Category: All News
Grand Jury charges Washington man and company with MBTA hunting violations committed in Canada
A grand jury in Seattle returned an indictment today charging a Washington man and his company with conspiracy and for violating the Lacey Act by transporting birds that had been hunted in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The indictment alleges that, from August 2022 to January 2023, Branden Trager, 46, of Brush Prairie, Washington, and his guiding company, Mayhem Services LLC, guided three hunting parties in Canada to hunt waterfowl when Trager was not permitted under Canadian…
Climate Investment Funds secures $500 million debut bond for clean energy transition
LONDON – The multilateral Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has issued a $500 million debut bond as part of a plan to diversify its funding sources and attract private sector investors to finance low carbon technologies in emerging markets, its CEO said on Tuesday. The success of the bond, six times oversubscribed, underscores the growing importance of market-friendly issuances as nations and international agencies look to meet a $1.3 trillion climate finance goal at a time when development funds are becoming…
Tax evasion: UBS / Credit Suisse to pay a $2.5 billion fine
UBS is reportedly preparing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve allegations that Credit Suisse violated a prior agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding U.S.-based customers who evaded taxes, according to the Wall Street Journal. In 2023, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee found that Credit Suisse, now owned by UBS, breached its 2014 plea agreement with U.S. authorities by continuing to assist ultra-wealthy Americans in tax evasion and concealment of more than $700 million from the…
Former Virginia Nexus Services Owner Pleads Guilty to Employment Tax Fraud
A Virginia man and former business owner pleaded guilty yesterday to not accounting for and paying employment taxes to the IRS. According to court documents and statements made in court, Richard E. Moore, of Augusta County, was the executive vice president and part owner of Nexus Services Inc., a Verona-based company that offered bond securitization and other services to immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Moore, who exercised control over Nexus’s business and financial affairs, was responsible for…
Canadian National Sentenced to 40 Months for Multimillion-Dollar Export Control Scheme
Nikolay Goltsev, a Canadian national, was sentenced to 40 months in prison for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar export scheme that provided advanced U.S. electronic components to sanctioned Russian military companies. Goltsev used two Brooklyn-based companies to source and ship dual-use technology through intermediary front companies in countries like Turkey, Hong Kong, and the UAE, ultimately rerouting the products to Russia. The electronics, including components for precision-guided weapons, were found in Russian weapons systems used in Ukraine. Goltsev demonstrated awareness of U.S….
Argentina files ICC complaint against Venezuela over officer’s arrest
BUENOS AIRES – Argentina’s government said on Thursday it had filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against Venezuela for detaining a member of its gendarmerie, a branch of Argentina’s security forces, calling it a “forced disappearance.” Tensions between the two South American countries have risen since Javier Milei, a far-right libertarian, assumed Argentina’s presidency in late 2023. These worsened after Venezuela’s contested presidential election in July, in which incumbent socialist President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory. Last month, Argentina…
KLM Boeing 737 makes emergency landing in Norway and skids off runway
A KLM Boeing 737 traveling from Oslo to Amsterdam was forced to make an emergency landing in southern Norway on Friday evening due to a technical issue shortly after takeoff, Trend reports. The aircraft safely landed at Torp Sandefjord Airport at 7:14 p.m. local time, Norwegian police confirmed. All 182 people on board, including crew members, were unharmed. The flight, which departed Oslo at 6:55 p.m., encountered trouble when passengers and crew heard a loud noise shortly after takeoff. Local…
Air Canada plane catches fire on runway after rough landing, temporarily closing airport
The Halifax airport was temporarily closed Saturday night after a plane arriving from St. John’s experienced a problem landing, which saw the plane skid down the runway and part of it catch fire. Passenger Nikki Valentine told CBC News that one of the plane’s tires did not deploy properly upon landing. “The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud — what almost sounded like a crash…
South Korean plane crash kills more than 150
At least 151 people were killed on Sunday after a South Korean passenger jet crashed and burst into flame on landing, according to local authorities, in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters. The Jeju Air flight was returning from Bangkok with 181 people on board when it failed to deploy its landing gear, skidding down the runway before it struck a wall and was engulfed in fire at Muan International Airport in the south of the country. Two crew…
Judicial scandal surfaces in fight over bankruptcy of JC Penney
A group of JC Penney bondholders are seeking to re-litigate its Chapter 11 case, claiming that a scandal that has since ensnared one of the country’s top bankruptcy judges tainted the US retailer’s 2020 reorganisation. Eric Moore, a bondholder, described the deal clinched in bankruptcy court as a “multibillion-dollar heist” that improperly handed control of JC Penney to a select group of deep-pocketed parties including H2 Capital Partners, Simon Property Group and Brookfield, according to court filings. Moore’s challenge has…
Thousands of flights delayed across the US, one dead as tornadoes, storms hit holiday travellers
ATLANTA – Severe weather disrupted holiday travel on Dec 28 across the US with deadly tornadoes in the south-east and heavy snow and wind on the west coast, delaying or cancelling thousands of flights across the country. More than 7,000 flights in the US were delayed, according to the tracking site FlightAware, and more than 200 were cancelled. About a third of the flights were delayed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, according to FlightAware, and nearly half of the…
At least 28 dead, two rescued in fiery aircraft crash in South Korea, Yonhap reports
At least 28 dead, two rescued in fiery aircraft crash in South Korea, Yonhap reports Audio By Carbonatix SEOUL (Reuters) – At least 28 people were killed when an airliner went off the runway and slammed into a wall at South Korea’s Muan International Airport on Sunday, Yonhap news agency reported. The accident occurred as Jeju Air flight 7C2216, carrying 175 passengers and six crew on a flight from the Thai capital Bangkok, was landing at the airport in the…
Israel strikes Yemeni airport. The head of the World Health Organization was there. “Slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit.”
The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he was going to survive an air strike carried out by Israel a day earlier during a series of attacks on the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. Speaking after his ordeal at the Sanaa International Airport on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the explosions that rocked the building were so deafening that his ears were still ringing more than a day later. Tedros said it quickly…
Footage shows New York inmate beaten by guards before death
NEW YORK – Law enforcement in the US state of New York on Dec 27 released “devastating” footage of prison guards beating a Black inmate shortly before he died. The body-worn camera footage, recorded the night of Dec 9, shows Robert Brooks, 43, brutalised by multiple prison guards, with his face bloodied and neck held. Brooks, an inmate at a northern New York prison serving a 12-year sentence for assault, was pronounced dead later that night. Ms Letitia James, the…
Vanguard reaches deal with US bank regulator over control of bank stakes
Vanguard reaches deal with US bank regulator over control of bank stakes (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said on Friday it has struck a passivity agreement with Vanguard, to help the regulator better monitor the money manager’s interests in large banks. According to the deal, Vanguard is strictly prohibited from engaging in activities that influence the management or policies of institutions regulated by the FDIC, or their subsidiaries. Through “passivity agreements,” investors commit to regulators that they…
Vanguard strikes deal with FDIC over huge holdings in US banks, agrees to new oversight of its investments in some US lenders
Vanguard has bowed to regulatory pressure and agreed to new oversight of its investments in some US lenders, a decision that could have sweeping implications for money managers and banks. The deal, which the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp disclosed on Friday, will allow Vanguard’s funds to continue to be huge shareholders in a wide swath of the country’s banks while also increasing the watchdog’s supervisory power over the $10tn money manager. Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street have amassed large…