Tag: All Regions

TD Bank’s (TD.TO), opens new tab chief compliance officer has left the bank, according to a memo sent internally, at a time the Canadian lender faces U.S. regulators and the Justice Department in a probe related to its anti-money laundering program. Monica Kowal, who joined the bank in 2017, left the company this week, and will be replaced by Deputy Chief Compliance Officer Erin Morrow who will report to Chief Risk Officer Ajai Bambawale, according the memo sent in late June, seen by…

TD Bank (TD.TO), opens new tab said on Thursday Chief Global Anti-Money Laundering Officer Herbert Mazariegos is stepping down immediately, as the bank takes remediation actions after it was fined by U.S. regulators for compliance failures. Mazariegos joined TD in November 2023 from Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), opens new tab, where he served as the chief anti-money laundering officer for over four years. He was hired as part of TD’s push to revamp its risk and compliance team. Mazariegos, hired while outgoing CEO…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is operating without an acting director, multiple health officials confirm to CBS News, leaving the agency responsible for defending the U.S. against emerging pandemics and responding to health emergencies without a clear chain of command. A leadership vacuum atop the CDC is unprecedented. Under previous administrations, including the first term of President Trump, officials made sure either to immediately appoint their pick for the position or decide during the transition on whom would assume the top…

PARIS – A co-founder of French crypto company Ledger was released on Wednesday after being kidnapped from his home in France, the prosecutor’s office in Paris said. David Balland was kidnapped early on Tuesday morning at his home in central France and taken by car to another address where he was held captive, the prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday. The kidnappers demanded a “large ransom in cryptocurrency”, they said, without giving its size or saying whether it had…

A controversial gesture by Elon Musk has sparked further debate, with subplots now unfolding as the billionaire trolls Wikipedia and calls for its defunding. The tension arose after a description of Musk’s recent public action—interpreted by some as resembling a Hitler salute—was added to the online encyclopedia. The clash pits two prominent internet figures against each other: Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. The incident underscores the stark differences between Musk’s…

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg announced on Jan 23 that his foundation will step in to fund the UN climate change body after US President Donald Trump declared the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement for the second time. Mr Bloomberg’s intervention aims to ensure the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) remains fully funded, despite the US halting its contributions. The US typically provides 22 per cent of the UNFCCC secretariat’s budget, with the body’s operating costs…

The U.S. military is set to deploy an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. This includes 500 Marines, Army helicopter crews, and intelligence analysts, augmenting the 2,200 active-duty troops and National Guard members already present. The decision follows President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring illegal immigration a national emergency and directing the Pentagon to achieve “complete operational control of the southern border.” The troops will provide logistical support, such as assisting in deportation efforts by transporting detained immigrants…

SAO PAULO – A law passed by legislators in Brazil’s largest farm state Mato Grosso that changes the classification of endangered biomes inside state borders will likely weaken environmental protections there, according to climate activists. Under the new law, areas currently located in the Amazon biome could be converted into Cerrado areas based on the height of trees. That means that Mato Grosso properties sitting on the Amazon biome, which have to keep 80% of native vegetation as per Brazil’s…

The latest disintegration of a SpaceX test flight was a spectacular sight, as broken-up rocket parts streaked like jellyfish tendrils across the Caribbean sky Thursday evening. But some experts say focusing on that dazzling light show, as many people and media outlets did, highlights a lack of understanding of the environmental aftermath of these spacecraft failures. Moriba Jah, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas Austin, compares it to marvelling at the beauty of a nuclear bomb’s mushroom cloud. “Being mesmerized by…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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….

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…

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…