Category: Business

Starting in the mid-20th century, companies began distorting and manipulating science to favor specific commercial interests. Big tobacco is both the developer and the poster child of this strategy. When strong evidence that smoking caused lung cancer emerged in the 1950s, the tobacco industry began a campaign to obscure this fact. The Unmaking of Science The tobacco industry scientific disinformation campaign sought to disrupt and delay further studies, as well as to cast scientific doubt on the link between cigarette…

ALBANY – Alphabet’s Google violated US labour law by refusing to bargain with a union representing contract workers for YouTube Music, a federal agency has ruled. The National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) in a decision on Jan 3 rejected claims by Google, which owns YouTube, that it should not be considered the employer of workers provided by staffing firm Cognizant Technology Solutions. The group of YouTube Music content operation workers voted 41-0 in April 2023 to join the Alphabet Workers…

Court documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are expected to be released soon with many names that were previously redacted, and prominent figures on the right are holding up the impending disclosures as evidence of wrongdoing by Democrats despite a lack of concrete information about what they will show. Most of the names being made public – currently cited as John Does – have previously been identified in other court documents or in news reports as having been associated…

HONG KONG – ByteDance’s TikTok aims to grow the size of its US e-commerce business tenfold to as much as US$17.5 billion (S$23.3 billion) in 2024, according to people familiar with the matter, posing a bigger threat to Amazon.com. The 2024 merchandise volume goal for the US version of TikTok Shop – which melds online entertainment with impulse buying – was discussed in internal meetings in recent weeks and may still change depending on how the business goes, said the…

NEW YORK – Mr Nikesh Arora has repeatedly succeeded in winning big pay cheques. At Google, he became the firm’s highest-paid executive after getting a compensation package worth about US$51 million in 2012, and collected stock awards worth at least US$200 million by the time he left. Poached in 2014 by SoftBank Group’s Mr Masayoshi Son – and touted as the legendary investor’s likely successor – he amassed a US$135 million first-year compensation package that broke Japanese records and made…

The United Kingdom (“UK”) introduced new sanctions against Russia on December 14, 2023 with the European Union (“EU”) also adopting its 12th package of sanctions against Russia on December 18, 2023. The latest UK restrictions include: Import and related restrictions on further categories of iron and steel goods, as well a wide range of additional metals such as aluminium. New import and related restrictions on Russian diamonds or diamond jewellery. Clarification and expansion of payment processing restrictions for parties targeted…

Attorneys for the Securities and Exchange Commission apologized to a judge on Thursday for misrepresenting facts used to secure a restraining order and asset freeze against a crypto firm. In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court of Utah, in response to the judge’s order to show cause for its misstep, the SEC attorneys wrote that the commission “deeply regrets these orders” and promised to conduct mandatory training for staff members involved in the investigation. “I fully appreciate the…

NEW YORK – The US dollar is poised for its worst year since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as Wall Street bets the Federal Reserve is set to lower interest-rates after safely reining in prices. After being whipsawed by false starts calling for the end of the Fed’s rate hiking regime, a Bloomberg gauge of the greenback is down nearly 3 per cent since January in the steepest annual drop for the US currency since 2020. In line with…

NEW YORK – Terraform Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will head to trial in January, with Jump Trading swept up in the mix, after a judge ruled that the SEC’s fraud case against Terraform must be tried by a jury. US District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled in favour of the regulator on Dec 28, agreeing that Terraform is liable for selling unregistered securities, though he threw out allegations that it had made transactions in unregistered…

Five years since the legalization of cannabis in Canada, the industry finds itself grappling with significant challenges. Despite making economic contributions on par with the dairy sector and marking its presence on the global stage, primarily in the medical cannabis export market, this promising industry is hindered by financial strains, murky advocacy, and unyielding regulations. Excise Tax: A Thorn in the Side A primary issue, raised during a recent industry gathering in Toronto, is the hefty excise tax, which critics…

Record-Breaking Cash Withdrawals in the UK Reflect Enduring Relevance of Physical Currency December 22, 2023, saw a record-breaking spree in the United Kingdom when more than £62 million was withdrawn from Post Offices, surpassing the previous year’s high of £51.5 million. This surge was attributed to last-minute Christmas shopping and preparation for cash gifts. The magnified reliance on cash during the festive season underscores the continued significance of physical currency in daily transactions and budgeting amid the prevalent cost of…

WASHINGTON: The US will provide up to $250 million in arms and equipment to Ukraine in the final package of aid this year to help Kyiv in its war with Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday. President Joe Biden has asked Congress to provide another $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, but Republicans are refusing to approve the assistance without an agreement with Democrats to tighten security along the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House has warned that…

SINGAPORE – The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has imposed a $3.9 million civil penalty on Credit Suisse for its failure to prevent or detect misconduct by relationship managers (RMs) in its Singapore branch. Credit Suisse paid the penalty to the regulator immediately after it was imposed, and as part of the settlement, also separately compensated its affected clients, said MAS in a statement on Dec 28. The RMs had provided clients with inaccurate or incomplete post-trade disclosures, resulting in…

Latvia’s former central bank governor was sentenced to six years in prison for bribery on Wednesday after a trial over the most prominent of a series of recent financial scandals to hit the Baltic country. Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, head of the Latvian central bank from 2001 until 2019, was found guilty by the Riga district court of accepting bribes and a fishing trip to Russia from shareholders of a now defunct bank. He was sentenced to six years in jail and…

US Targets Foreign Banks with Sanctions to Curb Russia’s War Effort In a decisive stroke designed to undermine Russia’s military capabilities, US President Joe Biden has signed a far-reaching executive order targeting the financial sinews aiding Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. The order, enacted on December 22, 2023, sanctions foreign banks that allegedly support Russia’s defense sector, underscoring the US commitment to stymie Russia’s access to international financial networks and critical war supplies. The Financial Front of Warfare The latest…

SEOUL – South Korea’s financial watchdog has recommended imposing a fine of at least 10 billion won (S$10.24 million) each on HSBC Holdings and BNP Paribas for so-called naked short selling, which is considered illegal in the country, according to two people familiar with the matter.  The nation’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) made the recommendation to the Securities and Futures Commission under regulator Financial Services Commission (FSC), said the people, who requested anonymity discussing private matters.  Naked short selling is…