Posted on

Article: Crown Resorts: US private equity group Blackstone offers James Packer exit strategy

Article - Media, Publications

Crown Resorts: US private equity group Blackstone offers James Packer exit strategy

Anne Davies, 22 March 2021

Billionaire James Packer has been offered a new exit strategy from Crown Resorts after the company received an unsolicited bid from private equity company Blackstone Group.

Blackstone, which already has a 10% holding in the casino giant, has offered to acquire all of the shares in Crown through a scheme of arrangement.

It is offering $11.85 a share, representing a 19% premium to the volume-weighted average price of Crown shares since the release of its first half results for the financial year 2021. Continue reading “Article: Crown Resorts: US private equity group Blackstone offers James Packer exit strategy”

Posted on

Article: Blackstone rolls the dice with $6.2 billion move on Australia’s Crown Resorts

Article - Media, Publications

Blackstone rolls the dice with $6.2 billion move on Australia’s Crown Resorts

Byron Kaye, Rashmi Ashok, 22 March 2021

Crown shares leapt more than 20% after it disclosed the informal offer on Monday, passing Blackstone’s indicative price of A$11.85 as investors wagered a bigger payment could be in the offing from the world’s No. 1 private equity firm or another suitor.

“It’s nice to get a bid, and now it’s about price discovery,” said John Ayoub, a portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, which has Crown shares.

“These stocks are trading at trough earnings and I wouldn’t be surprised to see further activity in the sector.” Continue reading “Article: Blackstone rolls the dice with $6.2 billion move on Australia’s Crown Resorts”

Posted on

Article: Credit Suisse Gets Extra EU Charge Sheet in FX Rigging Probe

Article - Media, Publications

Credit Suisse Gets Extra EU Charge Sheet in FX Rigging Probe

Aoife White and Hugo Miller, 22 March 2021

The EU and the Zurich-based bank confirmed the so-called supplementary statement of objections, which adds to earlier charges sent in July 2018 based on information swapped in currency traders’ chatrooms. Credit Suisse denies wrongdoing and is fighting allegations that other banks have agreed to settle.

“Credit Suisse continues to believe that it did not engage in any systemic conduct in the FX markets which violated the European Union’s competition rules,” the bank said in a statement.

The commission said it sent the objections as it “continues investigating past conduct in the forex spot trading market.” It declined to provide further details while the case is ongoing.

EU regulators are still investigating Credit Suisse and potential collusion with other banks, years after other authorities meted out billions of dollars in fines in similar probes. The EU’s probe dates back to 2013 and follows a Bloomberg report that uncovered traders’ manipulation of benchmark foreign-exchange rates. A first set of banks, including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., agreed to pay EU penalties of more than $1 billion in 2019.

Regulators pushed on with a parallel probe into similar allegations involving Credit Suisse and other banks that aren’t challenging the EU. Such a “hybrid cartel” means officials need to make legal findings against all participants in a cartel at the same time — even if some are prepared to settle in return for a lower fine and shorter process.

Credit Suisse also challenged a 2018 information request in a probe by Switzerland’s Competition Commission into possible currency manipulation, the only bank to do so. The lender was ordered to hand over data that year after it lost a court ruling in which it had argued that doing so would violate a rule preventing self-incrimination.

Read Full Article

Posted on

Article: Bay Area oil company executive charged with market manipulation

Article - Media, Publications

Bay Area oil company executive charged with market manipulation

NATE GARTRELL, 22 March 2021

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal prosecutors in the Bay Area have charged a local resident with conspiracy to manipulate the oil market, a crime that prosecutors say was committed while he was a vice president at an oil company.

Emilio Collado, aka Emilio Heredia, was charged earlier this month with a single count of conspiracy. The charging records allege that since 1998, Collado worked at two oil companies, one of which bought out the other one in 2014. The companies are referred to in court records not by their names but as “Company A” and “Company B.”

The charging records allege that Collado and unnamed co-conspirators deliberately misled price assessors toward oil prices “that did not reflect legitimate forces of supply and demand.” Collado allegedly manipulated the prices depending on his company’s needs; when they were selling, the manipulated price went high, and when they were buying, it went low, prosecutors allege.

For instance, on Aug. 24, 2016, Collado allegedly shifted the price per metric ton of oil down by roughly $40, “resulting in an unlawful gain of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Company B” on that day alone, the charging records say.

Collado is set to appear in court Wednesday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer for a change of plea hearing. Generally, change of plea hearings are set when a defendant has agreed to plead guilty or no contest to a charge, though no plea deals have been announced in Collado’s case.

If he’s convicted, Collado faces a maximum of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, court records show

Read Full Article

Posted on

Article: Creepy Former DOJ Prosecutor, Glenn Kirschner, Connected to the Seth Rich Case, Now Wants “Every Business In America” to Pledge that the 2020 Election Was “Accurate”

Article - Media, Publications

Creepy Former DOJ Prosecutor, Glenn Kirschner, Connected to the Seth Rich Case, Now Wants “Every Business In America” to Pledge that the 2020 Election Was “Accurate”

Joe Hoft, Gateway Pundit, 22 March 2021

A former federal prosecutor, Glenn Kirschner, has launched a campaign to force “every business in America” to take a pledge that states, in part, that “The 2020 presidential election was free and fair, and produced accurate, reliable results.”

Any American business refusing to take this pledge, regardless of their own personal beliefs, will presumably be subjected to the cancel mob.

Read Full Article

Posted on

Article: SNB Threw $118 Billion at FX Campaign as U.S. Alarm Bells Rang

Article - Media, Publications

SNB Threw $118 Billion at FX Campaign as U.S. Alarm Bells Rang

Catherine Bosley, 22 March 2021

The Swiss National Bank spent 110 billion francs ($118 billion) on interventions in 2020, evidence of heightened market activism that risks fueling more tension with the U.S.

The tally is the highest since 2012 and indicates officials purchased currency worth 9 billion francs in the fourth quarter, when the U.S. Treasury branded Switzerland a currency manipulator. Such eye-watering sums won’t escape the attention of President Joe Biden’s new administration in Washington, which doesn’t appear to be breaking with the stance of its predecessor.n Continue reading “Article: SNB Threw $118 Billion at FX Campaign as U.S. Alarm Bells Rang”

Posted on

Article: Ex-top aide to former Maltese PM charged with corruption

Article - Media, Publications

Ex-top aide to former Maltese PM charged with corruption

FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press, 21 March 2021

ROME (AP) — A former top government aide in Malta who was investigated by a journalist later killed by a car bomb has been arraigned in a Maltese court on charges of money-laundering, fraud and corruption.

Keith Schembri, who was chief of staff to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, entered a not-guilty plea to the charges, which stem from an investigation of alleged financial crimes going back years. Continue reading “Article: Ex-top aide to former Maltese PM charged with corruption”

Posted on

Article: Coinbase pays $6.5M to settle government investigation into false reporting

Article - Media, Publications

Coinbase pays $6.5M to settle government investigation into false reporting

DUNCAN RILEY, 21 March 2021

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. has been fined $6.5 million by the U.S. Commodity Future Trading Commision to settle allegations that it undertook reckless false, misleading or inaccurate reporting as well as so-called wash trading between 2015 and 2018.

Along with the fine, announced Friday, Coinbase is also subject to stop any further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act or CFTC regulations.

Between January 2015 and September 2018, Coinbase is said to have operated two automated trading programs, Hedger and Replicator, that generated orders that at times matched one another on the GDAX electronic trading platform operated by the company. Although the GDAX rules did disclose that Coinbase was trading on the GDAX it failed to disclose that Coinbase was operating more than one trading program and trading through multiple accounts. Continue reading “Article: Coinbase pays $6.5M to settle government investigation into false reporting”

Posted on

Article: Coinbase Expected to Pay $ 6.5 Million Fine Following Market Manipulation Allegations

Article - Media, Publications

Coinbase Expected to Pay $ 6.5 Million Fine Following Market Manipulation Allegations

EXPLICA.CO, 20 March 2021

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued on Friday (19) a request to file and resolve charges against Coinbase, the San Francisco, California-based exchange, for “reckless, false, misleading or inaccurate reports, as well as negotiations for employee laundering in the GDAX (current Coinbase Pro) of the Coinbase platform. ”The order requires the broker to pay a civil penalty of US $ 6.5 million (R $ 35.69 million) and stop any other violation of the Commodity Exchange Act or CFTC regulations, as charged.

“Reporting false, misleading or inaccurate transaction information undermines the integrity of digital asset pricing,” said Chief Inspector Vincent McGonagle. “This enforcement action sends the message that the Commission will act to safeguard the integrity and transparency of such information.”

Understand the case:

According to the prosecution, between January 2015 and September 2018, Coinbase “recklessly delivered false, misleading or inaccurate reports on transactions in digital assets, including Bitcoin, on the GDAX e-commerce platform that it operated.” During these 3 years, Coinbase operated two trading bots, Hedger and Replicator, which generated orders that sometimes coincided with each other. The GDAX trading rules specifically disclosed that Coinbase operated on GDAX, but did not disclose that Coinbase operated more than one trading program and was effectively generating volume across multiple accounts.

Read Full Article

Posted on

Web: Is Global and Mail Compromised and Helping Criminal Naked Short Selling by Anson Funds?

Publications, Web

Web: Is Global and Mail Compromised and Helping Criminal Naked Short Selling by Anson Funds?

u/stewartoregon, Reddit, 11 hours ago

Is there a correlation between negative articles in the Globe and Mail and Anson Fund’s short positions?

To whom it may concern,

I have started looking for articles on companies that Anson Funds apparently holds a large short position in (using the list from a previous post on BurnedByAnsonFunds) and began noticing The Globe and Mail seems to have critical articles about many of them…

Continue reading “Web: Is Global and Mail Compromised and Helping Criminal Naked Short Selling by Anson Funds?”

Posted on

Article: NatWest money laundering case linked to second criminal trial, prosecutors say

Article - Media, Publications

NatWest money laundering case linked to second criminal trial, prosecutors say

Iain Withers, 19 March 2021

LONDON (Reuters) – Criminal money laundering charges against British state-backed bank NatWest are linked to a separate case against 13 individuals based in cities across the country, prosecutors have told Reuters.

Britain’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), started a criminal action against NatWest on Tuesday, making it the first bank to be charged under a 2007 money laundering law.

The FCA accused NatWest of failing to monitor suspect activity by a client that deposited about 365 million pounds($500 million) in its accounts over five years, of which 264 million was in cash.

Read Full Article

Posted on

Article: Schwab Must Face Suit Over Short-Sell Trading Glitch

Article - Media, Publications

Schwab Must Face Suit Over Short-Sell Trading Glitch

Melissa Angell, 19 March 2021

A California federal judge ruled Friday that Charles Schwab & Co. must face a proposed class action brought by one of its retail customers challenging an alleged bug in its trading system that prevented the customer from exiting his short position.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler wrote in her 14-page order that Robert Wright adequately stated a breach of contract claim, finding that factual issues about Schwab’s control of the alleged glitch and Wright’s reaction to the incident preclude dismissal. Continue reading “Article: Schwab Must Face Suit Over Short-Sell Trading Glitch”