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Article: Another Wirecard? Invoices Backing Greensill-Issued Bonds Never Existed, Administrator Finds

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Another Wirecard? Invoices Backing Greensill-Issued Bonds Never Existed, Administrator Finds

TYLER DURDEN, 02 April 2021

As the collapse of Greensill Capital threatens to ensnare former PM David Cameron in a humiliating public probe, the Financial Times on Thursday reported some disturbing new details that appear to suggest Greensill wasn’t merely reckless, but potentially guilty of a Wirecard-style fraud.

According to the FT, Greensil’s administrator – who is responsible for winding down whatever assets remain and managing creditors’ claims -“has failed to verify invoices underpinning loans to Sanjeev Gupta, after companies listed on the documents denied that they had ever done business with the metals magnate.”

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Article: Amazon, Stock Compensation & Equity Valuation

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Amazon, Stock Compensation & Equity Valuation

TYLER DURDEN, 01 April 2021

Bloomberg News recently published an article, Amazon Fights Union Drive With Fact-Free Bombast, discussing Amazon’s alleged use of misinformation to prevent employees from unionizing. In the same manner Kailash recused itself from having a “bull” or “bear” thesis on Bitcoin, we will recuse ourselves from any discussion of unions. What we would like to draw our readers’ attention to however is the method by which Amazon pays many senior executives. In the Bloomberg article it noted that the former head of Amazon’s logistics business was awarded stock compensation worth $160 million dollars. Continue reading “Article: Amazon, Stock Compensation & Equity Valuation”

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Article: Software company sues IBM, Red Hat, claims they ‘conspired’ to ‘crush’ competitors

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Software company sues IBM, Red Hat, claims they ‘conspired’ to ‘crush’ competitors

Lauren Ohnesorge, 01 April 2021

A software firm is suing Red Hat and its parent company, IBM, claiming they “conspired to illegally corner a market and crush competition.”

In a copyright infringement and antitrust lawsuit filed Wednesday in a district court in the Virgin Islands, software firm Xinuous claims IBM “stole” its intellectual property “and used that stolen property to build and sell a product to compete with Xinuous itself.” Continue reading “Article: Software company sues IBM, Red Hat, claims they ‘conspired’ to ‘crush’ competitors”

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Article: Suez Canal blockage: Captain of Ever Given not aiding probe; calamity’s cost tops $1B

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Suez Canal blockage: Captain of Ever Given not aiding probe; calamity’s cost tops $1B

John Bacon, 01 April 2021

The cost of blocking shipping for almost a week through one of the most crucial waterways on earth apparently comes in at right around $1 billion.

And that’s just the bill Egypt could soon be trying to collect. It does not include damages for the owners of more than 400 boats delayed by the calamity on the Suez Canal, nor compensation that could be sought by companies whose materials or products were on those boats. Continue reading “Article: Suez Canal blockage: Captain of Ever Given not aiding probe; calamity’s cost tops $1B”

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Article: U.S. trade chief voices concern to Vietnam over currency practices

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U.S. trade chief voices concern to Vietnam over currency practices

Eric Beech, 01 April 2021

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a call on Thursday with Vietnam’s minister of industry and trade, highlighted U.S. concerns about Vietnam’s currency practices, a USTR statement said.

Tai and the Vietnamese minister Tran Tuan Anh also “discussed U.S. concerns on illegal timber practices, digital trade and agriculture,” the statement said.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade in a statement on Friday said Vietnam and the United States “will continue to actively cooperate to comprehensively address the concerns to maintain a stable trade relation.” Continue reading “Article: U.S. trade chief voices concern to Vietnam over currency practices”

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Article: Hong Kong Hit by Dozens of Trading Halts After Earnings Deadline

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Hong Kong Hit by Dozens of Trading Halts After Earnings Deadline

Bloomberg News, 01 April 2021

Trading in more than 50 Hong Kong-listed companies was suspended on Thursday, after a number of firms failed to report earnings ahead of the March 31 deadline.

GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. and China Huarong Asset Management Co. were among the firms that announced a trading halt. GCL-Poly said additional time is required to complete its audit procedures while Huarong said it will delay delivering its earnings as it seeks to complete a transaction. While it’s not uncommon for some companies in Hong Kong to have to suspend trading on April 1, the number this year compares with at least 9 last year and 25 in 2019. Continue reading “Article: Hong Kong Hit by Dozens of Trading Halts After Earnings Deadline”

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Article: Five ways Biden could crack down on dirty money and financial secrecy

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Five ways Biden could crack down on dirty money and financial secrecy

Brenda Medina, 01 April 2021

Early rhetoric from the Biden administration has encouraged anti-corruption advocates that the new president’s tenure in the White House may mark a turning point in the fight against dirty money and tax haven abuse — two overlapping problems made worse by a veil of secrecy that shields vast sums of money from tax collectors and law enforcement authorities.

“We will crack down on tax havens and illicit financing that contribute to income inequality, fund terrorism, and generate pernicious foreign influence,” the administration’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, released last month, says, identifying the fight against global corruption as a top security priority. The strategy mirrors promises Joe Biden made during his candidacy.

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Article: Turkey fines firms over short selling irregularities

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Turkey fines firms over short selling irregularities

Reuters, 01 April 2021

Turkey fined 10 securities firms for up to 7.8 million lira ($1 million) in relation to irregularities in short-selling transactions, the country’s Capital Markets Board said in its weekly bulletin on Thursday.

Fines of various amounts were imposed on firms including Merrill Lynch International, JP Morgan Securities, Goldman Sachs International, Credit Suisse Securities Europe and Barclays Capital Securities, the statement said.

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Article: Bitcoin’s Price Is Not the Only Risk to Riot Blockchain

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Bitcoin’s Price Is Not the Only Risk to Riot Blockchain

Vince Martin, 31 March 2021

Less than four years ago, Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) was a failed animal health company named Bioptix. What is now RIOT stock was then BIOP stock — and it traded for less than $4 per share.

That wasn’t because investors put much value on the business: Bioptix in fact had more than $2 per share in cash at the end of 2017’s second quarter. BIOP was basically just another penny stock in the biotech space.

But in October of that year, Bioptix rebranded to Riot Blockchain. It was a move that invited a huge rally — and quite a bit of skepticism.

Blockchain and other cryptocurrencies were hot then, with Bitcoin (CCC:BTC-USD) at one point rising from $900 to $20,000 during 2017. Riot was not alone in moving into crypto and blockchain: Eastman Kodak (NYSE:KODK) infamously was involved in a “KodakCoin” project which never came to fruition. That didn’t stop KODK stock from soaring. Continue reading “Article: Bitcoin’s Price Is Not the Only Risk to Riot Blockchain”

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Article: New Wells Fargo Employee Walked Through All The Crimes He’ll Be Asked To Commit

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New Wells Fargo Employee Walked Through All The Crimes He’ll Be Asked To Commit

NEWS IN BRIEF, 31 March 2021

Editor: This is SATIRE.  It is also REALITY.  Deal with it.

NEW YORK—Meeting with an HR representative for his first day on the job, new Wells Fargo employee Kyle Menardi was walked through all the crimes he’ll be asked to commit, sources confirmed Wednesday. “The crimes we do here are pretty straightforward, and most new employees get a hang of how to do them within a couple of weeks,” the HR rep informed Menardi, adding that he should prioritize getting a handle on the more day-to-day insurance and securities fraud, and then turn his attention to learning about the company’s more long-term scamming and market manipulation criminal projects. Continue reading “Article: New Wells Fargo Employee Walked Through All The Crimes He’ll Be Asked To Commit”

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Article: Stifel, Jefferies Exit Louisiana AG’s GSE Bond-Rigging Case

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Stifel, Jefferies Exit Louisiana AG’s GSE Bond-Rigging Case

Jon Hill, 31 March 2021

A Baton Rouge federal judge has freed units of Stifel Financial and Jefferies Financial from Louisiana’s lawsuit alleging Wall Street firms conspired to rig prices of bonds issued by government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ruling the state blew its last chance to keep them in the case.

In decisions filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick granted dismissal with prejudice for Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. and Jefferies Group LLC, which were among a slew of financial institutions sued by Louisiana’s state attorney general for allegedly gouging the state on its GSE bond purchases and sales between 2009 and 2016 with a “persistent, pervasive and secret” price-fixing conspiracy. Continue reading “Article: Stifel, Jefferies Exit Louisiana AG’s GSE Bond-Rigging Case”

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Article: What Cos. Need To Know Before Entering Nascent NFT Market

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What Cos. Need To Know Before Entering Nascent NFT Market

Michelle Ann Gitlitz, David Ervin and Carissa Wilson, 31 March 2021

On March 11, the artist known as Beeple sold for $69.3 million a digital collage work, “Everydays: The First 5000 Days,” and its associated nonfungible token, or NFT. The auction was conducted by Christie’s International PLC and “Everydays” became the third most expensive work ever sold by a living artist.

A few days later, an image of The New York Times column, “Buy This Column on the Blockchain!” was turned into an NFT and sold for $560,000.

The musician and artist Claire Boucher, known as Grimes, sold nearly $6 million worth of digital artworks as NFTs in under 20 minutes. Continue reading “Article: What Cos. Need To Know Before Entering Nascent NFT Market”

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Article: SEC Puts Brokers On Notice For Money Laundering Concerns

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SEC Puts Brokers On Notice For Money Laundering Concerns

Al Barbarino, 31 March 2021

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission isn’t satisfied with the way broker-dealers are responding to and reporting suspicious activities, and a wave of enforcement actions could follow if these regulated entities don’t fall in line with the agency’s latest warning on the matter, industry attorneys say.

Redoubling its efforts to keep brokers in check when it comes to their anti-money laundering, or AML, obligations, the agency in a Monday risk alert sought to “remind” the regulated entities of their duties to report suspicious activities tied to penny stocks, unregistered securities and other high-risk transactions that have swelled up amid COVID-19.  Continue reading “Article: SEC Puts Brokers On Notice For Money Laundering Concerns”

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Article: Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying

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Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying

TYLER DURDEN, 31 March 2021

By now, the British media has been inundated with reports about the special access afforded Greensill Capital, the trade-finance firm that collapsed and filed for administration three weeks ago after its main insurer declined to renew policies on some of Greensill’s assets, setting off a chain reaction that ensnared some of Europe’s biggest banks (including the embattled Credit Suisse, which is simultaneously fighting off another scandal in the Archegos Capital blowup).

And many of these stories have focused on the firm’s relationship with former Prime Minister David Cameron, who was hired as a senior advisor by the firm after he left No. 10 Downing Street. Cameron continued to lobby on the firm’s behalf, even after the michegas at GAM a few years back that led to the departure of star trader Tim Haywood, one of the most high-profile investors in London. It was reported that alleged misconduct attributed to Haywood had to do with his investments in Greensill paper – paper that was reportedly tied to Sanjay Gupta’s GFG Alliance group of companies, who have also emerged as main characters in the collapse of a group of Credit Suisse funds (the bank is now tallying client losses and even weighing the possibility of reimbursing some of its more important clients who have threatened to take their business elsewhere). Continue reading “Article: Influential UK Standards Watchdog Targets Cameron’s Greensill Lobbying”

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Article: “An Absolute Car Crash” – Deliveroo Shares Tumble 31% In London IPO

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“An Absolute Car Crash” – Deliveroo Shares Tumble 31% In London IPO

TYLER DURDEN, 31 March 2021

In what some might take to be the latest sign of exhaustion in global equity markets, shares of Deliveroo tumbled 31% in their market debut Wednesday after pricing at the lower end of their range.

Despite pricing near the bottom of its range, Deliveroo’s opening valuation of about £7.6 billion ($10.5 billion) was the highest in London since resources group Glencore’s 2011 IPO, according to Dealogic data.

But traders quickly wiped more than £2 billion ($2.8 billion) off its market cap as shares plunged. It’s a start contrast to the debut of DoorDash, which IPO’d in the US back in December. Its shares soared more than 86% at the open. One equity capital markets banker who was not involved in the deal described the debut to the FT as “absolute car crash”. In recent days, Deliveroo and its bankers had continued to insist that the offering had seen “very significant demand” from investors, even as its debu tprice range started to slip. Continue reading “Article: “An Absolute Car Crash” – Deliveroo Shares Tumble 31% In London IPO”