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Offshore investment funds used as tax havens are being investigated as part of the Madoff fraud case.

UNLESS you’ve been in a coma for the past 12 months, you know that 2008 will go down in history as perhaps the worst year in modern times for business. Whether it was bank failures, the closing of two venerable Wall Street banks or an alleged…

The pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on branded promotional items.

Eleven people were convicted of roles in a counterfeiting ring that distributed pirated software around the world.

A bitter dispute is tearing apart the family of porn king and First Amendment champion Larry Flynt, as two of his nephews vie to go into the adult-entertainment business that made Uncle Larry notorious. Flynt, the wheelchair-bound publisher of…

Vicki L. Iseman charged that an article The Times published in February had falsely created an impression that she had engaged in an improper romantic relationship with the senator.

The globalization of the Web means that companies have to find ways to reach out to consumers in their native languages, a costly and time-consuming endeavor.

Air New Zealand did a test flight with a fuel made in part with oil from the jatropha plant in a search for an alternative to crude oil.

Faced with falling oil prices and a weakening economy, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed what would be a major change of course for the oil-producing country.

A blog about Michelle Obama’s clothes shows how agencies are moving from promoting to creating brands.

Home values in 20 large metropolitan areas across the country dropped at an 18 percent annual pace in October.

Gazprom maintains Ukraine owes $2.1 billion for natural gas shipments and for late fees. It has threatened to cut off supply on Thursday if payment is not adequate.

The length of the credit crisis will depend on the availability of credit in all its forms.

Merrill Lynch’s vice chairman, Jeffrey N. Edwards, is leaving in January to pursue other interests, Gregory J. Fleming, the company’s president, said in a memorandum.

Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, among others, says it might remove the channels from key markets on Jan. 1 if Time Warner Cable does not agree to an increase in rights fee.

Wall Street showed more signs of stability after Washington’s latest lifeline to the auto industry.

Nine major buildings are in various stages of construction at the university’s Ann Arbor campus, one of the largest university building programs in the U.S.

After the financial markets collapsed, companies that were looking for space found accommodating deals.

Three writers were laid off, including Nat Hentoff, the prominent columnist who has worked for the paper since 1958, contributing opinionated columns about jazz, civil liberties and politics.

The investment bank has asked a bankruptcy court for a six-month extension to file its Chapter 11 plan, citing the size and complexity of the case.

The blog, Consumerist, aims at a younger market than the venerable Consumer Reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a report to Congress that recommended maintaining the accounting rules, but suggested improvements to current practices.

The midsize Fusion Hybrid is Ford’s strongest effort yet to break the dominance of Japanese automakers in hybrid passenger cars.

The day after an injection from the government, the financing affiliate of G.M. said it would immediately ease the conditions for borrowers to have access to its loans.

NEW YORK - Wall Street staged a big advance in the next-to-last session of 2008 Tuesday after Washington’s latest lifeline to the auto industry bolstered hopes that the government will do whatever is necessary to cut short the recession.

NEW YORK - The grim outlook for the economy was affirmed Tuesday by separate reports showing that consumer confidence and housing prices have plummeted to all-time lows.

To Lehman Brothers, Linens ‘n Things and the blank VHS tape, add another American institution that expired in 2008: drug company trinkets.

Bernard L. Madoff must provide federal regulators with a full accounting of his assets by Wednesday.

J.P. Morgan Private Bank has devised a program to detect liquidity deficits, the naming of wrong heirs and other common oversights in estate planning.

While there was no shortage of people for whom 2008 was a terrible year, there were a few who managed to make their mark - in a good way. Meredith Whitney: The Oppenheimer banking analyst was one of Wall Street’s most dour prognosticators…