Tag: USA

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Article: Credit Suisse Faces Additional Charges over FX Market Rigging

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Credit Suisse Faces Additional Charges over FX Market Rigging

Arnab Shome, 22 March 2021

The European Commission has slapped an extra antitrust charge sheet against Credit Suisse for its involvement in the manipulation of foreign exchange (forex) markets, according to a Bloomberg report.

The Swiss lender confirmed the fresh charges in addition to the earlier charges, which were introduced in July 2018 for sharing crucial market-related information in chatrooms. However, the bank denied all allegations against it.

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“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, and is contesting the EC’s case,” the bank said in a statement.

The EU regulator’s original allegations named several major banks for their part in manipulating the currency benchmarks. Though most of the lenders settled with the regulator, Credit Suisse remains adamant pushing its innocence.

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

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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”

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

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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”

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

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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”

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

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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”

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

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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.

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

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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?”

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Article: The future of bitcoin with Max Keiser, plus the US’s bombing addiction, and surveillance capitalism

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The future of bitcoin with Max Keiser, plus the US’s bombing addiction, and surveillance capitalism

RT NEws,  19 March 2021

Max Keiser is Lee Camp’s guest this week, for a conversation about bitcoin. Keiser argues that bitcoin has the potential to change the world in a progressive direction by replacing government-controlled fiat currencies and democratizing the economy. They discuss the future of bitcoin, market manipulation by the oligarchs at the top of the system, how cryptocurrencies can make imperialist wars irrelevant, and the real inflation rate.

After that, Lee explores the results of a new study by the women’s peace organization CODEPINK, which found that, over the past 20 years, the US has dropped an average of 46 bombs a day.

Finally, Natalie McGill reports on the surveillance system Flock, which is similar to the Amazon Ring, but offers extra, creepier methods of invading the privacy of your neighbors. She also looks into a new web search engine from the browser Brave, which allows you to surf anonymously, block third-party vendors from scraping your info, and prioritize independent news sites in search results.

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Article: The Next ‘Gamestop’: How China or Russia Could Attack Our Financial System

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The Next ‘Gamestop’: How China or Russia Could Attack Our Financial System

Robert Carlson, Gray Gaertner, 16 March 2021

Last week, the dramatic rise and fall in the price of Gamestop demonstrated how vulnerable the stock market is to social media speculation. U.S. regulators should now turn their attention to a greater risk—that in the near future, China, Russia, or another adversary could coordinate an unwitting mob to harm the American financial system.

The potential for financial warfare follows from a playbook that China, and especially Russia, have drawn from repeatedly to meddle in U.S. domestic politics. First, foreign state agents have used social media to spread disinformation or stoke existing grievances. Second, they have counted on naive users to share the original posts, allowing the content to reach a larger audience. Finally, they fan the flames to provoke action.

In 2016 and 2020, Russian propaganda decreased U.S. voters’ trust in their candidates and the political system. During last year’s protests over race and policing, foreign bots amplified instances of both racial discrimination and violent protests, further polarizing American society. Following Joe Biden’s electoral victory in November, Russian agents embraced false allegations of fraud, providing the rationale for an armed mob to assault the Capitol Building. China spends at least $10 billion per year on its own influence operations through the United Front Work Department, which promotes pro-Beijing narratives overseas.

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Article: Exchange leaders say GameStop saga highlights regulatory challenges

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Exchange leaders say GameStop saga highlights regulatory challenges

John McCrank, 16 March 2021

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The recent trading frenzy around GameStop Corp and other so-called “meme” stocks highlights shortcomings and challenges in the U.S. markets as retail investors become a bigger presence, exchange leaders said on Tuesday.

“The regulatory structure of the U.S. equity markets, in my mind, is flawed,” Jeff Sprecher, chief executive of New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc, said on a panel at the Future Industry Association’s virtual FIA Boca conference.

Regulators have focused on competition between market intermediaries, like brokers and exchanges, rather than between buyers and sellers seeking to get the best prices, and the GameStop event exposed issues with that structure, he said.

In January, retail investors coordinated through social media forums in an attempt to punish hedge funds by buying shares of GameStop and other heavily shorted names, driving up their prices and forcing short sellers to close out positions at big losses.

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Article: Whistle-Blower Says Credit Suisse Helped Clients Skip Taxes After Promising to Stop

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Whistle-Blower Says Credit Suisse Helped Clients Skip Taxes After Promising to Stop

Neiman, 13 March 2021

Seven years after Credit Suisse promised federal prosecutors that it would stop helping rich Americans hide their wealth from tax collectors, a whistle-blower is contending that it continued to do just that, raising the possibility that the Swiss bank could face a fresh investigation and steep financial penalties.

The allegations, laid out in documents sent last week to the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service, were made by a former Credit Suisse employee. The former employee said that the bank continued to hide assets for its clients long after it promised prosecutors it would close those accounts, according to copies of documents obtained by The New York Times.

The whistle-blower, whose identity is unknown, is also contending that Credit Suisse lied to federal prosecutors, the Internal Revenue Service and members of Congress during their yearslong inquiry into how Swiss banks helped Americans defraud the government. Those investigations ultimately led to a settlement in May 2014 between Credit Suisse and federal prosecutors, in which the Swiss bank pleaded guilty to helping some of its American clients evade taxes by cloaking their wealth through offshore shell companies.

Credit Suisse was fined a total of $2.6 billion, but avoided even higher fines because it vowed to the Justice Department and a Senate panel that it had not only stopped the practice, but that it would close “any and all accounts of recalcitrant account holders.” The bank also pledged to help the United States pursue other criminal investigations, according to the plea agreement. Credit Suisse’s guilty plea and steep fine were rare in 2014. It was the first time in more than two decades that a lender of its size had admitted wrongdoing in an American court.

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Article: Trader Arrested as WallStreetBets Phenomenon Finds Echo in Japan

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Trader Arrested as WallStreetBets Phenomenon Finds Echo in Japan

Gearoid Reidy and Shoko Oda, 12 March 2021

(Bloomberg) — A retail investor buys shares in a small company, touts his position on social media and inspires a horde of followers to do the same. The stock price goes to the moon — before crashing back to earth.

It’s an all-too-familiar tale to anyone watching the market in 2021, but this wasn’t GameStop Corp. It wasn’t even in America. And it happened in 2018.

It was in the Japanese city of Osaka, where a day trader who goes by the nickname Tonpin was betting on a tiny maker of precision dies and molds called Nichidai Corp. and broadcasting the fact on Twitter, where he has more than 55,000 followers. The stock surged more than sixfold in the first three months of 2018 before losing most of the gains.

The person behind the nickname was Toru Yamada, a former money manager, and he and another man have just been arrested for market manipulation, according to Japanese media reports. He wasn’t arrested for talking the stock up on Twitter, but on suspicion of trying to keep the share price down — albeit so it would have margin-trading restrictions removed which, when it happened, caused the shares to soar to new highs.

The incident shows how regulators sift through unusual trading patterns and come to conclusions often years later. It may pique the interest of protagonists and observers of the recent meme stock rally in the U.S., such as users of the Reddit forum WallStreetBets.

Yamada has yet to be charged, and it’s not clear whether he will be. And while nobody is suggesting that U.S. traders employed similar tactics to those he’s alleged to have used, the case illustrates the risks that can be associated with becoming a high-profile investor on social media. While you’re in the public spotlight, you may also be in the regulators’ crosshairs.

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Article: Losing LIBOR in the Capital Markets — A Reprieve?

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Losing LIBOR in the Capital Markets — A Reprieve?

Dawn Holicky Pruitt, 10 March 2021

As reported in our previous alert “Losing LIBOR in the Capital Markets — Are You Ready?,” the anticipated date for discontinuation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is approaching. While LIBOR is a widely used benchmark rate for U.S. dollar-denominated floating-rate debt securities and other financial products, LIBOR was the subject of widespread market manipulation and ineffective regulation. In 2017, the Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced its intention to stop persuading or compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR to its administrator after 2021. This announcement strengthened the objective of the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC), a committee convened by U.S. regulators to identify LIBOR alternatives in the U.S. market.

While market participants were warned that LIBOR may cease to exist after 2021, the ICE Benchmark Administration Limited (IBA), as the administrator of LIBOR, recently announced the results of a November 2020 consultation regarding the upcoming discontinuation. Although certain lesser-utilized U.S. dollar-denominated LIBOR tenors will cease to be published after December 31, 2021, the IBA announced it will continue publishing widely used tenors (such as one-month LIBOR and three-month LIBOR) until June 30, 2023. The FCA’s support for the extension provides confidence regarding the ongoing representativeness of the continuing U.S. dollar-denominated LIBOR tenors until June 30, 2023.

The extension of widely used U.S. dollar-denominated LIBOR tenors provides issuers of LIBOR-linked debt securities with additional time to prepare for LIBOR discontinuance. In particular, the extension may, in many cases, allow for a natural end to LIBOR-linked debt securities through maturation or the exercise by issuers of redemption rights.

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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?