Tag: related

Special counsel Robert Mueller has spent just over $25 million in his probe of any links between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to a new filing released Friday.  The filing shows that Mueller spent a total of $4.5 million in the six-month period between April and October, with most of the fees going to personnel compensation and benefits.  The probe incurred another $4 million in costs to Justice Department components not directly tied to the inquiry.  President Donald Trump has blasted M

Special counsel Robert Mueller has spent just over $25 million in his probe of any links between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to a new filing released Friday. 

The filing shows that Mueller spent a total of $4.5 million in the six-month period between April and October, with most of the fees going to personnel compensation and benefits.  The probe incurred another $4 million in costs to Justice Department components not directly tied to the inquiry. 

President Donald Trump has blasted Mueller for the cost of the probe.  In June, the president wrote in a post on Twitter that “the Russian Hoax Investigation has now cost our government over $17 million, and going up fast.” 

But the inquiry has proceeded along relatively quickly and at less expense than similar inquiries conducted by the Justice Department, such as Kenneth Starr’s investigation into President Bill Clinton. 

Some have noted that Mueller’s prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also netted cash for the government, thanks to asset forfeitures Manafort agreed to as part of his plea agreement.  In September, Manafort agreed to hand over real estate and cash estimated to be worth as much as $46 million.  That money does not contribute to Mueller’s budget. 

In the latest filing, Mueller reported spending nearly $3 million on compensation, $580,000 on travel and transportation, $1 million on rent and related expenses, and $300,000 on contractual services, primarily related to IT. 

Since he began his probe in May 2017, Mueller has filed more than 100 criminal charges against 33 individuals and three companies.  Twenty-five of those indicted in connection with the probe are Russian nationals. 

British banks Standard Chartered and HSBC were reportedly among financial institutions misled by Chinese technology giant Huawei into funneling illicit payments from Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the matter.  According to the Journal, Huawei allegedly used a third-party intermediary — a small Hong Kong-based technology firm called Skycom — to channel payments between the company and Iran.  The Journal reported that a spokesman for Huawei declined to

British banks Standard Chartered and HSBC were reportedly among financial institutions misled by Chinese technology giant Huawei into funneling illicit payments from Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the matter. 

According to the Journal, Huawei allegedly used a third-party intermediary — a small Hong Kong-based technology firm called Skycom — to channel payments between the company and Iran.  The Journal reported that a spokesman for Huawei declined to comment. 

Huawei’s chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested during a layover in Vancouver, Canada on Dec. 1 at the request of U.S. authorities.  Beijing has threatened unspecified “severe consequences” if Canadian courts don’t release Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei.  Meng returns to court for a bail hearing Monday. 

Both HSBC and Standard Chartered are based in the U.K., and both have been under scrutiny from global regulators for past money-laundering violations.  The two banks also have had federal monitors in place to watch for the types of transactions described in the Huawei filings — but neither bank has been accused of any wrongdoing as part of this case. 

Responding to CNBC, Standard Chartered declined to comment but clarified that the bank was not a target of investigations related to Huawei.  HSBC also declined to comment on the WSJ story. 

“The US Department of Justice has confirmed that HSBC is not under investigation in this case,” said Stuart Levey, Chief Legal Officer at HSBC in a response to an email from CNBC. 

Huawei has also been under U.S. government scrutiny since 2012 for a wide range of purported issues, such as alleged government-supported cyber espionage, intellectual property theft and violations of sanctions, including those related to Iran. 

According to the court case outlined on Friday, Huawei executives allegedly knew of an investigation into sanctions violations as early as 2017, and had been “altering their travel patterns to avoid any travel to or through the United States.”  Meng’s attorney has countered that trade-war tensions were responsible for the travel changes. 

Here are the key takeaways:The document laid out five key lies Manafort allegedly told the special counsel and the FBI.  Separately, according to another Manafort colleague, Manafort said in February 2018 that Manafort had been in communication with a senior Administration official up through February 2018.”  In response to the court filing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued the following statement:The government’s filing in Mr. Manafort’s case says absolutely nothing about the Pres

Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed a court document on alleged lies told by Paul Manafort to Mueller’s team in violation of the plea deal signed by the ex-Trump campaign chairman. 

Here are the key takeaways:

The document laid out five key lies Manafort allegedly told the special counsel and the FBI.  Those alleged lies related to suspected Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik and a wire transfer to a firm working for Manafort, as well as “information pertinent to another Department of Justice investigation” and “Manafort’s contact with Administration officials.” 

Large sections of the document detailing the alleged falsehoods are blacked out.  The most heavily redacted portions related to Manafort’s interactions with Kilimnik. 

The special counsel said evidence “demonstrates that Manafort lied about his contacts” when he said after signing his plea deal that he had “no direct or indirect communications with anyone” in the Trump administration. 

Manafort was talking to people in the Trump administration as late as 2018, the document alleges: “In a text message from May 26, 2018, Manafort authorized a person to speak with an Administration official on Manafort’s behalf.  Separately, according to another Manafort colleague, Manafort said in February 2018 that Manafort had been in communication with a senior Administration official up through February 2018.” 

Mueller said Manafort’s lies “were not instances of mere memory lapses,” and that the special counsel “is available to prove the false statements at a hearing” if Manafort challenges the most recent allegations against him. 

In response to the court filing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued the following statement:

The government’s filing in Mr. Manafort’s case says absolutely nothing about the President.  It says even less about collusion and is devoted almost entirely to lobbying-related issues.  Once again the media is trying to create a story where there isn’t one. 

Read the full filing here. 

Before the filing was released, a federal judge ordered Mueller to file his full submission about ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s “crimes and lies” out of public view. 

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted Mueller’s request to file under seal the “unredacted version” of the court document, in which the special counsel was expected to defend its determination that Manafort lied to investigators in violation of the terms of his plea deal. 

But a version of the filing with blacked-out portions would still be released to the public, the judge ordered. 

Just as the court filing was released, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Totally clears the President.  Thank you!”  Trump did not specify whether or not he was referring to the submission in Manafort’s case. 

The decision from Jackson in Washington, D.C. federal court came shortly before Mueller’s deadline to submit the document. 

In a prior filing, the special counsel accused Manafort, 69, of lying about a “variety of subject matters” to investigators, without providing details about the allegation.  His plea agreement with the special counsel required him to fully and truthfully cooperate with investigators. 

In a court appearance following that allegation, attorneys for Mueller revealed that they were mulling over whether to file new charges against Manafort. 

Manafort was already on the hook for a raft of criminal charges lodged by Mueller. 

In August, Manafort was convicted in Virginia federal court of eight counts related to his past work on behalf of a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.  He is due to be sentenced in that case on Feb. 8. 

In September, on the eve of a second trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, Manafort struck a deal with Mueller in which he pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy, one of which related to money earned from his work in Ukraine, the other of which was related to his effort to tamper with witnesses against him.  His sentencing in that case is tentatively scheduled for March 5. 

The arrest of Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Canada, reportedly related to a violation of U.S. sanctions, will corrode trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, risk consultancy Eurasia Group said Thursday. “ Beijing is likely to react angrily to this latest arrest of a Chinese citizen in a third country for violating U.S. law,” Eurasia analysts wrote.  Canada’s Department of Justice said on Wednesday the country arrested Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, where she is facing extradit

The arrest of Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Canada, reportedly related to a violation of U.S. sanctions, will corrode trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, risk consultancy Eurasia Group said Thursday. 

“Beijing is likely to react angrily to this latest arrest of a Chinese citizen in a third country for violating U.S. law,” Eurasia analysts wrote. 

In fact, Global Times — a hyper-nationalistic tabloid tied to the Chinese Communist Party — responded to the arrest by posting on Twitter a statement about trade war escalation it attributed to an expert “close to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.” 

“China should be fully prepared for an escalation in the #tradewar with the US, as the US will not ease its stance on China, and the recent arrest of the senior executive of #Huawei is a vivid example,” said the statement, paired with a photo of opposing fists with Chinese and American flags superimposed upon them. 

Canada’s Department of Justice said on Wednesday the country arrested Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, where she is facing extradition to the U.S. The arrest is related to violations of U.S. sanctions, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. 

U.S. authorities have been probing Huawei, one of the world’s largest makers of telecommunications network equipment, since at least 2016 for allegedly shipping U.S.-origin products to Iran and other countries in violation of U.S. export and sanctions laws, sources told Reuters in April. 

The analysts said the Huawei executive’s arrest will not derail the start of trade negotiations after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting last weekend in Argentina saw them agree to first steps to resolve their trade dispute.  Still, they acknowledged, the incident involving Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is likely to cloud talks. 

Qatar announced plans to pull out of OPEC on Monday, just days before a crucial meeting between the influential oil cartel and its allies.  Speaking at a news conference, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said the country would withdraw from OPEC on January 1, 2019, ending a membership which has stood for more than half-a-century.  The decision comes after Qatar reviewed ways in which it could improve its global standing and plan its long-term strategy.  The country’s energy minister said Monda

Qatar announced plans to pull out of OPEC on Monday, just days before a crucial meeting between the influential oil cartel and its allies. 

Speaking at a news conference, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said the country would withdraw from OPEC on January 1, 2019, ending a membership which has stood for more than half-a-century. 

The decision comes after Qatar reviewed ways in which it could improve its global standing and plan its long-term strategy. 

While Qatar is one of OPEC’s smallest oil producers, especially when compared to the likes of de facto leader Saudi Arabia, it is one of the world’s largest producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG). 

The country’s energy minister said Monday that the move represents a “technical and strategic” change, Reuters reported, and was not politically motivated. 

Qatar’s Al-Kaabi also said the decision was not linked to the 18-month political and economic boycott of Doha. 

Since June 2017, OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia — along with three other Arab states — has cut trade and transport ties with Qatar, accusing the country of supporting terrorism and their regional rival, Iran.  Qatar denies the claims, saying the boycott hampers its national sovereignty. 

The Middle East-dominated group’s final meeting of the calendar year is now expected to be Qatar’s last.  It has been an official OPEC member since 1961. 

Shares of Goldman Sachs fell nearly 2 percent Friday after an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the stock’s gains could be capped as a scandal related to the Malaysian government investment fund festers.  In that time, Goldman shares have dropped more than 10 percent.  Goldman shares since Nov. 12Source: FactSetMorgan Stanley also lowered its Goldman rating on Nov. 21 amid the scandal, noting it is not clear how long the situation “will take to resolve.”  Former Goldman investment banke

Shares of Goldman Sachs fell nearly 2 percent Friday after an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the stock’s gains could be capped as a scandal related to the Malaysian government investment fund festers. 

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Michael Carrier downgraded Goldman to neutral from buy and slashed his price target on the stock to $225 a share from $280, still implying a 15.5 percent upside from Thursday’s close.  The stock traded around $191 before the bell Friday. 

“While we view the current valuation as discounting most of the potential negative scenarios related to 1MDB, we only have limited information and the uncertainty could linger for a while and limit the upside potential if markets stabilize,” Carrier wrote in a note to clients. 

Goldman’s stock has fallen sharply since news broke that the Malaysian government sought refunds of fees it paid the bank for deals related to 1MDB, Malaysia’s state investment fund.  The deals raised billions of dollars that were later stolen.  In that time, Goldman shares have dropped more than 10 percent.  But most of those losses came after it was reported that former CEO Lloyd Blankfein attended an introductory meeting with the financier later accused of stealing billions from the fund. 

Goldman shares since Nov. 12

Source: FactSet

Morgan Stanley also lowered its Goldman rating on Nov. 21 amid the scandal, noting it is not clear how long the situation “will take to resolve.” 

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported Thursday that the Federal Reserve is ramping up an investigation into how Goldman executives avoided the bank’s compliance controls.  Former Goldman investment banker Tim Leissner, who pleaded guilty for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal, said this behavior is part of the bank’s culture. 

Goldman “could face fines, penalties and other sanctions, but as of now, we don’t expect it to have a [long-term] impact on the business,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Carrier said. “ That said, given that the timing of the investigation is not known, this may take some time, could continue to weigh on GS, and limit [near-term] stock upside.” 

To be sure, Carrier points out that similar cases in the past have ended with penalties ranging from millions of dollars to about $2 billion.  Goldman “has lost ~$12B in market cap (~14%) since the beginning of Nov on these headlines … so it appears to us that the stock has more than discounted the outcome.  In addition, the headlines shined a negative light on GS during a broader market and sector sell-off, which likely added to the pressure,” Carrier said. 

Five Republican senators have asked the Trump administration to suspend talks to transfer U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey.  The lawmakers, led by Senator Marco Rubio, threatened to block any agreement to export civilian nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, potentially setting up a showdown with the White House.  The Trump administration has courted the Saudis as they seek to build 16 nuclear power react

Five Republican senators have asked the Trump administration to suspend talks to transfer U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey. 

The lawmakers, led by Senator Marco Rubio, threatened to block any agreement to export civilian nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, potentially setting up a showdown with the White House.  The Trump administration has courted the Saudis as they seek to build 16 nuclear power reactors over the next 25 years, an endeavor that would generate tens of billions of dollars in economic activity. 

In a letter to President Donald Trump, the senators say the slaying of Khashoggi, as well as other foreign policy issues, raise questions about whether the Saudi leadership should be entrusted with U.S. nuclear technology and know-how. 

“The ongoing revelations about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as certain Saudi actions related to Yemen and Lebanon, have raised further serious concerns about the transparency, accountability, and judgment of current decisionmakers in Saudi Arabia,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Trump. 

“We therefore request that you suspend any related negotiations for a U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear agreement for the foreseeable future.” 

The company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on these ads, drawing users to the company’s online identity protection service.  The tactic worked — until Facebook suddenly banned the company’s ads earlier this month.  Facebook told Bloom it the ads as part of a crackdown on ads for deceptive financial products and services related to cryptocurrency.  He believes the real reason for the ban is because Bloom competes with Facebook’s own identity management platform, Facebook Login (formerly Face

Jesse Leimgruber is the co-founder of Bloom, a start-up building technology to help people keep control over their personal data as they sign into various online services and apps. 

He and his team did what many start-ups do to accelerate growth: they advertised on Facebook. 

The company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on these ads, drawing users to the company’s online identity protection service.  The tactic worked — until Facebook suddenly banned the company’s ads earlier this month. 

“They just banned it,” Leimgruber said. “ This was a huge killer for us.” 

Facebook told Bloom it the ads as part of a crackdown on ads for deceptive financial products and services related to cryptocurrency. 

Bloom does not sell any financial products or services and has nothing to do with cryptocurrency.  However, because it uses blockchain technology, Bloom’s web site has some words that are often used on cryptocurrency sites, like “Ethereum” and “blockchain.” 

Facebook suggests that these words or similar confusion triggered the ban. 

“While we loosened the policy this summer, it remains restrictive,” a Facebook spokeswoman said. “ We will continue to listen to feedback, look at how well this policy works and continue to study this technology so that, if necessary, we can revise it over time.” 

But Leimgruber thinks the sudden nature of the ban is suspicious, given that Bloom had been advertising throughout Facebook’s ban on cryptocurrency-related ads, which was first imposed in January.  He believes the real reason for the ban is because Bloom competes with Facebook’s own identity management platform, Facebook Login (formerly Facebook Connect). 

The dispute highlights Facebook’s struggle to clean up its service without overreacting.  Facebook has been purging pages, accounts and advertisers in a clean-up effort after more than a year of scandals involving misleading content and the misuse of personal data. 

As part of the crackdown, Facebook has removed lots of misleading content that deserved to be banned, including dozens of accounts and pages for spreading propaganda in Myanmar, and hundreds of accounts and pages that were spamming users on Facebook by artificially inflating engagement on their posts to drive traffic to their websites. 

But there has also been collateral damage.  Facebook has blocked dozens of advertisements related to the LGBT community for being political.  In January, Facebook blocked all ads related to cryptocurrency before modifying its policy in June to allow some ads as long as they weren’t about initial coin offerings (ICOs). 

Insurance giant AIG said it expects to report between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion in pre-tax catastrophe losses for the third quarter.  The company said the losses were a result of numerous weather events like the typhoons in Japan as well as Hurricane Florence.  AIG said its currently projecting between $900 million and $1 billion in losses related to events in Japan and Asia and between $600 million and $700 million for North America.  For the fourth quarter, AIG said its initial loss projectio

Insurance giant AIG said it expects to report between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion in pre-tax catastrophe losses for the third quarter. 

The company said the losses were a result of numerous weather events like the typhoons in Japan as well as Hurricane Florence.  AIG said its currently projecting between $900 million and $1 billion in losses related to events in Japan and Asia and between $600 million and $700 million for North America. 

For the fourth quarter, AIG said its initial loss projections related to Hurricane Michael were between $300 million and $500 million. 

AIG also said it has “exhausted approximately $700 million of the $750 million retention under its North America aggregate catastrophe reinsurance program following the California mudslides, Hurricane Florence and assuming the high end of the loss estimate range for Hurricane Michael.” 

AIG President and CEO Brian Duperreault said, “We are pleased that our efforts to restructure our North American reinsurance portfolio are yielding the desired result to mitigate our exposure to catastrophe losses.” 

Duperreault also said the company’s “thoughts are with those who have been affected by the recent extreme events.” 

AIG is scheduled to release final third-quarter results on Nov. 1. 

The stock fell as much as 5 percent in after-hours trade.  Shares of the insurer have already fallen 23 percent in the past 12 months. 

A U.S. Treasury employee has been arrested on charges that she leaked to BuzzFeed News multiple reports about suspicious financial transactions involving ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, law-enforcement officials said. 

The highly confidential documents allegedly leaked by the employee also were related to former Trump campaign official Richard Gates, accused Russian agent Maria Butina, a suspected Russian money launderering entity and the Russian Embassy in Washington, according to a criminal complaint. 

She is charged with unlawfully disclosing so-called suspicious activity reports, or SARS, and conspiracy to do the same.  Both felony counts carry a maxmium potential sentence of five years in prison. 

The Quinton, Virginia, resident Edwards is due to appear before a judge in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia later Wednesday.  A lawyer for Edwards did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

SARS are used to alert Treasury officials and other authorities about financial transactions that may be related to criminal conduct, such as money laundering.  Treasury’s FinCEN division, for which Edwards works, manages the collection of SARS.  It is illegal for a government employee to disclose a SAR or its contents outside of the scope of their work. 

The complaint against Edwards says that she started leaking “numerous SARS in October 2017” to an unidentified reporter, and continued doing so until this month. 

She had “hundreds of electronic communications” with the reporter, “many via an encrypted application,” the complaint said. 

After Edwards began leaking SARS, the journalist wrote about a dozen articles which mentioned the details of those reports, according to the complaint. 

Articles cited in the complaint carry the bylines of Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier, two BuzzFeed reporters, as well as other journalists at that media outlet. 

The articles cited documents transactions pertaining to Manafort and Gates, both of whom have since pleaded guilty to financial crimes related to their consulting work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. 

They also related to Butina, who is currently being held without bond on charges of being a Russian agent, the accused money launderering real-estate entity Prevezon Alexander, and the Russian Embassy in Washington. 

At the time of Edwards’ arrest, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, she “was in possession of a flash drive” that appeared to be the same device “on which she saved the unlawfully disclosed” SARS. 

Also in her possession was “a cellphone containing numerous communications over an encrypted application in which she transmitted [SARS] and other sensitive government information” illegally, prosecutors said. 

“When questioned by law enforcement officials [Tuesday], Edwards confessed she has provided [SARS] to [the reporter] via an encrypted application, through falsely denied knowing that [the reporter] intended to or did publish that information” through a news organization, the complaint said. 

BuzzFeed News declined to comment.  Leopold and Cormier did not immediately return requests for comment.