Article: EU proposes watchdog to halt flow of dirty money

Article - Media

EU proposes watchdog to halt flow of dirty money

Huw Jones, 20 July 2021

EU policymakers proposed a new agency on Tuesday to stop financial firms from aiding criminals and terrorists after a scandal at a Danish bank highlighted the inadequacy of the bloc’s defences.

Europe came under pressure to step up enforcement of its anti-money laundering rules when several countries began investigating Danske Bank after more than 200 billion euros ($235 billion) of suspicious transactions passed through its tiny Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

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Article: EU to propose new body to tackle dirty money, documents say

Article - Media

EU to propose new body to tackle dirty money, documents say

Huw Jones, 08 July 2021

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) – The European Union will propose a new agency to crack down on money laundering and new transparency rules for transfers of crypto-assets, EU documents showed on Wednesday as the bloc responds to calls for tougher action to fight dirty money.

Europe has come under pressure to step up enforcement of anti-money laundering rules after several countries began investigating Danske Bank over 200 billion euros of suspicious transactions that passed through its tiny Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015. Continue reading “Article: EU to propose new body to tackle dirty money, documents say”

Article: UK targets Gupta’s GFG Alliance in fraud probe linked to Greensill

Article - Media, Publications

UK targets Gupta’s GFG Alliance in fraud probe linked to Greensill

Huw Jones, Eric Onstad, 14 May 2021

Tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s commodities empire is being investigated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office in a probe that encompasses the conglomerate’s links to collapsed lender Greensill Capital, the SFO said on Friday.

The probe piles pressure on Gupta, who has been scrambling to refinance his international web of businesses in steel, aluminium and energy after supply chain finance firm Greensill filed for insolvency in March. Continue reading “Article: UK targets Gupta’s GFG Alliance in fraud probe linked to Greensill”

Article: Britain to crack down on online fraud after LCF collapse

Article - Media, Publications

Britain to crack down on online fraud after LCF collapse

Huw Jones, 21 April 2021

Britain will crack down on online scams and make platforms that make money from advertising financial products more accountable, financial services minister John Glen said on Wednesday.

A report into the collapse of London Capital & Finance investment firm recommended that the government should consider including financial fraud in its proposed law on online safety. LCF was authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority but the mini-bonds it sold online were unregulated.

The government said on Monday it would pay up to 120 million pounds in compensation to many of the 11,600 investors who lost up to 237 million pounds when the fund collapsed in early 2019. The Serious Fraud Office is investigating the collapse. Continue reading “Article: Britain to crack down on online fraud after LCF collapse”

Article: People moves: facing the funds fallout music, CS changes chairs, and more

Article - Media, Publications

People moves: facing the funds fallout music, CS changes chairs, and more

Natasha Rega-Jones, 07 April 2021

Credit Suisse faces some tough choices as it absorbs the extraordinary losses inflicted by the Greensill and Archegos fund fiascos and subsequent ratings hit. On April 6, the firm announced an estimated pre-tax loss of approximately Sfr900 million ($963 million) for the first quarter, including a charge of Sfr4.4 billion ($4.7 billion) in respect of Archegos. At the same time, the firm announced that investment bank CEO Brian Chin and chief risk and compliance officer Lara Warner were stepping down from their roles with immediate effect.

Christian Meissner, co-head of wealth management banking advisory and vice-chair of investment banking, will replace Chin in May. Meissner was previously head of global corporate and investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and earlier co-CEO for EMEA at Lehman Brothers. Continue reading “Article: People moves: facing the funds fallout music, CS changes chairs, and more”

Article: Russian Hacker Jailed in U.S. for $19M Fraud

Article - Media, Publications

Russian Hacker Jailed in U.S. for $19M Fraud

The Moscow Times, 08 January 2021

A Russian hacker was sentenced to 12 years in a U.S. prison Thursday for consumer data theft worth $19 million from 100 million customers of over a dozen financial service companies, the Justice Department said.

Andrei Tyurin, 37, pleaded guilty in 2019 after his extradition from the country of Georgia the previous year, admitting to computer intrusion, wire fraud, bank fraud and illegal online gambling offenses. The U.S. accused him of making criminal profits from financial sector hacks between 2007 and mid-2015. Continue reading “Article: Russian Hacker Jailed in U.S. for $19M Fraud”

Article: Bill Browder threatens legal action over Swiss bank accounts linked to Magnitsky scandal

Article - Media, Publications

Bill Browder threatens legal action over Swiss bank accounts linked to Magnitsky scandal

Sam Jones, 25 November 2020

High-profile Kremlin critic and investor Bill Browder has threatened Credit Suisse and UBS with legal action for breaching US sanctions if they unfreeze accounts belonging to three Russian clients accused of a huge tax fraud against his investment company.

The two Swiss banks hold assets worth more than $24 million (CHF21.8 million), which Browder says were gained from fraud perpetrated in Russia against his investment business, Hermitage Capital, in 2007. Continue reading “Article: Bill Browder threatens legal action over Swiss bank accounts linked to Magnitsky scandal”

Subject: Paul Tudor Jones

Subject of Interest

Paul Tudor Jones is an American hedge fund manager, conservationist and philanthropist. In 1980, he founded his hedge fund, Tudor Investment Corporation, an asset management firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. At 24 years old Jones became a commodities broker for E. F. Hutton & Co. In October 2012, it was announced that Glenn Dubin, Paul Tudor Jones and Timothy Barakett were among a group of investors buying the merchant energy operation Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy (“LDH Energy”) from Louis Dreyfus Company and Highbridge Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund. The new company was named Castleton Commodities International, LLC. Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia.

Biography

Tudor Group

Highbridge Capital Management LLC

Subject: Doug Jones (D-AL)

Subject of Interest

U.S Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) is a minority member of the US Senate Committee on Banking. After graduating from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, he worked as staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Howell Heflin. Following his stint in Washington, Senator Jones served as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1980-1984. He left government service in 1984 and was in the private practice of law in Birmingham, Alabama, until President Bill Clinton nominated him to the position of United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. He also sits on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Senate Committee on Armed Services, and Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Biography

United States Senate Committee on Banking

Article: Swiss franc climbs after US adds it to ‘manipulation’ watchlist

Article - Media, Publications

Swiss franc climbs after US adds it to ‘manipulation’ watchlist

Sam Jones in Zurich and Eva Szalay in London , 15 January 2020

The Swiss franc nudged up to a near three-year high against the euro on Tuesday as markets anticipated the move would limit the Swiss National Bank’s appetite for aggressive action to try to hold down its currency in future.

“The report is a warning shot to the SNB,” said George Saravelos, global co-head of currency research at Deutsche Bank, adding that the franc is likely to push higher from here. It now trades around CHF1.08 against the euro.

The US called on Bern on Monday to “more forcefully support domestic economic activity” by spending money and reducing the country’s already low tax burden, in what was an unusual swipe at a sovereign nation’s financial affairs. “Despite borrowing costs for the Swiss government being among the lowest in the world, fiscal policy remains underutilised, even within the constraints of Switzerland’s existing fiscal rules,” the US Treasury said in its assessment.

The SNB said on Tuesday that its interventions were transparent, and “motivated purely by monetary policy . . . aimed at addressing the negative consequence for inflation and the economy through a highly valued franc.”

“They are not aimed at giving Switzerland advantages by undervaluing the Swiss franc,” it added.

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Article: Forbes Flashback: How George Soros Broke The British Pound And Why Hedge Funds Probably Can’t Crack The Euro

Article - Media, Publications

Forbes Flashback: How George Soros Broke The British Pound And Why Hedge Funds Probably Can’t Crack The Euro

Forbes, 07 June 2015

Greek citizens voted against further austerity measures demanded by the Troika financing their rescue package, casting even more doubt on the country’s future as a member of the eurozone and throwing bond and currency markets into an uproar.

The euro has plunged from $1.20 to $1.09 this year (see chart). The feared unraveling of the currency – which, admittedly, would take a lot more than Greece’s departure – calls to mind another currency fiasco from the early 1990s, when George Soros and a group of other investors that included fellow hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones and Bruce Kovner, bet against a central bank’s ability to hold the line on its currency.

Forbes took a deep dive into that trade in the November 9, 1992 issue, illuminating how Soros made $1.5 billion in just a single month by betting the British pound and several other European currencies were priced too richly against the German deutsche mark.

The entire group cashed in big-time. Jones’ funds made $250 million, while Kovner’s Caxton Corp. rang the register to the tune of $300 million, but no one made more than Soros, who cleared $1.5 billion in that fateful month of September. (The score made Soros’ legend and swelled his firm’s coffers; assets under management jumped to $7 billion, from $3.3 billion, by mid-October 1992, and to $11 billion by the end of 1993.)

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Article: Watchdog says jury out on CDS short-selling impact

Article - Media, Publications

Watchdog says jury out on CDS short-selling impact

Huw Jones, 18 June 2012

There is no firm proof that short-selling credit default swaps (CDS), blamed by some policymakers for exacerbating Greece’s debt problem, damages the underlying government bond market, the world’s top securities body said.

CDS are contracts written by large banks that insure the buyer against a default in an underlying asset such as a government or corporate bond. Continue reading “Article: Watchdog says jury out on CDS short-selling impact”

Article: Chinese coal company’s share placement produces interesting collection of investors

Article - Media

Chinese coal company’s share placement produces interesting collection of investors

Chris Carey

sharesleuth, 13 September 2010

Sharesleuth took a closer look at the registration statement covering the resale of those shares, and found that no fewer than eight people who participated in the placement have been the subject of Securities and Exchange Commission actions or criminal prosecutions.

The list includes at least four people who were directly or indirectly linked to stock-manipulation schemes. Several other investors were previously involved in a small cluster of U.S. companies whose placements were manipulated by a ring of boiler room brokerages in the 1990s.

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Article: In Pursuit of the Naked Short by Alexis Stokes

Article - Academic

In Pursuit of the Naked Short

Alexis Stokes, Texas State University

Journal of Law and Business 5/1 (Spring 2009)

This article explores the origins of naked short-selling litigation; considers
the failures of significant naked short-selling lawsuits in federal court;
surveys the obstacles erected collectively by constitutional standing requirements, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, brokerage firms, death spiral financiers, and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation; examines the efficacy of Regulation SHO, SEC rule 10b-21, and new FINRA rules; discusses recent state legislation and state court litigation; and identifies non-litigation options to curb naked short-selling. Ultimately, this article seeks to answer the question: If manipulative naked short-selling is more than a mythological scapegoat for
small cap failure, what remedies are, or should be, available?

PDF (62 Pages): Article In Pursuit of the Naked Short

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