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Article: The real estate industry has escaped compliance of the Anti-Money Laundering Act so far – but experts predict not for long.

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The real estate industry has escaped compliance of the Anti-Money Laundering Act so far – but experts predict not for long.

Compliance Alert, 05 May 2017

Credit Suisse is forecasting $60 billion in new Chinese investment in Australia’s housing market over the next six years, more than double the $28 billion deluge of the past six years. One question is: how much of this is “clean” money? The likely introduction of further money laundering legislation may crimp the flow of Chinese funds. More broadly, it threatens to impose enormous costs on small businesses already foundering under a mountain of compliance paperwork.

This was brought to our attention last week when a fund manager touched base and bewailed, albeit with good reason, how real estate agents were still excluded from all obligations under Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. Continue reading “Article: The real estate industry has escaped compliance of the Anti-Money Laundering Act so far – but experts predict not for long.”

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Article: Meet the man who’s betting Home Capital will fail: Wells

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Meet the man who’s betting Home Capital will fail: Wells

Jennifer Wells, 12 May 2017

“I’ve had Cott up there. I’ve had Clearly Canadian. Made a killing. I go back with Kevin O’Leary — Learning Co. and Softkey before that. I had a double dip with Garth and Cineplex Odeon and Livent. Melnyk with Biovail. Canada is great. Canada has been wonderful.” Continue reading “Article: Meet the man who’s betting Home Capital will fail: Wells”

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Article: Millions in suspected Russian crime proceeds flowed through Canadian banks, companies

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Millions in suspected Russian crime proceeds flowed through Canadian banks, companies

Diana Swain and Jennifer Fowler, 10 May 2017

A powerful Russian crime syndicate that’s accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars around the world appears to have also flowed millions through nearly 30 Canadian bank accounts.

A CBC News investigation has spent months tracking down some of the individuals and companies attached to those accounts and found the $2 million sent to Canada was spread among recipients ranging from a boxing manager in Montreal to a construction company in Calgary. Continue reading “Article: Millions in suspected Russian crime proceeds flowed through Canadian banks, companies”

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Article: Who Turned Out the Lights at Badger Daylighting Ltd.?

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Who Turned Out the Lights at Badger Daylighting Ltd.?

Joey Frenette, 05 May 2017

Badger Daylighting Ltd. (TSX:BAD) nosedived 14.27% last Friday following an announcement from activist short-seller Marc Cohodes that he?d gotten a short position in the stock approximately four months ago.

In a previous piece, I?d stated that Badger was ridiculously overvalued with a price-to-earnings multiple of 41. Mr. Cohodes also believes that Badger is overvalued and could drop by a substantial amount going forward.

Badger is a rather underrated company that not many investors have been talking about until Mr. Cohodes made his short position public. Badger is in the business of exposing underground infrastructures like pipelines, electrical lines, or any other buried apparatus that needs to be brought to the light of day in a process called ?daylighting.?
Continue reading “Article: Who Turned Out the Lights at Badger Daylighting Ltd.?”

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Paper: ETF Short Interest and Failures-to-Deliver: Naked Short-Selling or Operational Shorting?

Paper

ETF Short Interest and Failures-to-Deliver: Naked Short-Selling or Operational Shorting?

Richard B. Evans, Rabih Moussawi, Michael S. Pagano, John Sedunov

Darden Business School, 3 May 2017

We identify an alternative source of ETF shorting related to the market maker liquidity provision and creation/redemption activities. This “operational shorting” arises due to a regulatory exemption, allowing ETF market makers to satisfy excess demand in secondary markets by selling ETF shares that have not yet been created.

PDF (79 pages): ETF Short Interest and Failures-to-Deliver: Naked Short-Selling or Operational Shorting?

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Article: Steven A. Cohen

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Steven A. Cohen

King of Hedge Funds

Cohen is renowned not only for his ability to make money as a trader, but also for his penchant for spending it, on such things as a 30-room mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut and an art collection that includes works by Warhol, Picasso, Cézanne and other famous artists. [4]

Cohen began as an options trader with Gruntal & Co. in 1978. He started SAC Capital Advisors in 1992 with $25 million in assets. At its peak just before the conversion to a family office, SAC had over $50 billion under management, with a staff of 1000 people across the globe.[5]

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Article: The London Whale resurfaces: Bruno Iksil speaks out

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The London Whale resurfaces: Bruno Iksil speaks out

Lucy McNulty, 17 April 2017

Bruno Iksil, the former City trader known as the “London Whale”, has spent the past five years at home with his family in France, about 50 miles south of Paris. He runs, cycles or swims each day. He plays card games with his kids and helps with their homework.

But, on January 11, he received a call from his New York lawyers that threatens to upend all that.

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Article: Why I Wouldn’t Touch Equitable Group Inc.

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Why I Wouldn’t Touch Equitable Group Inc.

Joey Frenette, 17 April 2017

Equitable Group Inc. (TSX:EQB) operates through its subsidiary Equitable Bank, which offers a range of solutions including mortgage lending products. Marc Cohodes, a well-known short-seller who has called the downfall of many infamous Canadian stocks, believes that Equitable Group is a “poor man’s Home Capital Group Inc. (TSX:HCG),” which is another mortgage lender that Mr. Cohodes is short.

Unlike Home Capital Group, Equitable Group isn’t riding a huge amount of negative momentum, and the stock isn’t far off its all-time high. Home Capital Group, though, is down over 60% from its all-time high, and it looks like there’s no bottom in sight as the stock continues to fall farther into the abyss.

There’s no question that the Canadian housing market is overheated. Many pundits believe a correction could be in the cards sometime over the next few years. If there was a Canadian housing collapse, then both Equitable Group and Home Capital Group would get crushed, and their investors would lose their shirts.
Continue reading “Article: Why I Wouldn’t Touch Equitable Group Inc.”

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Article: UK central bank drawn into market manipulation scandal

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UK central bank drawn into market manipulation scandal

Associated Press, 10 April 2017

LONDON – British politicians are seeking an investigation into allegations that the Bank of England was also involved in manipulating a key market interest rate during the financial crisis.

The BBC says it has a recording from 2008 between officials at Barclays bank that indicates the Bank of England was trying to influence the interest rate, called Libor. Several banks have been fined billions for tampering with the interest rate, which is used to price services like loans globally.

Labour party lawmaker John McDonnell says “this is an extremely serious revelation that contradicts past assurances about the role of the Bank of England in the Libor scandal.”

The central bank told the BBC that Libor was not regulated at the time and that it has been helping in past investigations.

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Article: Patrick M. Byrne

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Patrick M. Byrne

INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE, 07 April 2017

Patrick M. Byrne is the Founder and former CEO of Overstock.com, that had revenues in 2016 of $1.8 billion and its sixth out of seven straight years of profitability. He holds a certificate from Beijing Normal University, a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and Asian studies from Dartmouth College, a master’s in philosophy from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University.

Byrne has served as a Teaching Fellow at Stanford University; Chairman, President and CEO of Centricut, LLC; and Chairman, President and CEO at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company. Continue reading “Article: Patrick M. Byrne”

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Article: How Wall Street billionaire Steve Cohen survived an insider trading scandal

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How Wall Street billionaire Steve Cohen survived an insider trading scandal

CBC Radio, 07 April 2017

Scandal on Wall Street didn’t end with 2008’s financial crisis. New Yorker staff writer Sheelah Kolhatkar chronicles the rise and fall of the prominent hedge fund SAC Capital in a new book, Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street.

Kolhatkar explains how insider trading allegations dogged the company and its ultra-rich founder, Steven Cohen. Cohen “was an iconic figure in the financial industry,” she tells The Current’s Friday host Piya Chattopadhyay. Continue reading “Article: How Wall Street billionaire Steve Cohen survived an insider trading scandal”

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Article: UK banks ‘handled’ $740m in laundered Russian money

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UK banks ‘handled’ $740m in laundered Russian money

Arab News, 22 March 2017

LONDON: Several British banks allegedly processed nearly $740 million in a multi-billion dollar Russian money-laundering scam, The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.

According to documents obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, at least $20 billion was moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 in a vast criminal operation called “The Global Laundromat.” The scam involved over 500 people including oligarchs and Russian criminals with links to the government and the domestic intelligence agency, the FSB. Continue reading “Article: UK banks ‘handled’ $740m in laundered Russian money”

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Article: Russian mafia boss still at large after FBI wiretap at Trump Tower

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Russian mafia boss still at large after FBI wiretap at Trump Tower

There, indeed, was an FBI wiretap involving Russians at Trump Tower.

But it was not placed at the behest of Barack Obama, and the target was not the Trump campaign of 2016. For two years ending in 2013, the FBI had a court-approved warrant to eavesdrop on a sophisticated Russian organized crime money-laundering network that operated out of unit 63A in Trump Tower in New York.

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Article: Bank of Israel under fire over decade-long currency intervention

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Bank of Israel under fire over decade-long currency intervention

Steven Scheer, 08 March 2017

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Bank of Israel has a problem. After spending almost a decade and huge sums trying to curb the shekel, the currency is still rising relentlessly – to the dismay of the country’s exporters.

In 2008 the central bank began what was supposed to be a temporary fix. The plan was to buy large amounts of dollars and halt a rapid rise in the shekel, partly to protect exporters who account for more than 30 percent of economic output and form a strong domestic lobby.

But after purchasing more than $70 billion over the years, the bank is still struggling to soften the exchange rate and prevent Israeli exports from becoming relatively more expensive on world markets. Continue reading “Article: Bank of Israel under fire over decade-long currency intervention”