It was in 2014, in Sochi, shortly after Russian-backed terrorists in Eastern Ukraine shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that Formula One granted Russian President Vladimir Putin a unique privilege: at the first Formula One race in Russia in modern times, he was allowed to go into the cool-down room and to talk to drivers, teams and officials. He had had special treatment throughout: drivers were required to come to the front of the grid and to stand for the Russian national anthem and he sat, in pride of place, next to the then undisputed boss of F1, Bernie Ecclestone. But the world didn't really care about one plane from a minor nation far away from the centres of commerce, industry...
US President Biden has signed a new Executive Order Blocking Property Of Certain Persons And Prohibiting Certain Transactions With Respect To Continued Russian Efforts To Undermine The Sovereignty And Territorial Integrity Of Ukraine (the capitals are exactly how the US department of the Treasury wrote this in its notice).
OFAC has issued Ukraine General License (sic) Numbers 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
Today, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has issued a loan of just under 6.5 million euros to a company that buys bad and doubtful debt from banks. It's a token amount in the great scheme of things. The big question is what comes next?
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development began life as a combination lender and aid agency to help bring relatively poor areas in the EU up to standards in the more well off areas. It funded bridges and drainage, hospitals and schools and it was good. It has no money other than what it raises from "donors" which is a fictitious term meaning member states which, of course, means EU taxpayers.
What is it spending money on now? Let's just say that it's not good and if you are a taxpayer in the EU, it's your money. The EBRD itself says that 35% of the money it spends comes from EU coffers. As you will see, more comes direct from member states.
Stacey Shaw was the President and Chief Executive Officer of a credit union in a small American town, Beaver, Pennsylvania. It was called The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 712, Federal Credit Union.
She systematically embezzled funds to the extent that there was so little money left it had to close.
A Los Angeles man was sentenced this week to 240 months in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that raised at least USD650 million with bogus claims that investor money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films that HBO and Netflix purportedly had agreed to distribute abroad.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) has today withdrawn charges against Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited (Citigroup), Deutsche Bank AG and four senior banking executives.
Stefan Cassella, principal of Asset Forfeiture Law LLC in the USA has produced a fascinating list of cases in which the USA, at a federal level, has used civil forfeiture in relation to proceeds of criminal conduct and assets used in the commission of offences. Many of the cases are in rem. The USA is not the only country to pursue such assets but it is unusually active in the use of in rem (i.e. against the asset compared with against the person) actions in doing so. The list demonstrates an extraordinary range of criminal conduct and of assets forfeited (isn't that a much better description than "recovered"?)
It is difficult to understand just how morally bankrupt the world has become. Some may blame "the internet" but that's just stupid. It's users that are dangerous and or manipulative. When a mail arrives from "Kidnapping" and a headline of "Your wife looks easy" it is already threatening.
Read the mail below but be aware that it's an advert, not a demand. It's racist and ironic (you'll see why as you read it).
