Finance

Berkshire employee wins $1 million in Warren Buffett’s March Madness bracket challenge

Published

4 days ago

March 24, 2025

Cooper Flagg #2 of the Duke Blue Devils moves the ball against the Baylor Bears during the second round of the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament held at Lenovo Center on March 23, 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Grant Halverson | NCAA Photos | Getty Images

For the first time in nearly 10 years, a Berkshire Hathaway employee claimed Warren Buffett’s $1 million grand prize for his company’s NCAA bracket contest.

An anonymous employee from aviation training company FlightSafety International, a subsidiary of Buffett’s Berkshire, won the annual internal bracket contest after correctly calling 31 of the 32 games in the first round of the men’s basketball tournament dubbed March Madness, according to a statement.

The 94-year-old Oracle of Omaha was finally able to give out the big prize after relaxing the rules multiple times since the competition’s inception in 2016. Originally, Buffett, a Creighton basketball fan, set out to award anyone who could perfectly predict the Sweet Sixteen.

Then in 2024, after the $1 million jackpot remained unclaimed, participants were given the advantage of waiving the results of the eight games among the No.1 and No. 2 seeds. Still, nobody cracked the code.

This year, the rules were changed again so anyone who picks the winners of at least 30 of the tournament’s 32 first-round games would be eligible to win the prize.

In fact, 12 Berkshire employees guessed 31 of the 32 first-round games correctly. The $1 million prize went to the person from that group that picked 29 games consecutively before a loss. That winner went on to pick 44 of the 45 games correctly.

The other 11 contestants are getting $100,000 each.

Finance

Judge orders CFPB to reinstate fired employees, preserve records and get back to work

Published

2 hours ago

March 28, 2025

Business Finance News

FILE PHOTO: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought testifies before House Budget Committee on 2020 Budget on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2019.

Yuri Gripas | Reuters

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership, appointed by President Donald Trump, to halt its campaign to hobble the agency.

In a filing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with the CFPB employee union which sued acting CFPB director Russell Vought last month to prevent him from laying off nearly all of the regulator’s staff. Operatives from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have also been involved in efforts to dismantle the bureau.

Berman ordered Vought to reinstate “all probationary and term employees terminated” after Vought took over at the CFPB, and said that he shouldn’t “delete, destroy, remove, or impair agency data.”

“This order shall bind the defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and any other persons who are in active concert or participation with them, such as personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”),” Berman wrote.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

Finance

Founder Charlie Javice found guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase

Published

3 hours ago

March 28, 2025

Business Finance News

Charlie Javice, who is charged with defrauding JPMorgan Chase & Co into buying her now-shuttered college financial aid startup Frank for $175 million in 2021, arrives at United States Court in Manhattan in New York City, June 6, 2023.

Mike Segar | Reuters

Charlie Javice, founder of a startup purchased by JPMorgan Chase in 2021, was convicted in federal court Friday of defrauding the bank by vastly overstating the company’s customer list.

The jury decision comes after weeks of testimony in New York over who was to blame for the flameout of a once-promising startup. JPMorgan accused Javice, 32, of duping the bank into paying $175 million for a company that had more than 4 million customers, when in reality it had fewer than 300,000.

A spokesperson for JPMorgan declined to comment.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.