Credit Suisse fined over drugs gang money laundering

Yahoo = AFP, June 27, 2022 

Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, which has been rocked by a series of scandals, was slapped with a $2-million-fine Monday in a money laundering case linked to a Bulgarian cocaine network. 

Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court found that the bank failed to take steps to prevent money laundering by the criminal organisation, deeming it guilty of breaching its corporate responsibility. 

Credit Suisse was fined two million Swiss francs ($2.1 million). The Zurich-based bank intends to appeal. 

It was faulted for the failure up through its hierarchy and by its legal and compliance departments to monitor "banking relations" linked to the criminal gang, and to ensure their "compliance with anti-money laundering rules". 

A former employee was found guilty of aggravated money laundering over a number of transactions she had conducted or ordered to be conducted between July 2007 and December 2008, despite firm indications that the funds had criminal origins. 

Her actions allowed the criminal gang to stash more than 19 million Swiss francs out of reach of the authorities. 

She was given a 20-month prison sentence and a fine, both of which were suspended. 

In a brief statement, Credit Suisse said it noted the court's decision and that it intended to appeal. 

Two Bulgarians were also found guilty of participating in a criminal organisation and aggravated money laundering. 

The court also ordered the confiscation of a sum equivalent to more than 12 million francs concerning funds deposited with Credit Suisse by the criminal organisation. 

Furthermore the bank will have to compensate the more than 19 million francs in assets belonging to the criminal organisation, "which could not be confiscated due to the bank's internal failures", the court statement said.

NRA: The powerful US gun rights lobby

Yahoo – AFP, Joshua MELVIN, May 27, 2022

People look at semi-automatic guns at the Kalashnikov booth at the NRA's
annual convention in Houston (AFP/STRINGER) (STRINGER)

The National Rifle Association is the central and fiercest promoter of gun rights in America, and is again holding its annual convention days after a mass school shooting. 

Just like the NRA's meeting after the 1999 Columbine attack, which defined an era of gun massacres in America's schools, the gathering opening Friday in Houston follows the killing of 19 children and two teachers in a Texas classroom. 

The NRA has been weakened by scandal and turmoil, but remains the main force dedicated to advocating for the owners of the tens of millions of weapons that are readily obtainable across the country. 

Here are some key points about the organization: 

Potent political force 

The 150-year-old NRA concentrated its focus on battling gun restrictions in the late 1970s and has become one of the most powerful lobbying groups in US history. 

Its past influence on lawmakers has been far-reaching. 

From 2000 to 2012, the NRA and its allies in the firearms industry combined to pour $80 million into US House of Representatives, Senate and presidential races, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. 

In the 2016 presidential election, the NRA spent about $20 million for ads attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton and another $10 million for ads supporting Republican Donald Trump. 

Since the 1990s, the NRA has been able to deliver a powerful punch against local and national politicians it views as a threat to gun rights, contributing to the defeat of numerous centrist candidates. 

Many guns, many deaths 

The NRA has been a key proponent for an industry that has produced more than 139 million guns for the commercial market over the two decades from 2000, including 11.3 million in 2020 alone, according to government data. 

At the same time, America annually records a toll of tens of thousands of gun deaths, with US authorities saying killings underwent an "historic" increase in 2020. 

The US racked up 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent over 2019, and 24,245 gun suicides, up 1.5 percent. 

The post-Columbine era 

In the April 20, 1999 shooting at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado, two students killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher, and signaled a new era of classroom killings in America. 

The NRA's annual conference was scheduled to open less than two weeks later in Denver, a short drive from Littleton, prompting state and local politicians to criticize the planned meeting. 

In the end, the NRA went ahead with a scaled-down gathering but voiced a defiant tone defending gun rights. 

"Over the next two decades, this unapologetic message would come to define the NRA's tone in the wake of mass shootings at American schools," US broadcaster NPR wrote, after publishing recordings it said captured the group's debate over the response to Columbine. 

A troubled NRA 

The state of New York sued the group and its leader Wayne LaPierre in 2020 for financial fraud and misconduct, aiming to dissolve the powerful lobby. 

Top NRA officials were accused of using dues and donations of members for years as a "personal piggy bank," spending tens of millions of dollars on themselves and their cronies in violation of laws governing non-profit organizations. 

The group called it a baseless political attack, and in March a New York judge ruled that alleged self-dealing by the group's leader, if proven, would not warrant such a strong penalty as the disbanding of the association. 

New York's lawsuit seeking to boot LaPierre from his post will, however, be allowed to proceed. 

Group in decline? 

NRA claims more than five million members, but there are signs that figure is on the wane, including a 2021 legal deposition from LaPierre in which he said numbers were "under 4.9 million." 

US network CBS reported NRA's revenue declined 23 percent from roughly $367 million in 2016 to $282 million in 2020, the most recent year for which its tax filings are available. 

It added that contributions and grants from members and corporations also have slipped 15 percent during that time. 

Yet after an 18-year-old man opened fire this week at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the group spoke up as the voice explaining why yet another mass shooting had happened. 

"We recognize this was the act of a lone, deranged criminal," their statement said. "As we gather in Houston, we will reflect on these events... and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure."

Harvard creates $100 mn slavery reparation fund

Yahoo – AFP, April 26, 2022 

Harvard University has announced a $100 million fund to atone for its role
in slavery (AFP/Maddie Meyer) (Maddie Meyer)

America's prestigious Harvard University announced Tuesday it will commit $100 million to redress its role in slavery, as more US institutions move toward reparations for historical injustices. 

Harvard said it was putting the money into a fund to help tackle the educational and social gaps caused by the legacies of the slave trade and racism. 

The move follows a wide-ranging internal review of the university's role in slavery, the results of which were posted on its website. 

The 100-page report made several recommendations about how the money should be spent, including the improvement of educational opportunities for descendant communities, honoring enslaved people through memorials and research, and creating partnerships with Black colleges and universities. 

It also recommended identifying and supporting direct descendants of Black and Native American enslaved individuals who labored on Harvard's campus and who were enslaved by previous Harvard leaders. 

"Harvard benefited from and in some ways perpetuated practices that were profoundly immoral," Harvard president Lawrence Bacow wrote in a letter to students and staff posted on the institution's website. 

"Consequently, I believe we bear a moral responsibility to do what we can to address the persistent corrosive effects of those historical practices on individuals, on Harvard, and on our society," he added. 

Harvard was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1636. 

The report found that Harvard staff, including four presidents, enslaved more than 70 individuals until slavery was outlawed in the state in 1783. 

The report also found that the university "benefited from extensive financial ties to slavery," including donations from slave traders. 

It said that from the mid-19th century well into the 20th century Harvard presidents and prominent professors promoted race science and eugenics and "conducted abusive 'research,' including the photographing of enslaved and subjugated human beings." 

Harvard's announcement comes as US institutions grapple with how to make amends for their role in slavery. 

Last year, the leaders of the Jesuit conference of priests vowed to raise $100 million to benefit the descendants of slaves it once owned. 

In 2019, students at Georgetown University approved a fund that would benefit the descendants of slaves sold by the elite Jesuit school in the 1800s.

Investigation claims Credit Suisse handled dirty money

Yahoo – AFP, Erwan LUCAS,  20 February 2022 

Credit Suisse has issued a vigorous denial of the allegations (AFP/FABRICE
COFFRINI) (FABRICE COFFRINI)

Credit Suisse handled billions of dollars in dirty money for decades, an international media investigation based on a massive data leak claimed on Sunday, in the latest setback for Switzerland's second-largest bank. 

The bank held more than $8 billion (seven billion euros) in accounts of criminals, dictators and human rights abusers, among others, according to the investigation by a group comprising dozens of media organisations. 

Credit Suisse rejected the "allegations and insinuations", saying in a statement that many of the issues raised were historical, some dating back more than 70 years. 

According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a non-profit journalism group, the "Suisse Secrets" investigation began when an anonymous source shared bank data with German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung more than a year ago. 

That information, covering accounts collectively worth $100 billion at their highest point, was trawled through by 48 media outlets worldwide, including The New York Times, Le Monde and The Guardian. 

Accounts identified as problematic held over $8 billion in assets, the investigation found. 

The accounts included those held by a Yemeni spy chief implicated in torture, the sons of an Azerbaijani strongman, a Serbian drug lord and bureaucrats accused of looting Venezuela's oil wealth. 

It was the largest leak ever from a major Swiss bank, OCCRP said. 

'Tendentious interpretations' 

The leak included information on more than 18,000 bank accounts, many of which "remained open well into the 2010s", said the OCCRP. 

In its statement Sunday, the bank said: "Credit Suisse strongly rejects the allegations and insinuations about the bank's purported business practices. 

"The matters presented are predominantly historical, in some cases dating back as far as the 1940s, and the accounts of these matters based on partial, inaccurate, or selective information taken out of context, resulting in tendentious interpretations of the bank's business conduct." 

About 90 percent of the accounts reviewed were closed -- or were in the process of being closed -- before the press approached the bank, it added. And more than 60 percent of them had been closed before 2015. 

The OCCRP, in a statement on its website, said: "We believe the dozens of examples we have cited raise serious questions about Credit Suisse's effectiveness and commitment to meeting its responsibilities." 

It said the investigation had found dozens of "dubious characters" in the data, including some linked to government officials. 

Among those listed as holding accounts with Credit Suisse were the sons of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II. 

When asked why so many of these accounts existed, current and former Credit Suisse employees described a work culture that incentivised taking on risk to maximise profits, according to OCCRP. 

"I've too often seen criminals and corrupt politicians who can afford to keep on doing business as usual, no matter what the circumstances, because they have the certainty that their ill-gotten gains will be kept safe and always within their reach," said OCCRP co-founder Paul Radu in a statement. 

A series of setbacks 

The international investigation is the latest in a series of setbacks that Credit Suisse has suffered recently. 

In March 2021, the bank was hit by the collapse of Greensill Capital in which it had committed some $10 billion dollars through four funds. The implosion of the US fund Archegos cost it more than $5 billion. 

And in Switzerland, a former Credit Suisse employee is among the defendants in a major corruption trial that has just started and involves alleged money laundering and organised crime in Bulgaria. The bank has said it will "defend itself vigorously in court". 

Experts say draconian banking secrecy laws in Switzerland effectively silence insiders or journalists who may want to expose wrongdoing within a Swiss bank, according to OCCRP. 

A Swiss media group was unable to participate in the investigation due to the risk of criminal prosecution, the organisation said.

'Pandora Papers' expose offshore assets of heads of state, govt

Yahoo – AFP, October 3, 2021

Some 35 current and former leaders are featured in leaked financial documents
analyzed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) (AFP/Jim Watson)

More than a dozen heads of state and government, including the King of Jordan and the Czech prime minister, have hidden millions in offshore tax havens, according to an investigation published Sunday by the ICIJ media consortium. 

The so-called "Pandora Papers" investigation -- involving some 600 journalists from media including The Washington Post, the BBC and The Guardian -- is based on the leak of some 11.9 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world. 

Some 35 current and former leaders are featured in the documents analyzed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) -- facing allegations ranging from corruption to money laundering and global tax avoidance. 

The documents notably expose how King Abdullah II created a network of offshore companies and tax havens to amass a $100 million property empire from Malibu, California to Washington and London. 

The BBC cited lawyers for King Abdullah saying all the properties were bought with personal wealth, and that it was common practice for high profile individuals to purchase properties via offshore companies for privacy and security reasons. 

The documents also show Czech Prime minister Andrej Babis -- facing an election later this week -- failed to declare an offshore investment company used to purchase a chateau worth $22 million in the south of France. 

In total, the ICIJ found links between almost 1,000 companies in offshore havens and 336 high-level politicians and public officials, including country leaders, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and others. 

More than two-thirds of the companies were set up in the British Virgin Islands. 

In most countries, the ICIJ stresses, it is not illegal to have assets offshore or to use shell companies to do business across national borders. 

But such revelations are no less of an embarrassment for leaders who may have campaigned publicly against corruption, or advocated austerity measures at home. 

Among the other revelations from the ICIJ investigation: 

-- Family and associates of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are alleged to have been secretly involved in property deals in Britain worth hundreds of millions. 

-- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and six family members are alleged to secretly own a network of offshore companies. 

-- Members of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's inner circle, including cabinet ministers and their families, are said to secretly own companies and trusts holding millions of dollars. 

-- Russian President Vladimir Putin is not directly named in the files, but he is linked via associates to secret assets in Monaco. 

The "Pandora Papers" are the latest in a series of mass ICIJ leaks of financial documents that started with LuxLeaks in 2014, and was followed by the Panama Papers, the Paradise Papers and FinCen. 

The documents behind the latest investigation are drawn from financial services companies in countries including the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Belize, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Switzerland.

US Supreme Court backs payments for student athletes

Yahoo – AFP, Paul HANDLEY, June 21, 2021 

US Universities sports governed by the NCAA ,including football, are ahugely lucrative
business but athletes themselves don't reap the financial benefits, the Supreme Court said. 

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that America's top university athletics body cannot block student-athletes from getting extra benefits, eroding its power over the multi-billion-dollar college sports industry. 

The high court sided unanimously with student-athletes in a narrow case focused on whether they can receive limited cash or non-cash benefits from their schools related to their education, which the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) currently forbids. 

While it did not weigh in on whether student-athletes should be able to cash in completely on their performances, the Supreme Court made it clear it did not accept the NCAA's claim that its strict ban on their earning any money, to retain "amateur" status, was important to the business. 

The court called the NCAA an effective monopoly in its control over the lucrative industry of college sports. 

"Put simply, this suit involves admitted horizontal price fixing in a market where the defendants exercise monopoly control," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the opinion. 

"No one disputes that the NCAA's restrictions in fact decrease the compensation that student-athletes receive compared to what a competitive market would yield." 

The long-brewing case, NCAA v. Alston et al, did not address the hottest topic of college sports: whether athletes, like universities and the NCAA, should benefit from endorsements or monetization of their personal images, such as sales of shirts bearing their names. 

But the court said the NCAA could not prove that athletes keeping their amateur status was important to what Gorsuch called its "massive business." 

"Those who run this enterprise profit in a different way than the student-athletes whose activities they oversee," he said. 

"The president of the NCAA earns nearly $4 million per year. Commissioners of the top conferences take home between $2 to $5 million... And annual salaries for top Division I college football coaches approach $11 million." 

'Price-fixing labor' 

The ruling appeared to open the gate for a broader challenge to the NCAA's control on how student-athletes can earn money, or share in the profits the NCAA and universities rake in. 

"Price-fixing labor is price-fixing labor," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion. 

"The NCAA's business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America," he said. 

"All of the restaurants in a region cannot come together to cut cooks' wages on the theory that 'customers prefer' to eat food from low-paid cooks." 

The White House applauded the ruling, while the NCAA said the court had reaffirmed its authority to adopt "reasonable rules" and that it remained free to judge what constitutes "truly educational benefits." 

Individual states will implement new laws on July 1 that give student-athletes the right to profit from endorsements, so-called "name, image and likeness" (NIL) benefits. 

Currently the NCAA bans them from profiting from social media, sales of shirts bearing their names, video games using their likenesses and apparel deals arranged by their schools. 

But the much smaller National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, authorized NIL benefits last year. 

The NCAA has stalled on the issue, leading to Congress now debating legislation. 

The council for NCAA's powerful Division I, representing the largest and richest schools, will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and could discuss the issue. 

"The NCAA remains committed to supporting NIL benefits for student-athletes," NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement. 

"Additionally, we remain committed to working with Congress to chart a path forward, which is a point the Supreme Court expressly stated in its ruling."

NRA chief draws fire for clumsy elephant hunt

MSN – AFP, 28 April 2021 

National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre. (JOE RAEDLE)

Already facing legal problems, Wayne LaPierre, the head of the US National Rifle Association, is now facing ridicule for clumsily hunting an elephant in Botswana. 

Wayne LaPierre holding a sign: National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre© JOE RAEDLE National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre

Video of the 2013 hunt was published by The New Yorker and The Trace. 

It was taken for an NRA documentary but was never aired, The New Yorker said, "because of concerns that it could turn into a public-relations fiasco." 

In the video, LaPierre wounds an elephant with his first shot. 

He then shoots it three more times at point-blank range but hits it in the wrong place. 

A hunting guide finally fires the shot that dispatches the elephant. 

The footage also shows LaPierre's wife, Susan, killing an elephant, cutting off its tail and shouting "Victory!" 

Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, tweeted about the video. 

"CEO Wayne LaPierre manages to alienate both hunters and gun owners because not only is this inhumane, but he's a horrible shot," Watts said. 

Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was "sickening to see LaPierre's brutal, clumsy slaughter of this beautiful creature. 

"No animal should suffer like this," Sanerib said in a statement. 

"Savannah elephants were just declared endangered by international experts, and these intelligent beings certainly shouldn't be used as paper targets by an inept marksman." 

The NRA filed for bankruptcy in Texas in January of this year after being sued by the New York state attorney general, who accused its leaders of misusing funds.

Super League pits economics against history in a clash of cultures

Yahoo – AFP, Antoine MAIGNAN,  April 20, 2021 

A plane flies above Elland Road in Leeds before the Premier League game
against Liverpool protesting against the planned Super League

As the clubs who want to form a Super League focus on their economic futures, they find themselves attacked on all sides for being at odds with football's past. 

"Created by the poor, stolen by the rich," read one banner held up by fans outside Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium on Monday. It summed up the frustration that has been gripping most football followers since the plans were announced. 

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said the proposed closed breakaway league was "a spit in the face" of "football lovers". 

"Everyone is united against this disgraceful, self-serving proposal, fuelled by greed above all else," he said. 

Despite the opposition of their own fans, national governments and the football authorities the 12 clubs are pressing ahead. 

They represent just seven cities in three countries. Six are from England and three each from Spain and Italy. 

The suspicion of fans that the clubs are losing touch with their roots is amplified by the foreign ownership of the majority of the rebel clubs, in several cases through faceless holding companies. 

Manchester City are owned by Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Inter Milan are controlled by Chinese holding company Suning. Chelsea are owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovic. 

'Americanisation of the world' 

But the greatest suspicion is that the proposed league is part of what French football historian Paul Dietschy called "the Americanisation of the world". 

An Arsenal fan hangs a banner aimed at the club's America
owner on their Emirates Stadium

Four, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and AC Milan, are owned by Americans or companies based in the United States. 

Of those, three own franchises in major US sports. 

The Fenway Sports Group at Liverpool also owns baseball's Boston Red Sox. The Glazer family at Manchester United own Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Stan Kroenke, who controls Arsenal, also owns the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League and the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association. 

There is also an American influence at Juventus. The club has a long association with Fiat, now part of American-Italian group Stellantis. That company's American president John Elkann, a grandson of former Juventus owner Gianni Agnelli, appointed his cousin Andrea Agnelli to run the club. 

The proposed league is being underwritten by American money, in the form of a four billion dollar (3.32bn euro) loan from Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase. 

As long ago as the 1950s and 1960s, research by American economists showed their clubs were "profit maximisers", while British economist Peter Sloane found that football clubs in the English league were "utility maximisers", motivated by non-financial considerations. 

"American sport has historically been very focused on profit," said Chris Winn, a researcher at the University Campus of Football Business, which has links with Manchester City as well as Premier League Burnley. 

"It's no coincidence that there is a core American group at the heart of these Super League proposals. The European football elite are looking for a guaranteed piece of the pie every year." 

Chelsea fans protested outside Stamford Bridge on Tuesday

Dietschy told AFP that the clubs no longer wanted to be anchored in their local landscape. 

"These clubs are becoming brands and as they target other markets," he said. "It's counter-intuitive when you think of football, but it can work like the American franchises." 

'The rich stealing what the people created' 

But, Dietschy cautioned, "we must be wary of romanticism applied to football. The richest have always dominated. What has changed, however, is that today money is no longer used to win but to make a profit." 

Yet some elite players, who stand to share that profit, are outraged. 

"I believe in an improved Champions League, but not in the rich stealing what the people created," said Paris Saint-Germain's Spain midfielder Ander Herrera 

"The rich have stolen what the people have created," Manchester United's Portuguese player Bruno Fernandes posted on social media. "Dreams cannot be bought." 

So far the Super League has not attracted any clubs in the key market of Germany. 

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have both taken a public stand against the plan. 

"I would like to make it explicitly clear that FC Bayern will not be taking part in the Super League," said club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in a statement on Tuesday. 

Like Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two Bundesliga giants are fan owned, but German supporters have long been vocal defenders of football traditions. 

Bayern is run by German former players in contrast to the Super League clubs. 

"The directors of these clubs are people trained in top management schools, and their logic is that of business and profit," said Dietschy.

$10 mn pay-cut for Goldman Sachs CEO over 1MDB scandal

Yahoo – AFP, January 27, 2021 

Goldman Sachs CEO David Michael Solomon saw his salary cut
due to the 1MDB Malaysian bribery scandal 

Goldman Sachs cut its CEO David Solomon's 2020 salary by $10 million to $17.5 million because of the bank's role in the 1MDB Malaysian bribery scandal, according to documents filed Tuesday. 

"The amounts of remuneration reflect the decision announced by the board of directors," said a securities filing that also detailed pay-cuts for COO John Waldron and CFO Stephen Scherr. 

Although the three were not "aware of the firm's participation in any illicit activity at the time the firm arranged the 1MDB bond transactions, the Board views the 1MDB matter as an institutional failure," it said. 

Goldman Sachs pleaded guilty in October over its role in the scandal, and agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to close US investigations. 

Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak was sentenced last year to 12 years in jail on corruption charges linked to the scandal that led to the downfall of his government.

Goldman Sachs agrees to largest penalty ever in 1MDB scandal

Yahoo – AFP, October 22, 2020 

The Malaysian unit of global financial titan Goldman Sachs pleaded guilty
in a US court in the massive 1MDB Malaysian bribery scandal

Global financial titan Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $2.9 billion in penalties to settle criminal charges in the 1MDB Malaysian bribery scandal, the largest US fine ever in a corruption case, the Justice Department announced Thursday. 

Acting US Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt said Goldman "accepted responsibility" in the case that involved $1.6 billion in bribes, the largest ever recorded, and massive gains laundered through the US financial system. 

Goldman Sachs helped raise $6.5 billion for the Malaysian government's sovereign wealth fund, and the US Justice Department has said more than $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB by high-level officials at the fund and their associates between 2009 and 2015. 

The investment fund "was looted by corrupt officials and their co-conspirators, including senior Goldman bankers" turning it "into a piggy bank for corrupt public officials and their cronies," Rabbitt said at a press briefing. 

In a first for Goldman Sachs, the company's Malaysian unit pleaded guilty in a US court Thursday for violations of US bribery law as part of a deal to end the criminal probe in the sweeping case that involved authorities in nine countries. 

The guilty plea could curtail activities of Goldman Sachs Malaysia but allows the parent company to avoid admitting wrongdoing in court -- which would have damaged its ability to do business. 

'Meaningful consequences' 

The parent company pleaded not guilty in US court and agreed to "deferred prosecution" for three-and-a-half years, which is expected to impose certain conditions including increased monitoring. 

But Rabbitt stressed that the company has been charged in the bribery scandal, "so there has been a significant amount of criminal liability" for Goldman and "imposes meaningful consequences" in the cases. 

The Justice Department has charged three individuals in the case including two former Goldman executives. Tim Leissner, the former Southeast Asia Chairman, has pleaded guilty, while Ng Chong Hwa, also known as "Roger Ng," former head of investment banking for GS Malaysia, is awaiting trial, and Low Taek Jho remains a fugitive. 

"Goldman admitted today that, in order to effectuate the scheme, Leissner, Ng, Employee 1, and others conspired with Low Taek Jho" to pay the bribes and ignored red flags, the statement said. 

In another stunning turn, the company said it will demand repayment $174 million in salary and bonuses paid to current and former executives including Chief Executive David Solomon and his predecessor Lloyd Blankfein. 

These so-called clawbacks are almost unheard of in corporate cases. 

Solomon said in a statement "it is abundantly clear that certain former employees broke the law, lied to our colleagues and circumvented firm controls,"adding, "we recognize that we did not adequately address red flags." 

Included in the total penalty amount, Goldman will pay a $400 fines to the SEC and repay $600 million in earnings, and pay a $154 million fine to the Federal Reserve which also will require the company to improve its risk management and internal oversight. 

The Malaysian government dropped the charges against Goldman in July after reaching a $3.9 billion settlement with the financial giant. 

The firm, which posted profits of $3.5 billion in the latest quarter, had set aside more than $3.1 billion as of September 30 "for litigation and regulatory proceedings."

Related Article:

Goldman Sachs fined US$350 million in Hong Kong over1MDB

McDonald's sues former CEO for lying about sexual relationships

Yahoo – AFP, DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS, August 10, 2020

McDonald's said former CEO Steve Easterbrook "destroyed information
regarding inappropriate personal behavior"

Fast-food giant McDonald's announced on Monday it is suing former CEO Steve Easterbrook for lying about allegedly inappropriate sexual relationships with employees.

Easterbrook was dismissed in November 2019 over his "poor judgment" in engaging in a consensual relationship with a member of staff in violation of company policy.

McDonald's said it had subsequently learned that Easterbrook lied "and destroyed information regarding inappropriate personal behavior" and relationships with three other employees, as well as providing stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the employees.

The chain is seeking to recover compensation and severance benefits paid to the executive under the terms of his departure last year, according to a securities filing.

The lawsuit, which alleges that Easterbrook committed fraud by misleading the company over the separation agreement, has been filed in a state court in Delaware.

"(He) was knowingly untruthful with McDonald's investigators," says the complaint.

Easterbrook's separation agreement included six months' severance pay, plus stock options.

Steve Easterbrook, pictured here in July 2016, was CEO at McDonald's from
March 2015 to November 2019

US media reports have estimated his exit package at around $40 million.

In 2018, Easterbrook's base pay was $1.3 million and his total compensation including bonus and stock options was $15.9 million.

He was replaced by Chris Kempczinski, who joined McDonald's in October 2015 after working in a senior strategic role at Kraft Foods and previously at PepsiCo.

One day after Easterbrook's departure, McDonald's announced that its top human resources executive, David Fairhurst, who joined McDonald's in 2005 and was named chief people officer at the restaurant chain in 2015, had also left.

In May, an international group of labor unions filed a complaint against McDonald's for what it called systematic sexual harassment at the fast food chain's restaurants around the world.

The complaint, filed with the Dutch national contact point for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), was the first of its kind to target a multinational company, the International Union of Foodworkers said.

The document cites witness testimony of "attempted rape, indecent exposure, groping, and sexual offers."

McDonald's said at the time it would review the complaint, stressing that the food giant was a "people-first company."