Article: Melrose To Sell Nortek Air Management Business For $3.625 Bln In Cash

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Melrose To Sell Nortek Air Management Business For $3.625 Bln In Cash

RTTNews, 19 April 2021

(RTTNews) – Melrose Industries Plc. (MRO.L) announced Monday that it has entered into an agreement to sell its Nortek Air Management business to Chicago-based Madison Industries for about 2.62 billion pounds or $3.625 billion, in cash.

The consideration for the disposal is based on an enterprise value of approximately $3.625 billion. The consideration is payable on completion, subject to certain adjustments. Completion is conditional upon, amongst other things, customary antitrust approvals and the approval of the Shareholders at a General Meeting of Melrose Shareholders. Continue reading “Article: Melrose To Sell Nortek Air Management Business For $3.625 Bln In Cash”

Article: Danske Bank CEO Quits Amid Dutch Probe of Laundering Allegations

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Danske Bank CEO Quits Amid Dutch Probe of Laundering Allegations

Frances Schwartzkopff and Joost Akkermans, 19 April 2021

Danske Bank A/S is replacing Chris Vogelzang as chief executive officer after a Dutch money-laundering investigation implicated the former ABN Amro Bank NV executive, complicating the Danish lender’s efforts to get past its own scandal.

Vogelzang, who had run Denmark’s biggest bank for less than two years, will be replaced by Danske’s head of risk management, Carsten Egeriis. The move comes after authorities in the Netherlands named Vogelzang “a suspect in connection with their investigations of potential violations of Dutch legislation relating to the prevention of money laundering at ABN Amro,” Danske said. Continue reading “Article: Danske Bank CEO Quits Amid Dutch Probe of Laundering Allegations”

Article: ABN Amro Sees Quarterly Loss After $574 Million Settlement

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ABN Amro Sees Quarterly Loss After $574 Million Settlement

Joost Akkermans, 19 April 2021

ABN Amro Bank NV agreed to pay 480 million euros ($574 million) to end a Dutch investigation that found “serious shortcomings” in the lender’s processes to combat money laundering.

The amount will be booked in the first quarter and the lender expects a “modest” loss as a result, according to a statement on Monday. As part of the settlement, ABN Amro will pay a fine of 300 million euros and a disgorgement of 180 million euros, with the latter reflecting costs the lender had saved, according to the Dutch public prosecutor. Continue reading “Article: ABN Amro Sees Quarterly Loss After $574 Million Settlement”

Article: Boston Preps For 1st Big Jury Trial, Lysol At The Ready

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Boston Preps For 1st Big Jury Trial, Lysol At The Ready

Chris Villani, 19 April 2021

A Boston federal judge on Monday laid out plans for the district’s first high-profile criminal jury trial since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, walking attorneys through an exhaustive set of safety measures including witness stands encased in plexiglass and disposable microphone covers.

Jury selection in the trial of former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, who is facing bribery, fraud and tax charges, is set to begin on Tuesday. Prosecutors claim Correia solicited bribes from cannabis businesses seeking to open in his city and also defrauded investors in an app he created. Continue reading “Article: Boston Preps For 1st Big Jury Trial, Lysol At The Ready”

Article: Are Nonfungible Tokens Subject to US Anti-Money Laundering Requirements?

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Are Nonfungible Tokens Subject to US Anti-Money Laundering Requirements?

Jamie Boucher, Eytan Fisch, 19 April 2021

Rapidly growing interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has been fueled by recent headlines of multimillion-dollar transactions, such as the $69 million sale of an NFT by digital artist Beeple — the third-highest price ever paid for the work of a living artist. An NFT is a certificate of ownership stored on a blockchain typically associated with a digital asset, such as art, videos, music, games, or tweets. Unlike certain other virtual assets on the blockchain, such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs are unique or “nonfungible.”

While the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)1 has not yet indicated whether certain NFT market participants (e.g., creators, sellers, dealers, marketplace operators) are or may become subject to U.S. anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory requirements, recent developments and concerns of U.S. lawmakers and regulators regarding the financial crime risks associated with virtual assets make regulatory scrutiny of NFTs likely..

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Article: Japan analysts says US Treasury unconcerned over yen manipulation

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Japan analysts says US Treasury unconcerned over yen manipulation

Eamonn Sheridana, 19 April 2021

Japan is on the ‘monitor’ list having satisfied 2 of the 3 US criteria, along with other countries. You can find more on the report here:
US drops Switzerland and Vietnam from FX manipulator designation status

But, says Mizuho, the focus is not on the yen but rather on emerging economies:

US likely to prioritize the Mexican peso or Asian currencies (excl-yen) the US report cited IMF analysts saying the yen was largely in line with fundamentals and made no mention of the yen’s weakness so far in 2021
Continue reading “Article: Japan analysts says US Treasury unconcerned over yen manipulation”

Article: Currency control is not black and white

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Currency control is not black and white

SCMP Editorial, 18 April 2021

There are myriad ways for a government to affect the direction and value of its national currency. Some are labelled currency manipulation; others not. It depends on one’s definitions. Those of the United States Treasury mean the country cannot engage in such manipulation, an alleged sin only other economies can commit. Therefore it sits in judgment of others and threatens sanctions against those who allegedly game the global “rules-based” trade system.

However, spending trillions of US dollars on bond buying – also known as quantitative easing – for more than a decade and on economic relief packages to support growth and encourage inflation have achieved the same or similar results as manipulation. They have already caused significant depreciation of the US dollar against most major currencies and the slide is expected to continue. It is doubly ironic that in the middle of a trade and ideological war between the world’s two superpowers, Washington has, in its wisdom, declined to label mainland China as a currency manipulator but added friendly Taiwan to the watch list. The political nature of the exercise was exposed when the US Treasury, under former president Donald Trump, designated China as a manipulator in mid-2019, despite not meeting its full criteria, and then abruptly lifted the label five months later as a concession in a trade deal. Continue reading “Article: Currency control is not black and white”

Article: Taiwan Calls on U.S. to Suspend Currency Manipulation Criteria

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Taiwan Calls on U.S. to Suspend Currency Manipulation Criteria

Miaojung Lin and Samson Ellis, 18 April 2021

Taiwan urged the U.S. to temporarily ease its monitoring of trading partners for currency manipulation during the ongoing Covid pandemic.

The U.S. Treasury should suspend its three criteria for designating major trading partners currency manipulators while the world battles the coronavirus, Taiwan’s central bank said in a statement on its website Sunday in response to the latest U.S. foreign-exchange policy report.

The U.S. refrained from labeling any economy a currency manipulator in the Biden administration’s first report published Friday, despite acknowledging that Taiwan, Switzerland and Vietnam all met the threshold. Continue reading “Article: Taiwan Calls on U.S. to Suspend Currency Manipulation Criteria”

Article: Why China ‘Bad Bank’ Huarong’s Fall Is Big Bad News: QuickTake

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Why China ‘Bad Bank’ Huarong’s Fall Is Big Bad News: QuickTake

Rebecca Choong Wilkins, 18April 2021

What happens when a company set up by the Chinese government to help clean up toxic debt in the country’s banking system gets into trouble itself? We’re finding out now. Investors were spooked in April after China Huarong Asset Management Co., one of the country’s biggest distressed asset managers, failed to release financial statements in the wake of the execution of its former top executive for bribery. That raised questions about its financial health — and broader worries about whether China would let an institution backed by the central government fail. The ending of a presumed safety net that’s long been priced into Chinese bond values would mean a seismic shift for investors across emerging markets. Continue reading “Article: Why China ‘Bad Bank’ Huarong’s Fall Is Big Bad News: QuickTake”

Article: The Securities Exchange Commission is becoming woke – opinion

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The Securities Exchange Commission is becoming woke – opinion

DARLENE CASELLA , 17 April 2021

Franklin D. Roosevelt was president when the Securities Exchange Commission was created in 1934. The function of the SEC was to regulate the buying and selling of securities, and to reform the stock exchanges. Its Holy Grail was to protect investors.

Prior to the stock market crash in 1929, there was no regulation of financial markets. A flower shop could sell stocks and bonds. The shoe shine boy gave hot stock tips. Unregulated Wall Street was deficient of accurate audited information regarding securities issued or sold. False information, fraudulent rumors and get-rich-quick schemes abounded. Speculation, insider trading, manipulation, short selling and buying on low margin credit was rampant. Prominent stock brokerage firms existed, but trustworthy information was out of the question for the average person. Continue reading “Article: The Securities Exchange Commission is becoming woke – opinion”

Article: US Treasury says no major trading partner manipulates currency

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US Treasury says no major trading partner manipulates currency

Xinhua, 17 April 2021

WASHINGTON — The US Treasury Department on Friday said that no major trading partner of the United States meets the criteria as a currency manipulator, but Vietnam, Switzerland and China’s Taiwan will be under enhanced monitoring for their currency practices.

In its semiannual Report on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States, the Treasury Department concluded that Vietnam, Switzerland and Taiwan met all three criteria for enhanced currency analysis under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 during the four quarters through December 2020. Continue reading “Article: US Treasury says no major trading partner manipulates currency”

Article: US Financial Markets Have Become A Giant Mirage Built On A Foundation Of Fraud

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US Financial Markets Have Become A Giant Mirage Built On A Foundation Of Fraud

TYLER DURDEN, 17 April 2021

Would you pay more than 100 million dollars for a single deli in rural New Jersey that had less than $36,000 in sales during the last two years combined? I know that sounds like a completely ridiculous question, but the stock market apparently thinks that deli is worth that much. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 34,000 for the first time in history, and investors all over the country cheered. But this financial bubble is not real. It is a giant mirage that is built on a foundation of fraud. Continue reading “Article: US Financial Markets Have Become A Giant Mirage Built On A Foundation Of Fraud”

Article: Reddit grows up on its way to an IPO

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Reddit grows up on its way to an IPO

Nicolás Rivero, 17 April 2021

Reddit has traditionally taken a laissez-faire approach to policing content on its platform. The company hosts a loose federation of old-school internet forums, known as subreddits, which are each overseen by a team of volunteer moderators. Reddit sets certain baseline rules banning things like child porn, drug sales, and (as of 2015) harassment. But the rest is up to the users in each subreddit, who set their own community-specific norms and empower unpaid moderators to enforce them.

This is a starkly different moderation approach from Facebook and Twitter, which each set clear, granular, top-down rules in their terms of service and employ armies of contract workers and far-reaching algorithms to weed out noxious content. Reddit’s decentralized policy has become a liability in recent years, and may become even more of a drag as the company eyes an IPO. (Reddit recently hired Drew Vollero, who helped Snapchat go public in 2017, as its first-ever CFO to help prepare for the company’s debut on the stock market.) Continue reading “Article: Reddit grows up on its way to an IPO”

Article: Bank of Thailand Unfazed by U.S. Currency Watchlist Inclusion

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Bank of Thailand Unfazed by U.S. Currency Watchlist Inclusion

Suttinee Yuvejwattana, 17 April 2021

The Bank of Thailand has responded to the U.S. decision to keep the nation on watch for currency manipulation by asserting it has stepped into the market only to curb volatility in the baht.

The central bank is committed to exchange-rate flexibility, with “interventions limited only to curbing excessive volatility and rapid movements of the baht on both sides,” Assistant Governor Chantavarn Sucharitakul said in a statement Saturday, adding that “Thailand has never used the exchange rate as a tool to gain an unfair trade advantage.” Continue reading “Article: Bank of Thailand Unfazed by U.S. Currency Watchlist Inclusion”

Article: JPMorgan forced out trader who cooperated with fed probe: lawsuit

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JPMorgan forced out trader who cooperated with fed probe: lawsuit

Kathianne Boniello, 17 April 2021

JPMorgan Chase treated indicted employees better than an executive who cooperated with federal investigators, according to a lawsuit.

Commodities trader Donald Turnbull claims in court papers he was abruptly canned from the bank’s precious metals trading group as soon as JPMorgan execs discovered the extent of his cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice. Continue reading “Article: JPMorgan forced out trader who cooperated with fed probe: lawsuit”

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?