Criminal charges against Chevron Corp and some of its local managers will be filed by a Brazilian prosecutor within weeks, adding the threat of prison sentences to an $11 billion civil lawsuit as punishment for a November offshore oil spill.

The filing in federal court in Campos, Brazil, will likely include a request for criminal indictment of the chief executive of Chevron’s Brazil unit, George Buck, as well as other staff, three Brazilian government officials involved in the case told Reuters.

An official who investigated the 2,400-barrel spill told Reuters Buck and Chevron acted in a “careless and irresponsible way.”

Tags: Chevron Corp, oil spill

Many people have different versions of what all they all learned from Steve Jobs, the man behind the success of Apple Inc and its former CEO, who is now resting in the heaven.

Well there are many things that Jobs told the world, including:

Analysts, journalists, gurus, and consultants cannot “do”, so they “advise.” They can have an opinion of how good or bad a product or service is, but they cannot make a great one, they also cannot sell it themselves.

Steve Jobs was among the firsts to tell the world that the customer does not possess the ability to tell what exactly he needs and a smart business has to predict his expectations on his own. Customers can just say “Better, faster, and cheaper” but how will the product or service be “Better, faster, and cheaper” is unknown to them. They can only find the better between two or more things but do not have the time, will, or knowledge to specify their own expectations.

Real demo by company head: There has not been a company head that has come forward to launch a new product or service and tell the world everything about it and answer all related queries, but Steve Jobs did. He was always there to demo a pod, pad, phone, and Mac two to three times a year and understood what his company was doing and explained it to the world at large. This is something that differentiated Jobs from the rest.

The greatest thing that Steve Jobs made the world realize is that one should have the conviction to let people believe in his thoughts and style of working. Jobs knew that the world can be changed only when a few minds will change and he single-handedly changed the minds and eventually the world. RIP Steve Jobs.

Tags: Apple Inc, smart business, Steve Jobs

A higher-than-expected quarterly profit on solid growth in its online marketplaces and an increase in transactions processed through its PayPal electronic payments business was reported by EBay Inc.

The shares of the e-commerce company were up nearly 2 percent in after-hours trading, even though the company offered a cautious outlook for first-quarter profit and revenue.

EBay reported fourth-quarter net income of $2 billion, or $1.51 a share, compared with $559 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier. The company forecast first-quarter profit of 50 cents or 51 cents a share and revenue of $3.05 billion to $3.15 billion and added profit for 2012 will be $2.25 to $2.30 a share and revenue will be $13.7 billion to $14 billion.

Tags: e-commerce company, EBay, PayPal electronic payments

The largest bank of the eurozone, Spanish lender Santander, reached a requirement for 9 percent core capital by raising 15.3 billion euros ($19.5 billion), six months ahead of a deadline set by the European Banking Authority (EBA).

On Monday, Santander also reiterated its goal of increasing its core capital ratio to 10 percent in June, which is one point above the level required by the EBA that set new capital rules to make sure banks can weather financial crises.

Santander shares rose more than 2 percent before closing almost flat at 5.45 euros.

“The market is taking the news very positively because this will give the bank more margin to increase provisions that the new government could demand to offset depreciation in its real estate assets,” said Nuria Alvarez, banking sector analyst at Renta 4 brokerage in Madrid.

Tags: European Banking Authority, eurozone, real estate assets, Santander, Santander shares

Data showed on Wednesday that eurozone inflation slowed in December as expected underlining market expectations that price growth will decelerate further in the first months of 2012 and create room for more interest rate cuts for assisting the weakening economy.

Consumer prices in the 17 countries sharing the euro rose 2.8 percent year-on-year in December, down from 3.0 percent year-on-year rises in November, October and September, according to estimates from the European Union’s Statistics Office (Eurostat).

Inflation peaked at 3 percent and should fall back below 2 percent, which is the medium-term target of the European Central Bank, around April according to many economists.

Tags: European Central Bank, eurozone, inflation, interest rate cuts, market expectations

Capping a late-year upswing, manufacturing grew at its fastest pace in six months in December but a European slump and rising oil prices posed threats to the U.S. economy in 2012.

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity hit its highest level since June and came in above forecasts at 53.9, more evidence that the U.S. economy picked up steam in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a pretty decent report overall,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York. “We’re not roaring ahead here, but it’s also not collapsing. That’s consistent with our overall view of the economy in 2012.”

Tags: factory activity, oil prices, RBC Capital