Article: Canada Says Hizbullah, Iran Involved in Money Laundering

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Canada Says Hizbullah, Iran Involved in Money Laundering

Naharnet Newsdesk, 04 May 2021

The Canadain federal government has tasked a committee with investigating money laundering, gambling and drug smuggling operations through casinos in Vancouver, in which a network reportedly affiliated with the Iranian regime and Hizbullah are involved, al-Arabiya network revealed on Tuesday.

The committee provided Al-Arabiya channel with part of the investigation, which was conducted last March, in which an officer revealed the involvement of Iran and Hizbullah in the money laundering process.

A former Canadian Royal Mounted Police officer said:”We have seen their continuing affinity (Iranian regime network and Hizbullah) with Chinese network active in illegal activities in Canada,” he said, pointing out to “phone calls” between the two parties. Continue reading “Article: Canada Says Hizbullah, Iran Involved in Money Laundering”

Article: Mediaset, Vivendi Settle Five-Year Legal Dispute

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Mediaset, Vivendi Settle Five-Year Legal Dispute

Elsa Keslassy, 04 May 2021

Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster, and Vivendi, the parent company of Universal Music Group and Canal Plus Group, have reached an agreement to settle their legal spat over their failed pay-TV deal.

Both companies, along with Fininvest, Berlusconi’s holding company, have agreed to waive all ongoing disputes between them. Under the pact, Vivendi will sell its 19.19% stake in Mediaset over a five-year period through a trust called Simon Fiduciaria. Continue reading “Article: Mediaset, Vivendi Settle Five-Year Legal Dispute”

Article: Revisiting the Northern Bank robbery – the biggest heist in British history

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Revisiting the Northern Bank robbery – the biggest heist in British history

Steven Moore, 04 May 2021

The BBC is taking a fresh look at the biggest heist in British history – the Northern Bank Robbery.

Broadcast on BBC One NI on Monday (May 3) at 9pm, it tells the story of how the multi-million pound robbery played out in the days before Christmas 2004. In a sophisticated operation, the gang took two families hostage for 24 hours, forcing two bank employees to rob £26.5 million from the Belfast cash centre.

With exclusive access to new source material – including police 999 calls along with internal bank CCTV and court documents – they piece together what could have happened.

Through interviews with key players – in politics, policing and financial crime – they uncover what happened to the main suspects in the cross-border police investigation and ask whether the robbery may, inadvertently, have helped the peace process.

The film includes interviews with Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach; Michael McDowell, former Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform; Sir Hugh Orde, former Chief Constable PSNI; Dr Mitchell Reiss, US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland under the Bush administration; Tom Kelly, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesperson between 2001-7); and Peter Robinson, former leader of DUP and First Minister of NI.

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Article: RIP bank branches: Nearly 90% of Aussies say they won’t return

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RIP bank branches: Nearly 90% of Aussies say they won’t return

Anna Wall, 04 May 2021

During the pandemic, Australians were forced to use online banking over branches and, as a result, there has been a continuous string of banks shutting up their physical branches. Now, a new report suggests that 88 per cent of Aussies won’t care, as they’ve well and truly embraced the digital banking age. So is this the beginning of the end for bank branches?

The new research by GB Group (GBG) and Retail Finance Intelligence Pty Ltd (RFi) showed the majority of Australians are embracing the age of digital banking, with 88 per cent saying they won’t go back to their pre-pandemic branch usage. The report comes as many banks grapple with the decision to close branches across the country. Continue reading “Article: RIP bank branches: Nearly 90% of Aussies say they won’t return”

Article: Selling Frenzy By Hedge Funds Hits Record, Offset By Surge In Buybacks

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Selling Frenzy By Hedge Funds Hits Record, Offset By Surge In Buybacks

TYLER DURDEN, 04 May 2021

Two weeks ago, Bank of America warned that it had observed a sharp reversal to “increasingly euphoric sentiment” among its institutional, hedge fund and HNW clients, all of whom sold in the previous week even as stocks continued their grind higher. This happened around the time that Goldman’s Prime Brokerage had observed a startling streak as hedge funds sold stocks for 7 days out of 8, which prompted us to warn that a short squeeze was coming… we were right, because just a few days later the S&P was back at all time highs on – you guessed it – another whopping short squeeze. Continue reading “Article: Selling Frenzy By Hedge Funds Hits Record, Offset By Surge In Buybacks”

Article: Elderly South Florida mobster Thomas Farese at the top of $93 million healthcare fraud, feds say

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Elderly South Florida mobster Thomas Farese at the top of $93 million healthcare fraud, feds say

Dan Christensen, 04 May 2021

Since the 1970s mobster Tommy Farese has been a recurring character on the pages of South Florida newspapers.

So it was surprising when the reputed Colombo family consiglieri didn’t make the Sun-Sentinel last week for his latest alleged caper: a $93-million health care fraud scheme.

Thomas Ralph Farese, also known as “Tom Mix,” is 78 years old now and living in Delray Beach. But instead of wiling away his golden years playing shuffleboard, Farese was out front in a pair of huge kickback schemes involving “durable medical equipment and genetic cancer screening,” according to the Justice Department. Continue reading “Article: Elderly South Florida mobster Thomas Farese at the top of $93 million healthcare fraud, feds say”

Article: Biden plan to subsidize child care could have unintended consequences, including price increases, experts say

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Biden plan to subsidize child care could have unintended consequences, including price increases, experts say

Tyler Olson, 04 May 2021

The subsidies for child care in President Biden’s American Families Plan could have some unintended consequences for both families and child care businesses, including price increases, experts tell Fox News.

The American Families Plan is the third installment in three massive spending bills the president has proposed. Continue reading “Article: Biden plan to subsidize child care could have unintended consequences, including price increases, experts say”

Article: SOS Stock May Boom and Bust in the Meme Stock Space Indefinitely

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SOS Stock May Boom and Bust in the Meme Stock Space Indefinitely

Chris MacDonald, 04 May 2021

Cryptocurrency miners have increasingly come into focus of late. Miners such as SOS Limited (NYSE:SOS) with extensive Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) mining operations are becoming ever-more lucrative as Bitcoin prices remain elevated. That said, SOS stock has languished somewhat in recent weeks, to a greater degree than Bitcoin prices.

Investors in SOS stock have seen shares spike repeatedly in double-digit moves to the upside and downside in recent months. Continue reading “Article: SOS Stock May Boom and Bust in the Meme Stock Space Indefinitely”

Article: Under Armour Sold Some Clothes Early

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Under Armour Sold Some Clothes Early

Matt Levine, 04 May 2021

One theory is that the price of a share of stock reflects the present value of its future cash flows in perpetuity. People buy stock today not because they expect high profits tomorrow, but because they expect high profits over the long run. Investment decisions that cost money today, but that will bring in much more money in five years, increase the net present value of the stock, so the shareholders should support them.

Another theory is that public markets are myopically focused on the short term. Investors care only about this quarter’s earnings; they buy stocks whose earnings go up each quarter and sell stocks whose earnings go down. A decision that reduces earnings today, in exchange for higher earnings in the future, is bad, and shareholders will punish a company that makes those decisions. Continue reading “Article: Under Armour Sold Some Clothes Early”

Article: Just Keeps Getting Worse: Services Trade Surplus, the American Dream Not-Come-True, Falls to 9-Year Low, Total Trade Deficit Explodes to Worst Ever

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Just Keeps Getting Worse: Services Trade Surplus, the American Dream Not-Come-True, Falls to 9-Year Low, Total Trade Deficit Explodes to Worst Ever

Wolf Richter , 04 May 2021

Back when globalization by Corporate America was still a good thing, anxieties about the ballooning trade deficit in goods were medicated away with promises that exports of services – such as software, movies, and Wall Street efforts to financialize everything – would boom and balance out the trade. We’d buy cheap goods made in other countries, and they’d buy our expensive services, and it would all balance out. That was the rationale. Few economic rationales have failed more spectacularly.

Promised export boom of services turned out to be fake. Continue reading “Article: Just Keeps Getting Worse: Services Trade Surplus, the American Dream Not-Come-True, Falls to 9-Year Low, Total Trade Deficit Explodes to Worst Ever”

Article: Asia’s Lopsided Economic Booms Store Problems for the Future

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Asia’s Lopsided Economic Booms Store Problems for the Future

Mike Bird, 03 May 2021

South Korea and Taiwan both reported better-than-expected economic growth last week, and in both cases it looks quite similar: Exports have boomed, domestic demand hasn’t. That has already caused some problems, which will be exacerbated if the trend continues unabated.

In South Korea’s case, exports of goods were 4.4% higher in the first quarter compared with the final quarter of 2019, before the pandemic hit. Meanwhile, private consumption spending is still languishing 5.5% below that benchmark.

It’s a similar story in Taiwan. Electronics exports in particular are up by 28.4% year-over-year, with net exports contributing far more to the overall 8.2% growth in gross domestic product than consumption. Continue reading “Article: Asia’s Lopsided Economic Booms Store Problems for the Future”

Article: Asia’s Lopsided Economic Booms Store Problems for the Future

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Asia’s Lopsided Economic Booms Store Problems for the Future

Mike Bird, 03 May 2021

South Korea and Taiwan both reported better-than-expected economic growth last week, and in both cases it looks quite similar: Exports have boomed, domestic demand hasn’t. That has already caused some problems, which will be exacerbated if the trend continues unabated.

In South Korea’s case, exports of goods were 4.4% higher in the first quarter compared with the final quarter of 2019, before the pandemic hit. Meanwhile, private consumption spending is still languishing 5.5% below that benchmark.

It’s a similar story in Taiwan. Electronics exports in particular are up by 28.4% year-over-year, with net exports contributing far more to the overall 8.2% growth in gross domestic product than consumption. Continue reading “Article: Asia’s Lopsided Economic Booms Store Problems for the Future”

Article: Short Seller Soren Aandahl Chases Targets With New Hedge Fund

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Short Seller Soren Aandahl Chases Targets With New Hedge Fund

Sofia Horta e Costa, 03 May 2021

Activist short seller Soren Aandahl is launching his first hedge fund, with a mandate to find accounting malpractice and overvalued stocks all over the world.

The Blue Orca Global Activism Fund starts trading Monday with $25 million in assets under management, according to Aandahl, who founded Blue Orca Capital three years ago in Austin, Texas. He says he’s lining up another potential $30 million in committed capital. The fund will pursue targets globally, using a market-neutral strategy to seek profits regardless of whether global stocks are in a downturn or uptrend, said Aandahl. Continue reading “Article: Short Seller Soren Aandahl Chases Targets With New Hedge Fund”