Episode 183 -- Review of the Deutsche Bank FCPA and Spoofing Fraud Case
Compliance into the Weeds: Deutsche Bank Fined Over Epstein Accounts
Daily Compliance News: March 3, 2020, the Devil’s Advocate edition
As universally expected, the Fed’s Open Market Committee delivered its third interest rate cut of 2019 yesterday, though it did so while signaling that it’s likely to pause before taking action again and “is now shifting into...more
The announcement itself isn’t a shock, but given the potential players, it’s headline-worthy anyway: the DOJ announced yesterday that it’s officially opening an antitrust probe into Big Tech companies and “whether they had...more
OPEC nations met yesterday and agreed to continue their production cutting goals into 2020 in an effort to, according to the experts, “prop[] up prices while demand for oil is weakening”....more
The US and China agreed to resume trade talks after a 7-week hiatus, “averting for now an escalation of their multibillion-dollar tariff war that has roiled global markets and threatened the future of the world’s two largest...more
Opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics, which just last week agreed to pay $225 million to “settle a federal investigation into the marketing practices for its powerful fentanyl painkiller,” has filed for bankruptcy...more
The US’s ongoing trade war with China—which just isn’t going away any time soon—has prompted the White House to propose a new “$16 billion bailout for farmers hurt by Beijing’s tariffs.” At the same time, leaders from both...more
Some continuing reaction to the potential end to the trade war between the US and China, through the lens of a Delaware lighting store [NYTimes] and US businesses far more broadly, who are grappling with the question of what...more
GE—still in streamlining mode—agreed yesterday to sell its biopharma business to Danaher (current CEO Larry’s Culp’s former company, btw) for a reported $21.4 billion in the form of $21 billion in cash and $400 million in...more
With the phrase “humiliating defeat” being bandied about quite freely by opposition leaders and Tory backbenchers alike, PM May delayed a parliamentary vote for her EU-backed Brexit plan that had been set for today. The...more
The Fed released minutes from its November meeting yesterday, and they reinforced the expected December rate hike while showing a more uncertain path for hikes in 2019....more
Dealbook gives us this uncomfortable take on China’s “nuclear option” in the trade war with the United States—its holdings of more than $1 trillion in US foreign debt and the possibility of stepping back from buying (or even...more
Honda is joining forces with General Motors in an effort to win the race to develop self-driving cars through a $750 million stake in GM’s Cruise Holdings autonomous vehicle unit. The Japanese carmaker plans to contribute a...more
Hard to imagine that any financial news could come close to making headlines on Thursday, and yet, the SEC and Elon Musk came close. Specifically, the SEC filed suit against Musk, accusing him of “making false public...more
Last Friday, the White House asked the SEC to “consider eliminating requirements that publicly traded companies post quarterly earnings reports.” Such disclosures, however, are required by federal securities law, so they’re...more
The Journal is breaking news this morning that American Express has been raising forex prices on customers for years “without notifying customers in a bid to boost revenue and employee commissions”....more
Fiat Chrysler chief Sergio Marchionne has died at age 66, three weeks after suffering complications after shoulder surgery. Marchionne took over Fiat in 2004 and engineered its takeover of Chrysler in 2009, returning the...more
New York’s Department of Financial Services has reached an agreement with Deutsche Bank that will see the German firm pay $205 million as part of a settlement to resolve state banking law violations over its Forex operations....more
Now to be fair, Starbucks Executive Chair Howard Schultz has stepped away before. But this time feels more definitive, especially with the call of politics apparently swimming around in his post-Sbux plans....more
An early look at the reaction from allies Canada, Mexico, and the EU to this week’s announcement from the White House that it was moving forward with steel and aluminum tariffs against these US trading partners....more
We got an official first look at the Fed’s revised Volcker Rule yesterday, and the “sweeping plan to soften” the rule will open “the door for banks to resume some trading activities restricted as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank...more
The latest from the Redstone/CBS dispute, with news late yesterday that even as Shari Redstone is “moving to block CBS Corp.’s efforts to strip her family of voting control”, a Delaware judge has temporarily blocked her from...more
Not an ideal report on the state of affairs for Zelle, the big banks’ payment-platform answer to Venmo. The Times reports that the “same features that make Zelle so useful for customers, its speed and ubiquity, have made it...more
The White House has chosen Columbia University economist Richard Clarida as Fed Vice Chair—the number 2 spot at the central bank. Clarida is a “monetary policy scholar” and former Bush II administration Treasury official....more
Some analysis of Friday’s less-than-booming jobs report – NYTimes and Bloomberg And a look at Fed Chair Powell’s first major remarks on the state of the economy and the potential effects a trade war would have on the Fed’s...more
China’s latest response to the White House’s aluminum and steel tariff plans came in the form of a no-joke April 1 announcement of its own tariffs of roughly $3 billion in 128 U.S.-made products ranging from pork to wine and...more