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Charges are being prepared against Frank DiPascali, a longtime right-hand man to imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff, according to a court document filed by U.S. prosecutors on Friday.

DiPascali worked for 33 years in the investment advisory arm of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in New York, many of them as a chief financial executive and deputy to Madoff.

Once-respected trader and financier Madoff admitted in March to running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme — Wall Street’s biggest investment fraud — that collapsed last year. A Ponzi scheme is one in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients.

The document filed on Friday by U.S. prosecutors said "The United States Attorney’s Office will file an information upon the defendant’s waiver of an indictment."

In legal terms, an "information" is an alternative charging document to a grand jury indictment. It is often, but not always, an indication that a defendant may be ready to plead guilty to criminal charges.

The single-sentence document was signed by U.S. prosecutors and one of DiPascali’s lawyers, but it gave no further information.

"There will be no other comment from Mr DiPascali or his lawyers on any aspect of the matter," said a spokeswoman for the law firm representing DiPascali faxless payday loans.

Only Madoff, 71, and the firm’s outside accountant David Friehling have been charged so far since his arrest last December.

Ten or more people associated with the firm were being investigated by the FBI and could face criminal charges, a law enforcement source said in June.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March and was handed a 150-year prison sentence in June for defrauding large and small investors worldwide over at least 20 years.

Fortune magazine reported in April that DiPascali was trying to negotiate a plea deal with prosecutors in which he would provide more information on the Madoff fraud in exchange for a lighter sentence.

The office of the U.S. Attorney said the case had been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan federal court.

The case is USA v Frank DiPascali in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). 

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The skies haven’t been too friendly lately to parking lot operators near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Soft demand for air travel has resulted in fewer people leaving fewer cars, and has forced public and private parking operators to adapt to tough times.

Last week, Lambert officials announced they would raise daily parking rates by $1 across the board after parking revenue took a plunge last year. Parking revenue at Lambert was $13.7 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared with $17.5 million in fiscal 2008, said airport spokesman Jeff Lea.

Airport Director Richard Hrabko said he hoped that move would generate about $4 million to $5 million a year.

But operators of the private parking lots that dot the mostly industrial area surrounding Lambert say they’ve taken different steps to deal with a downturn in air travel. Some have leased spaces to airport and airline employees, and stepped up promotions to put more cars in their lots.

Some have taken steps to keep their costs down.

"It’s tough. Very tough," said Daniel Adalberti, general manager at Skypark Airport Parking LLC in St. Ann. "The main thing we have done is adapt to the situation, and we have adapted by trying to provide the best value."

Skypark is situated just off Pear Tree Lane and boasts one of the lowest prices in the airport area — about $7 a day for self-park and $11.50 a day for valet parking. The only lower rate is Lambert’s economy lot at $6. But that will go to $7 when the new rates take effect Sept. 1.

Operators of the 2,000-space Skypark have occasionally dropped the daily self-park rates to $6 or lower.

With companies slashing their travel budgets, parking lot operators are courting the leisure traveler. And those customers tend to be driven more by the cost.

"Right now, price is king," said Tom Lombardi, president of AirportParkingReservations.com.

The Suffield, Conn., company helps travelers reserve parking spaces at privately run lots at 65 airports in the United States and Canada. Surveys have shown that price is a major factor for people who use the reservation site, followed by the lot’s location and security.

Lombardi said it "just blows my mind" that Lambert and other U.S. airports would raise parking fees in the face of a sluggish economy. Some private parking companies say the move could backfire on the airport and send more customers their way.

The airport prices going up "will cause some of the people to look a little bit more," said Henry Bullough, general manager at FastTrack Airport Parking no teletrack payday loan lenders. "A dollar doesn’t seem like much, but if you are going to be going for 10 days, it’s 10 bucks."

Demand for airport parking is driven largely by airline boardings, industry officials say. The Air Transport Association of America, an airline industry trade group, reported that June passenger boardings on U.S. airlines fell 6.5 percent this year, compared with the same month in 2008.

Bullough, like other parking managers, has seen a drop in customers during this recession. In the first quarter of 2009, he said, revenue was down about 15 percent from the same period last year. Meantime, people tend to be taking shorter trips, which has eaten into revenue per parked car.

FastTrack has been "a lot more prudent" with its costs, but there have been no layoffs in St. Louis, he said.

Mark Wildman, vice president of marketing at The Parking Spot, said the push now was to hang onto — and potentially increase — market share.

The Parking Spot and the Parking Spot 2 have not increased rates in the past year and a half, and it is "doubtful" that the company will raise rates next year, Wildman said. Customers still get a complimentary bottle of water and can participate in the "frequent parker" program.

But the company has done promotions to capture new customers, including a summer sale that offered up to 25 percent off parking rates for stays that included Saturday night.

"Everybody in every category is looking for a deal to make their dollar go farther," he said.

The Parking Spot has two locations and also operates EZ Park on a leased property. In all, that encompasses about 4,200 parking spaces.

Meantime, the company is doing what it can to hold down costs. It will soon run more fuel-efficient shuttles and has instituted a shuttle idling policy. Under that policy, if a shuttle is idling more than a minute it must be turned off. There has been a wage freeze, but no layoffs, Wildman said.

In the wake of travel slumps following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the latest recession, Skypark and other lots have provided monthly parking to airline employees and other Lambert workers. Skypark’s monthly rates range from $45 to $60.

"We basically look at it as if we had to wholesale half of our spaces just to at least keep them occupied," Adalberti said.

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Less than a year after it nearly brought down the financial system with a misguided derivatives bet, AIG is everyone’s favorite lottery ticket.

Shares in the troubled taxpayer-owned insurer have nearly doubled in the days leading up to Friday morning’s scheduled release of second-quarter earnings. It is a flurry of speculative enthusiasm that boggles the mind.

Yes, the New York-based company is under new leadership, with former MetLife (MET, Fortune 500) chief Robert Benmosche due to take the reins from Ed Liddy on Monday. AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) has also made some modest progress in selling assets, putting it in position to start repaying some of its government loans.

There is even talk the insurer may have stopped bleeding this quarter: The two analysts who cover AIG, which was bailed out by the government last fall after a huge derivatives bet blew up, expect it to make $1.67 a share — its first profit since the end of 2007.

Even so, given the scope of AIG’s problems — it reported a $99 billion loss last year and survived last fall’s market meltdown thanks only to $180 billion in federal support — it’s hard to square the rally with the company’s grim outlook.

"The speculators have jumped in on this one, like all the other dregs of the state," said Joe Saluzzi of institutional broker Themis Trading. "These stocks have become trading instruments, and they do what they do."

One factor that could be at work is a so-called short squeeze, in which a rising stock price forces those who have bet the shares would fall to buy stock to cover their positions.

Short sellers borrow stock and sell it with the hopes of buying it back later at a lower price. The cost of borrowing AIG shares for the purpose of selling them short has doubled this summer, said John Tabacco of LocateStock.com, a firm that provides financial data to hedge funds and other traders.

"This is truly a phenomenon," Tabacco said. "I don’t know what is going on, but it appears to be the new game in town."

Of course, AIG wasn’t the only deeply depressed financial stock to stage a stunning midweek rally. While AIG jumped 63% Wednesday, its government-controlled peers Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) — which were taken over last September as mortgage losses ate through their thin capital bases — rose 30% and 31%.

The state-sponsored financial losers weren’t the only big winners. CIT (CIT, Fortune 500), the small business lender that was recently denied a federal lifeline, jumped 38% free 3-in-1 credit report. Mortgage insurer Radian (RDN) soared 83% Wednesday after the firm posted a surprise profit.

The good news was that Radian paid out much less in insurance claims on the mortgages it insures than it had forecast. That could be good news for other insurers, such as AIG.

But analysts at CreditSights said they see it as "highly unlikely" that Radian will make money either this year or next.

Similarly, while AIG could swing to a profit in the second quarter, it’s clear that the company remains deeply troubled. The firm did a 1-for-20 reverse split at the end of June in a bid to avoid being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange. In a reverse split, a company reduces the number of shares outstanding in order to boost its stock price, but the value of the company does not change.

"No one does a reverse split unless they’re in real trouble," Saluzzi said.

And while taxpayers are getting a trickle of money back via dividends from most of the banks that took federal funds in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, they aren’t getting anything for the billions they have lent AIG.

The company owes Treasury a 10% annual dividend on the $41.6 billion in series E preferred shares it sold the government in its latest restructuring in April. That means taxpayers are entitled to a check for $1.04 billion every quarter.

But unlike most of the preferred shares issued under TARP, the AIG series E shares are "noncumulative" — meaning that the company can skip dividend payments without the obligation to make up the difference later.

AIG was due to pay its latest dividend Aug. 3, according to Treasury data at FinancialStability.gov. But AIG didn’t declare the dividend, an AIG spokeswoman said.

On the bright side, should AIG miss three more dividends, the government will have the right to nominate two directors to its board — further consolidating its control of an entity of which it already owns nearly 80%.

"We wish we knew what was going on with this stock," said Saluzzi. "We just hope long-term investors don’t get swept up in this."

Talkback: Do you think AIG’s stock is worth buying? Share your comments below. 

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This much seems certain about the Cash for Clunkers program: Consumers are happy to take government rebates to buy new cars.

Other than that, confusion reigned Friday.

The fate of the $1 billion trade-in program was up in the air over concerns that it may have already burned through its funds less than a week after it was officially launched.

And it was unclear how much longer car buyers would be able to trade in clunkers after reports surfaced on Thursday night that the program would be suspended.

On Friday, the Obama administration said it was working with Congress to try to get more money and that Clunkers deal certificates would be honored through the weekend.

"The program will be in place" for anyone who had been planning to make a car purchase this weekend, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN. "This program appears to be a success for car buyers, car dealers, car companies and taxpayers."

One of the program’s main champions in Congress, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told CNN that the Michigan, Ohio and Indiana congressional delegations are working on a $2 billion extension of Clunkers program.

Stabenow had said the effort has provided an important boost to the economy and resulted in 200,000 car sales.

"I am delighted to hear dealers say that all of their salespeople are busy and they are selling more cars in a day than they had been selling in a month," Stabenow said.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Department was sorting out how much of the plan’s funds have already been committed.

Cash for Clunkers, which Congress passed in June, is set to end on Nov. 1 or whenever its $1 billion budget has been depleted. An early version of the Clunkers proposal before it passed Congress called for appropriating $4 billion.

On Friday morning, the government’s official CARS.gov Web site, set up to provide dealers and consumers with information about the plan, still showed $780 million remaining in the coffers.

But many deals are still waiting to be processed, according to dealers.

Brian Benstock, president of Paragon Honda in Woodside, N.Y., said his dealership had already written 60 Clunker deals since July 1, the earliest date from which deals would be accepted.

One deal was signed at 11:55 p business cards online.m. last night, Benstock said, after reports had circulated indicating that the program might be suspended.

"We’re telling the customer, ‘We’re the only dealer open on Northern Boulevard. You’ve got four minutes,’ " he said.

The customer traded in a an old Mitsubushi Diamante sedan for a new Honda CR-V crossover SUV.

Benstock said he was surprised to hear the program might have reached its limit already. Like many dealers, he said, he had already purchased advertising in Friday’s newspapers and he had sent out 176,000 direct mail cards to owners of qualifying Clunkers in his area.

"Can you imagine the position we were in last night?" he said. "We had 176,000 missiles in the air and we’re hearing it’s cancelled."

Bob Goldberg, general manager of Premium Nissan in New Rochelle, N.Y., said he had already given discounts totaling $27,000 on six Clunker deals when he heard the reports late Thursday.

"I didn’t sleep at all last night," Goldberg said. "I feel terrible. All of a sudden the money’s gone. It’s a little nerve wracking."

Under the plan as enacted, vehicles purchased after July 1 will be eligible for refund vouchers worth $3,500 to $4,500 on traded-in gas guzzlers. The trade-in vehicle has to get combined city and highway fuel economy ratings of 18 miles per gallon or less.

The program aims at helping the struggling auto industry by taking inefficient cars off the road and spurring new sales.

"With this program, we are giving the auto industry a shot in the arm and struggling consumers can get rid of their gas-guzzlers and buy a more reliable, fuel-efficient vehicle," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Monday.

Domestic auto sales have been hit hard by the recession and credit crunch and helped propel the bankruptcies and government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler. In June, the seasonally adjusted annual sales rate fell to 9.7 million, a pace well below recent years.

–CNNMoney.com staff writer Aaron Smith and CNN’s Ed Henry contributed to this report.  

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and cooling off — in the 20 biggest U.S. cities.

Source: RealtyTrac

Lured back to prime neighborhoods

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Thanks to sinking home prices, these 5 homebuyers were able to score deals in areas they couldn’t previously afford.

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Mortgage Rates

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Sun Belt cities dominated the list of metro areas with the biggest foreclosure problems during the first six months of 2009.

Cities in just four states — California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada — captured 29 of the top 30 places with the highest foreclosure rates, according to a report issued by RealtyTrac on Thursday. Greeley, Colo., was the only outsider, coming in at 29th.

The good news is that some of the worst hit spots, such as the Central Valley cities in California, showed some improvement, according to James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

"There are some significant differences beginning to show up in the data," he said. "Some of the markets that had the highest saturation of foreclosures over the past few years have seen declining rates."

But we could also be in a lull before the third wave of foreclosures hits, according to Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s spokesman. The first wave was triggered by the subprime mortgage meltdown. The second wave was caused by layoffs and other economic fallout from the subprime meltdown. "The third wave," said Sharga, "will be the fallout from the option-ARM resets over the next several months."

Where it’s getting worse

Many cities with populations larger than one million experienced rapid increases in foreclosure during the past six months. Seattle, for example, wasn’t the worst hit city, but it experienced the biggest increase in the rate of filings. While a relatively small 1 in 107 homes received notices, that is a 72% jump compared with the same period a year ago. In second place was Minneapolis, where the filing rate grew by 58.6% to 1 in 90 homes; Phoenix spiked 51.7% to 1 in 22.

But some big cities showed substantial improvement. Filings in Greater New York fell 23.5% (1 in 211), and tumbled 40.7% in Boston (1 in 144) and 31.3% in Houston (1 in 153)

Taking the title of foreclosure capital is Las Vegas, which surpassed Stockton, Calif., for the honors. Stockton, which is 80 miles east of San Francisco, wore the crown for all of 2008.

Vegas, with a whopping 1 in 13 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the first six months of 2009, is six times worse than the national average of 1 in 84. The number grew 56% since the first half of 2008.

The Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Fla., area was second with 1 in 14 homes. California posted six cities in the top 10 list, with Merced coming in third at 1 in 15 homes being in trouble.

The Rust Belt, however, may have put the worst of its foreclosure problems behind it. Now even economically devastated Detroit recorded only 1 in 54 properties receiving filings. That’s a 16% decline over the first half of 2008.

Cleveland, one of the first cities to get whacked, has also improved and is now ranked only 56th among all U.S. metro areas. The city was once home to the nation’s hardest hit neighborhood — Slavic Village — but filings are now just 1 for every 73 homes, a 30% decline.

Inversely, Chicago, which had not previously suffered from the foreclosure blight, has pushed up 30% from last year to 39th place among cities. That equates to 1 in every 59 homes having a black mark. 

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Oil prices plunged 6% Wednesday after the government reported a surprise increase in oil stockpiles, U.S. and Asian stock markets fell, and a report on durable goods came in much weaker than expected.

"We had the perfect storm happen to the bulls today," said James Cordier, founder of OptionSellers.com. "People are betting on future demand for energy and a lot of investors came to the realization that this demand is not right around the corner by any means."

U.S. light crude for September delivery settled down $3.88 to $63.35 a barrel, after dipping as low as $62.76. Tuesday, oil shaved off $1.15 after a report showed consumer confidence fell more than expected in July.

Supply report: In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Information Administration said that crude stocks jumped by 5.1 million barrels to 347.8 million barrels in the week ended July 24. Analysts were looking for a more modest build up of 1.1 million barrels, according to a consensus estimate from Platts, an energy research firm.

Oil inventories are above the upper boundary of the average range for this time of year, according to the report.

"Today’s report continues to show that demand by the U.S. — which by far is world’s largest consumer of oil — is just so stagnant," said Cordier. The low season for demand is ahead, too. Demand typically dips in the coming months, between the summer driving season and the winter heating season.

Distillates, used to make heating oil and diesel fuel, increased by 2.1 million barrels and are also above the upper boundary of the average range for this time of year online cash advance. Analysts were looking the supply to be 1 million barrels.

Gasoline supplies, meanwhile, decreased by 2.3 million barrels last week, according to the report. Analysts were looking for a decline in gasoline stockpiles of 1.1 million barrels. Even as gasoline stocks decreased in the most recent week, the level of inventories remain in the upper half of the average range for this time of year, according to the report.

Overall, the amount of product supplied in the past month is 4.1% lower than the same time last year.

Stock markets: A down day on Wall Street also pushed oil prices lower because investors read a stock sell-off as an indication of a weakening economy, which demands less oil.

U.S. durable goods orders plunged 2.5% in June, a much bigger decline than economists were expecting. The drop was another sign that the economy is not stabilizing as quickly as expected.

Chinese stock markets tumbled, too, adding to pessimism in the oil market. The Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 2.4% and the Hong Kong HSCC Red Chip fell 2.7%.

Hopes for a recovery in the oil market have been partially based on a recovery in Asian developing markets. "Especially in Asia, the stock markets have been on a tear and people are pointing towards that for future demand of energy," said Cordier.

However, if the rally in emerging markets doesn’t pick back up, the price of oil could have further to fall, he said.  

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