a lot of marketing money. I think they want to make it happen soon."

But doing so could expose Sony and its partners to further cyber-attacks.

A message last week purporting to be from the hackers said Sony's decision to not release the film was "very wise," and warned the company not to release the film in the future.

At the same time, Sony Pictures has other big problems to deal with. The massive hack exposed a trove of business secrets. The company is still trying to recover from the intrusions into its computer systems, and on Saturday some corporate email accounts were still crippled.

--CNN's Carma Hassan contributed to this report.

First Published: December 21, 2014: 10:28 AM ET

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Tom Brokaw says his cancer is in remission

Tom Brokaw was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"A year ago my future was more uncertain than I cared to acknowledge but now I face the New Year with very encouraging news," he wrote in a letter NBC News said was distributed to staff. "The cancer is in remission and I will shortly go on a drug maintenance regimen to keep it there."

Brokaw, 74, said in February he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which involves cancer cells overtaking healthy, disease-fighting cells in bone marrow. NBC said at the time doctors were "optimistic about the outcome of the treatment he is receiving."

He is now retired from anchoring "NBC Nightly News," his primary role at the network from 1982 to 2004. He is now a special correspondent at NBC and his work includes chronicling the "greatest generation" of Americans, who grew up in the Great Depression and fought World War II.

Last month, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. President Obama said the nation "trusted him to tell us what we needed to know and to ask the questions that needed asking. I know, because I've been on the receiving end of some of those questions."

In the Sunday announcement, Brokaw reflected on attending a ceremony with about 30 veterans commemorating the WWII Battle of the Bulge.

"I flew home reflecting again on how lucky we are that generation gave us the lives we have today -- how my last year was a challenge but I was meeting it in world class hospitals with brilliant physicians, not in a foxhole in the Ardennes," he wrote.

He signed the note "T Bone."

Related: Brian Williams renews contract with NBC for five more years

First Published: December 21, 2014: 12:58 PM ET

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Meet the world's No. 1 dealer in Guinness art

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

He has bought hundreds of paintings, once lost to obscurity in a London archive, that were original renderings of iconic Guinness posters displayed in pubs and college dorm rooms.

The paintings are by the English artist John Gilroy, who died in 1985.

Gilroy worked for S.H. Benson, an advertising agency that held the Guinness account from 1929 until the late 1960s. Gilroy designed thousands of posters for the beer giant's ad campaigns.

Lloyd, the antique dealer, came upon his Guinness obsession somewhat accidentally.

Nearly five years ago, he was at an antique show in Florida when he stumbled on a few of the original Guinness paintings.

Lloyd bought what the dealer had on hand but was thirsty for more. He went to London to see the rest of the paintings -- and wasted no time snapping them up.

"I bought them from a very astute business man," said Lloyd, declining to elaborate. "They were not on the market."

The paintings had apparently spent some 40 years stored away in a London building that had housed the offices of the S.H. Benson agency.

Lloyd won't say exactly how many he bought, but he said he has sold a couple hundred and has about 125 left.

The paintings are all single originals -- there are no copies.

Related: There's a black market for beer. And it's bad for drinkers

"The genius of Gilroy was the empathy the public had with his drawings," writes David Hughes, an ex-Guinness brewer and author of "Gilroy was good for Guinness."

Gilroy was in fact very good for Guinness. But in 1969, a change in leadership at Guinness meant S.H. Benson and Gilroy were out. And so were the paintings.

There is some speculation about who might have had them for 40 years. Hughes suspects it was Jacob Rothschild, a British banker who bought the building that housed S.H. Benson for years.

Today, Lloyd is cashing in on the paintings. He sells them for $9,500 to $40,000 each at local antique fairs and out of his shop in Manhattan.

Lloyd declined to say what his collection is worth. But Hughes, the author, suspects Lloyd could have close to $2 million worth of Guinness paintings.

Among his customers: Rory Guinness, related to the founder of Guinness, who bought a number of paintings for his personal collection.

Related: Beer 101 - Big changes are brewing

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First Published: December 21, 2014: 4:55 PM ET

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A defiant Sony scrambles to find a way out for 'The Interview'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

This weekend the embattled movie studio is in active discussions with potential distribution partners, figuring out if there's a way forward for the film that provoked a crippling cyberattack, an FBI investigation and a presidential critique of the company.

Netflix (NFLX, Tech30), YouTube and major movie theater owners are not commenting.

But CNN's Fareed Zakaria, who interviewed Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton on Friday, said later on CNN that he came away with the sense that "Sony intends to release this movie in some form, relatively soon. I don't think we're talking about six months from now. This movie will be seen."

What was just a lousy comedy a few short days ago is now a symbol of two essential American values -- freedom of expression and freedom from fear.

On Tuesday, the hackers that previously stole terabytes of data from Sony's servers explicitly targeted the Christmas release of "The Interview" by issuing a message that invoked 9/11. They warned Americans not to venture to movie theaters playing the film.

Sony then signaled that movie theater owners could back out of plans to screen the film if necessary -- and they did just that, like a series of falling dominoes.

The owners were concerned that families would forgo holiday season trips to the movies due to safety concerns and hurt every big Christmas film release, not just "The Interview."

So on Wednesday, with virtually nowhere to show the film, Sony canceled the Christmas release. (Lynton told Zakaria that the studio tried and failed to find a digital distributor, so it ruled out an immediate online release, too.)

Backlash to the decision was ferocious.

On Friday, President Obama echoed the feelings of many in Hollywood when he said Sony had made a mistake: "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States."

Obama also openly worried about the possibility of producers and distributors "engaging in self-censorship because they don't want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended."

Related: Sony exec fires back at President Obama

Speaking to Zakaria shortly after the president weighed in, Lynton said he essentially agreed with the president -- but that Sony (SNE) couldn't go it alone.

"We don't have that direct interface with the American public," Lynton said. "So we need to go through an intermediary to do that."

Theoretical distributors include theater chains like AMC and Regal, if they're willing to reverse their prior decision; cable video-on-demand operators like Comcast (CCV) and Time Warner Cable (TWC); subscription streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon (AMZN, Tech30); and movie rental services like iTunes by Apple (AAPL, Tech30).

Sony Pictures has a video streaming site of its own, Crackle, but it's free for users and doesn't have the capability to charge customers to watch a movie. Charging for "The Interview" would help Sony recoup some of the movie's $44 million budget.

One of the studio's sibling divisions, Sony Computer Entertainment, has another route to consumers: the PlayStation Store, which lets owners of the video game console rent or buy movies via the Internet. The company has declined to comment on whether it might choose to release "The Interview" there.

Of course, Sony -- and any company that helps it release the film in the future -- has to consider the risk of further intrusions by the hackers and further leaks of the stolen data they already have.

In a threatening message to executives on Thursday night, an anonymous hacker said Sony was "very wise" to cancel the film and claimed they would "ensure the security of your data unless you make additional trouble."

Releasing the film in some form would presumably be considered "additional trouble."

Related: Hackers send a new message

But among all the emotions that are spilling forth from Sony's leaders -- anger, fear, frustration -- a new one has emerged: defiance.

Lynton told Zakaria that "we're trying to weigh the options as to how we can get this" released.

Disappointment inside the studio about the lack of support from other major Hollywood players is beginning to subside.

After weeks of almost nothing but silence, The Motion Picture Association of America spoke out forcefully on Friday, following the FBI's statement that North Korea was behind the late November cyberattack.

Lynton, who was in New York on Friday night, awoke on Saturday morning to a front-page New York Times column that expressed "disgust" at the "readiness of theater owners and Sony to cave in to far-fetched threats."

But there was also this call by the New York Daily News editorial board: "Patriotism demands: Show the movie and show it now."

Meantime, the studio released another movie on Friday -- the highly-anticipated "Annie." It had leaked onto illegal film-sharing web sites after the cyberattack, but it is still expected to earn tens of millions of dollars.

"It's a rare bit of good news for Sony," The Hollywood Reporter said, for a studio that needs some.

Related: N. Korea blasts 'childish attempt to frame us'

First Published: December 20, 2014: 9:16 AM ET

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Last-minute Christmas shopping guide

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

You've already missed the deadline for free shipping from Amazon (AMZN, Tech30), for example. (It was Friday.)

But the online store says gifts ordered as late as Tuesday can still be under the tree on Thursday if you pay for one-day delivery. Some customers in major cities can even place orders by 10 a.m. on Christmas Eve and receive same-day delivery.

Hitting the stores: If you want to do your last-minute shopping the old fashioned way, expect stores to be crowded and lines to be long this weekend.

Many stores like Target (TGT) and J.C. Penney (JCP) will be open for extended hours.

Toys 'R' Us and Kohl's (KSS) will be remain open all hours until Christmas eve.

Shopping online: And you can also shop online at these same stores.

Walmart's (WMT) free shipping deadline passed (last Wednesday), but "rush shipping" is available through Monday for a fee. And if the item is in stock at a nearby store, orders for in-store pickup can be placed even on Christmas Eve.

There's still time for free shipping through Best Buy (BBY). It says orders over $35 placed by 11:30 a.m. ET on Monday qualify for free delivery by Christmas. It also offers free in-store pickup.

The deadline at Kohl's and Target is Saturday. Sears' and Macy's is Monday.

Last call at the Post Office: If you already have a gift you have to mail, that clock is ticking, too. The U.S. Postal Service will accept packages through Tuesday for Priority Mail Express. You can save a few bucks -- and time in line -- by dropping off the package by Saturday and using First Class Mail (for Christmas cards) or Priority Mail (for packages).

The deadline for Thursday delivery from UPS (UPS) and FedEx (FDX) is Tuesday.

Related: Toys 'R' Us extends hours for last-minute shoppers

Related: Mall Santa 101

First Published: December 20, 2014: 7:21 AM ET

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Republicans to theaters: Don't be 'bullied,' show Sony's 'The Interview'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

In a letter obtained first by CNN, RNC chairman Reince Priebus encouraged the CEOs of 10 major theater chains to show the controversial comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco.

"I want to speak clearly on behalf of the Republican Party: I urge you to show the movie," he wrote to the CEOs.

"As a sign of my commitment, if you agree to show this movie, I will send a note to the Republican Party's millions of donors and supporters urging them to buy a ticket -- not to support one movie or Hollywood, but to show North Korea we cannot be bullied into giving up our freedom," he added.

The letter continued, "Like many Americans, I'm deeply concerned that we would allow a foreign regime to dictate the movies we can and cannot watch."

The RNC petition underscored the increasingly political nature of the fracas surrounding the film and the devastating cyberattack that was directed at Sony Pictures one month before its scheduled release.

This weekend the embattled movie studio is in active discussions with potential distribution partners, figuring out if there's a way forward for the film that provoked the attack, an FBI investigation and a presidential critique of the company.

Sony representatives declined to comment on the RNC letter.

A spokesman for the association that represents theater owners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When debating whether to screen "The Interview" -- if Sony were to reverse its decision -- the owners have to consider a complicated set of factors, including customers' concerns about security, commitments to screen other films, and overall revenue potential.

President Obama calls out Sony: The letter comes one day after President Obama publicly chastised Sony for canceling the movie. Sony "made a mistake," the president said at an afternoon news conference.

Obama's comment led Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton to tell CNN's Fareed Zakaria that the president -- and others -- were "mistaken" about what had happened.

"We do not own movie theaters," Lynton said. "We cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters."

Lynton indicated that it was the theater owners that backed away from the film following a Tuesday threat from hackers that invoked 9/11.

Sony then canceled the film's Christmas release. But it is now seeking help to distribute the film in theaters or online.

Issue 'goes far beyond politics': The letter marks a strange bedfellows moment in the controversy over the movie, as the RNC itself acknowledged.

"As you know, the Republican Party and Hollywood have at times been at odds," the letter states. "But we can all agree that the current situation regarding the release of 'The Interview' goes far beyond politics. It is about freedom and free enterprise."

It also suggested to the theater owners and Sony (SNE) that "a share of the profits be donated to the USO or the Yellow Ribbon Fund."

The letter contributed to a feeling of national unity with regard to freedom of expression. Similar sentiments have been heard on television, in newspaper op-eds and on social media.

But at the same time, the letter did include a political shot across the aisle, accusing Obama of sending "mixed messages on this issue."

An RNC spokesman said "mixed messages" referred to the contrast between the president's comments in an ABC interview on Wednesday -- when he passed on an opportunity to criticize Sony -- and Friday, when he did.

However, the ABC interview was taped before Sony pulled the film from Christmas release.

Online reactions to the letter varied on Saturday night: While some people decried it as a publicity stunt, others said it was a necessary statement that might increase public pressure on Sony and the theater owners."

First Published: December 20, 2014: 6:00 PM ET

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Reporter behind story of $72 million teen trader stays at NY Mag

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Jessica Pressler was slated to join the Bloomberg News investigative unit, but got caught up in controversy this past week following a story she wrote about a New York City high school student who said he'd made $72 million trading stocks. (Spoiler alert: He hadn't.)

New York Magazine's editor-in-chief Adam Moss told his staff Friday in an announcement that reporter Jessica Pressler would be staying at the magazine.

"Can't say that we expected things to turn out this way, but we feel very lucky to be keeping [Pressler] on, and look forward to publishing more of her with pride," Moss wrote in the memo, which was first published by Capital New York. New York Magazine confirmed the authenticity of the memo to CNNMoney.

Pressler's profile of Stuyvesant High School senior Mohammed Islam stirred up controversy and plenty of doubters from the start.

A front page piece about the story by the New York Post and a flurry of Facebook (FB, Tech30) shares later, the improbable tale unraveled quickly. Islam told the New York Observer on Monday that he never actually made any money at all. As the criticism mounted, Pressler defended her reporting.

"I still think the piece is skeptical enough," Pressler told CNNMoney Monday. "The story says, 'This is a rumor and draw your own conclusions.'"

People began to wonder whether Pressler would move to her new job as early as Tuesday, when blogger Jim Romenesko published an email he sent to Bloomberg questioning the company's plans to hire her. A Bloomberg spokesperson declined to comment to Romenesko at the time, and Bloomberg again declined to comment Friday to CNNMoney.

Pressler seems to be taking it all in stride, tweeting Friday, "Good news is I'm staying @NYMag. Bad news is I lost a shoe at holiday party; not the worst thing this week but annoying so if you see it lmk."

First Published: December 19, 2014: 6:41 PM ET

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