Category: Real Estate
Lead fund manager Gregoire Tournant in Allianz fraud case pleads guilty
The lead manager in a funds scandal that led to a $6bn settlement between Germany’s Allianz and US authorities has pleaded guilty to investment adviser fraud, two years after two other managers pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme. The scandal at one of its US asset management units rocked Allianz, one of the world’s biggest insurance groups, casting doubt over its control functions and triggering an apology from its chief executive. Gregoire Tournant pleaded guilty on Friday to…
Vietnamese real estate tycoon sentenced to death in $12B fraud case
A court in Vietnam on Thursday ordered the death penalty for a real estate tycoon found guilty in a financial fraud case totalling more than $12 billion US. Vietnamese state media called it the country’s largest-ever case of financial fraud. The conviction of Truong My Lan came amid a government anti-corruption crackdown by Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Lan started off selling cosmetics in a market stall with her mother in Ho Chi Minh City. When Vietnam liberalized…
US office vacancy rate nears 20% to set fresh record, Moody’s says
NEW YORK – US office vacancies hit a fresh peak in the first quarter as needs continue to evolve with hybrid work set-ups. Vacancies rose to a record 19.8 per cent, Moody’s Analytics said in a preliminary report on April 1, from 19.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023. Despite the increase, the firm said that the early data points to a stable quarter for commercial real estate. Tenants continue to downsize with the hybrid work model showing…
China examining PwC role in $105 billion Evergrande fraud case
SHANGHAI – The Chinese authorities are examining the role of PricewaterhouseCoopers in China Evergrande Group’s accounting practices after the developer was accused of a US$78 billion (S$105 billion) fraud, ramping up pressure on the global accounting giant that audited a slew of developers before the sector’s meltdown. The country’s securities regulator this week accused Evergrande’s main onshore subsidiary Hengda Real Estate Group of recognising sales in advance and massively overstating its revenue in the two years through 2020, prior to…
Real estate agents face an overdue reckoning
For too long, Americans have suffered from a convoluted property system that condemned them to pay some of the world’s highest commissions, up to 6 per cent on residential sales. The real estate agents’ lock on online listings drove up costs and combined with a shortage of affordable homes to shut all but the most affluent buyers out of the housing market. Class action lawyers get a bad rap, but last week they forced the National Association of Realtors to…
