Author: Mia

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Article: France’s Covea files complaint against CEO of reinsurer Scor

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France’s Covea files complaint against CEO of reinsurer Scor

Matthieu Protard, 24 March 2021

PARIS, March 24 (Reuters) – French insurer Covea has filed a complaint against the CEO of reinsurer Scor SCOR.PA, Denis Kessler, alleging market manipulation and misuse of corporate assets, it said on Wednesday.

Covea, which is Scor’s biggest shareholder with a 8.45% stake, based on Refinitiv data, said in a statement the complaint filed with financial prosecutors followed a 195 million euro ($230.63 million) share buyback that Covea alleged had “artificially” inflated Scor’s share price. Continue reading “Article: France’s Covea files complaint against CEO of reinsurer Scor”

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Article: Lessons from the Texas big freeze

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Lessons from the Texas big freeze

Carl Pope, 24 March 2021

The Texas power market caps wholesale prices at an astonishingly high $9,000 per/mwh. When the crisis hit, the computers managing the market price crashed. Regulators then arbitrarily set prices at the peak rate, and left them there for four days, knowing that generators could not provide more power because their facilities were frozen. During the freeze, household daily utility bills of $2,500 and more were incurred by homeowners who had signed up for variable plans, even when for most of the four days they had no power. The City of Denton incurred $300 million in power bills in a week, $2,000 for each of its 15,000 residents.

The power companies maximised their profit from those units that were up and running. By the third week in February, it appeared all the energy companies serving the Texas market had made as much money in 2021 as they had in the previous three years.

“We were able to get super premium prices, that’s going to pay off handsomely like hitting the jackpot,” said Chief Financial Officer Roland Burns of Comstock Resources, a leading Texan energy producer. He later apologised when his remarks hit the headlines. Continue reading “Article: Lessons from the Texas big freeze”

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Article: Robinhood ‘Concealed’ Costs Of Trading, Users Say

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Robinhood ‘Concealed’ Costs Of Trading, Users Say

Elise Hansen, 24 March 2021

Securities-trading app Robinhood failed to secure the best possible execution for many of its trades, a practice that according to regulators cost users roughly $34 million, a proposed class of users told a California federal court.

Customers Isaac Landreth and Jaime Marquez alleged Tuesday that they had invested tens of thousands of dollars using Robinhood’s trading platform, but that the company failed to properly explain how it made money and at times gave customers a worse deal than its competitors. Continue reading “Article: Robinhood ‘Concealed’ Costs Of Trading, Users Say”

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Article: Madoff Client Ordered To Pay Back $3M In Fake Profits

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Madoff Client Ordered To Pay Back $3M In Fake Profits

Vince Sullivan, 24 March 2021

A client of the notorious Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madoff must return nearly $3 million in fictitious profits it received from the scheme after a New York federal judge found in favor of the trustee overseeing the Madoff fund’s liquidation.

U.S. District Court Judge John G. Koeltl granted summary judgment to Irving H. Picard, the trustee for the Substantively Consolidated SIPA Liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and Bernard L. Madoff, and ordered JABA Associates to fork over $2,925,000 in payouts it received in the two years before Madoff’s scheme crumbled in December 2008. Continue reading “Article: Madoff Client Ordered To Pay Back $3M In Fake Profits”

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Article: Texas blackouts may bring winterization mandates from FERC, shape federal spending priorities

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Texas blackouts may bring winterization mandates from FERC, shape federal spending priorities

Jasmin Melvin, 24 March 2021

New York — Policy activity on grid resilience has seen an uptick in the month since an Arctic blast left millions of Texans without power for days, and the federal policy response could bring new requirements for generator winterization and inform stimulus and infrastructure spending priorities, a Washington insider said March 24.

The federal response starts with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Jeff Dennis, managing director and general counsel for Advanced Energy Economy, said during an AEE-hosted webinar on the policy fallout from the Texas blackouts. Continue reading “Article: Texas blackouts may bring winterization mandates from FERC, shape federal spending priorities”

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Article: Will Malaysia’s First MACC Corporate Liability Charge Set the Tone for Future Financial Crime Cases?

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Will Malaysia’s First MACC Corporate Liability Charge Set the Tone for Future Financial Crime Cases?

Jessica Seah, 24 March 2021

An offshore vessel services company became the first in Malaysia to be charged with a newly introduced provision under the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009.

The new provision imposes corporate liability on both public and private companies whose employees are involved in corruption.

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Article: In Cramer We Trust

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In Cramer We Trust

HARRISON R. T. WARD,  24 March 2021

Without trust, markets break down. The U.S. dollar is a fiat currency, which means that its value is derived from the trust we ascribe to our government; as that trust wanes, Americans turn away from traditional financial institutions. During the 2008 financial crisis, many everyday Americans, unsure of who to trust, took their money out of banks en masse. Large commercial banks began to fail; by 2012, almost 450 banks had collapsed. Today, deep into a historic pandemic and recession marked by political division, Americans’ trust is waning again.

On Jan. 27, a group of amateur traders helped push the stock of struggling video game retailer Gamestop to a price of $347 per share. Alarmed, financial experts took to the air to warn against what Alan Greenspan, former chair of the Federal Reserve, calls “irrational exuberance” — an unreasonable, optimistic view that the market will keep rising. Jim J. Cramer ’77, host of CNBC’s finance show “Mad Money,” was of those exasperated experts — “People begin to think, ‘Are prices real?’” he exclaimed on the air. Continue reading “Article: In Cramer We Trust”

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Article: Hong Kong activist charged with foreign collusion under national security law

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Hong Kong activist charged with foreign collusion under national security law

Jessie Pang and James Pomfret,  24 March 2021

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Andy Li was charged on Wednesday with “conspiracy to commit collusion” with a foreign country to endanger national security, two days after he was released from a Chinese prison.

At the city’s West Kowloon Court, the prosecutor told the judge that Li, who had been detained by Chinese authorities after trying to flee Hong Kong for Taiwan by boat with 11 others last August, would also be charged with two other offences including possession of ammunition without a licence.

The ammunition in question included used tear gas canisters.

Under the city’s China-imposed national security law, defendants could face up to life in prison if convicted. Continue reading “Article: Hong Kong activist charged with foreign collusion under national security law”

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Article: NortonLifeLock Experts Warn Against COVID-Related Tax Phishing Scams

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NortonLifeLock Experts Warn Against COVID-Related Tax Phishing Scams

BUSINESS WIRE,  24 March 2021

On the heels of the IRS tax filing extension in the U.S., NortonLifeLock (NASDAQ: NLOK), a global leader in consumer Cyber Safety, today alerted consumers to surging tax-related phishing scams and shared Cyber Safety tips to help people stay ahead of cybercriminals and more safely take advantage of the extended time to file this season. While tax-related identity theft is an ongoing threat year-round, NortonLifeLock experts expect to see an increase this year due to the significant rise in unemployment benefits fraud and COVID related tax refund phishing scams.

“We’re seeing up to 60 new tax-related phishing sites appear each day,” said Darren Shou, head of technology for NortonLifeLock. “Many of these sites may only be active for 24 hours, but in that short span of time, attackers can use the information consumers believed they were sharing with a legitimate site for tax fraud, unemployment fraud, fake job hiring scams and other financial crimes. This year, cybercriminals are also taking advantage of the pandemic with COVID-related phishing scams, impersonating the IRS with emails to consumers with the false promise of tax relief payments that attempt to swindle people into providing their real personal and financial information.” Continue reading “Article: NortonLifeLock Experts Warn Against COVID-Related Tax Phishing Scams”

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Article: Fintech startup Feedzai valued at $1 billion in KKR-led funding round

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Fintech startup Feedzai valued at $1 billion in KKR-led funding round

Anna Irrera, 24 March 2021

LONDON (Reuters) – Financial technology group Feedzai said on Wednesday it had raised $200 million in a round led by investment company KKR valuing the startup at more than $1 billion.

Existing investors, including Sapphire Ventures and Citi Ventures, also participated in the round, the San Mateo, California-headquartered company said.

Feedzai develops artificial intelligence and machine learning technology that helps banks and other financial firms to spot and prevent payments fraud, money laundering and other types of illicit activities. Continue reading “Article: Fintech startup Feedzai valued at $1 billion in KKR-led funding round”

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Article: Farmmi Closes $7.4 Million Underwritten Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

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Farmmi Closes $7.4 Million Underwritten Public Offering of Ordinary Shares

PRNewswire, 24 March 2021

Farmmi, Inc. (“Farmmi” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: FAMI), an agriculture products supplier in China, today announced the closing of an underwritten public offering of 6,469,467 ordinary shares of the Company, at a price to the public of $1.15 per share. In addition, the Company has granted the underwriter an option to purchase an additional 15 percent of the ordinary shares offered in the public offering solely to cover over-allotments, if any, exercisable for 25 days, after the closing of this offering, which would bring total gross proceeds to approximately $8.6 million. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate and working capital needs.

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Article: Farmmi, Inc. (FAMI)

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Farmmi, Inc. (FAMI)

Seeking Alpha, 24 March 2021

On March 22, 2021, Farmmi, Inc., a Cayman Islands corporation (the “Company”), entered into an underwriting agreement (the “Underwriting Agreement”) with Aegis Capital Corp. (the “Underwriter”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to sell to the Underwriter, in a firm commitment public offering (the “Offering”), 6,469,467 ordinary shares (the “Shares”) of the Company, par value $0.001 per share for a public offering price of $1.15 per share. The Company expects to receive approximately $6.7 million in net proceeds from the Offering after deducting the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses payable by the Company. The Company also granted the Underwriter an option for a period of 25 days to purchase an additional 970,419 ordinary shares solely to cover over-allotments.

In connection with the closing of the Offering on March 24, 2021, the Company issued a press release titled: “Farmmi Closes $7.4 Million Underwritten Public Offering of Ordinary Shares.” A copy of the press release is furnished herewith as Exhibit 99.3.

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Article: Six arrested in connection with Bitcoin ATM money laundering

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Six arrested in connection with Bitcoin ATM money laundering

Diebold Nixdorf, 24 March 2021

The FBI arrested six people in the town of Keene, New Hampshire, on money laundering charges. Agents removed a Bitcoin ATM from a local bar believed to be used in the crime, according to a report in the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Included in the six arrested was Aria DiMezzo, 34 of Keene, who ran for Cheshire County Sheriff in 2020, and Ian Freeman, believed to be the leader of the group calling itself Free Keene.

The group was brought up on charges related to an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange that they allegedly ran through churches.

Additionally, DiMezzo was charged with participating in a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Continue reading “Article: Six arrested in connection with Bitcoin ATM money laundering”

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Article: Swiss banker’s sentence slashed in alleged $1B Venezuelan money laundering scheme

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Swiss banker’s sentence slashed in alleged $1B Venezuelan money laundering scheme

Keith Larsen, 24 March 2021

A Swiss banker’s sentence was cut for his role in an alleged $1 billion international money laundering scheme that illegally funneled money into South Florida real estate.

Matthias Krull was a key figure in a sophisticated scheme in which Venezuelan officials and wealthy elite siphoned money out of the country’s state oil company, PDVSA, and into assets in Europe and the United States, according to federal prosecutors. Some of the money allegedly went to buy luxury properties in Wellington, Coral Gables’ Cocoplum neighborhood and in Sunny Isles Beach, including at the condominium Porsche Design Tower. Continue reading “Article: Swiss banker’s sentence slashed in alleged $1B Venezuelan money laundering scheme”

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Article: Commission will probe money laundering

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Commission will probe money laundering

Elouise Fowler, 24 March 2021

The Crown Resorts royal commission in Victoria will probe deeper into whether money laundering is still happening at Crown’s flagship casino at Southbank in Melbourne, says the inquiry head, former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein, QC.

Commissioner Finkelstein said he was concerned the gambling giant had not faced up to its role in facilitating the criminal activity through its gaming rooms, as revealed in a scathing NSW inquiry that found the $8 billion company unfit to hold a licence at its new $2.2 billion casino in Sydney.

In his opening remarks on the first day of public hearings, Mr Finkelstein said he wrote to the gambling giant to gauge its “attitude” and to ask whether Crown accepted the findings from the NSW probe. Continue reading “Article: Commission will probe money laundering”

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