(MENAFN) On Monday, December 28, the Central Bank of Brazil stated that, Brazilian financial analysts maintained their economic expansion forecast for this year at 4.4 percent, but raised their expansion expectations for next year from 3.46 percent to 3.49 percent. .
Analysts kept expected inflation for this year at 4.39 percent, but lowered their inflation forecasts for the next year from 3.37 percent to 3.34 percent, said the bank’s weekly survey of Brazil’s leading financial institutions.
The inflation forecast fell within the government’s objective rate of 4 percent this year and 3.75 percent next year, with a tolerance margin of 1.5 percentage points up or down.
The estimate for the benchmark interest rate, which is currently 2 percent year-on-year, is revised upward, from 3 percent to 3.13 percent for next year.
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(CBS DETROIT) – Dozens of cars lined the parking lot of the Detroit Leadership Academy on Wednesday as people patiently waited for life’s most important food.
“More people are having a hard time now than usual, so collectors just want everyone to know that we are here to provide for individuals and families who are experiencing difficulties and need food and groceries,” TJ Robinson, Gleaners Community Food Bank, field supervisor.
Since Christmas is only two days away, eating something is on the top wish list for many metro-Detroit families.
“Whether you know groceries for their kids or just to get through the week or maybe for the holidays, there are a lot of people who are actually going through this kind of situation now more than ever,” Robinson.
This is a commitment Gleaners Community Good Bank is committed to and they work to provide that need to thousands of families every week in southeastern Michigan.
“Some of our sites we do up to 500 households or more, so there really is a need in the community for this type of project,” said Robinson.
More than 40 pounds of fresh, frozen and dried goods are provided for families at emergency food distribution sites to ensure no one goes hungry during holidays and all year round.
“We know what we do and what we provide to the community and it really does you know lift our spirits and help us you understand the community and where we are together as one,” said Robinson.
For distribution times and locations, visit GCFB.org.
MILANO (Reuters) – Italy’s Banca Ifis appointed Frederik Geertman to take over as chief executive from April after current CEO Luciano Colombini announced his intention to step down, the bank said on Monday.
The Italian bank said the changes, agreed with the controlling shareholder of La Scogliera, were needed to accelerate the bank’s growth and digitization process following the COVID-19 outbreak.
Colombini was appointed chief executive of Banca Ifis in 2019.
Frederik Geertman is deputy general manager and commercial director of the Italian bank UBI Banca and he has previously worked for ten years at UniCredit, Banca Ifis said in a statement.
Reporting by Elisa Anzolin; editing by James Mackenzie
Russian national Alexander Vinnik was found guilty of laundering money through the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e and now faces extradition to the United States. Photo / Getty Images
Arrested while on vacation in Greece in 2017, Russian national Alexander Vinnik carried out extradition to the United States and France for three years. The appeal was dropped and the 41-year-old was put on trial in France where he was convicted of money laundering via the Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange. However, his legal tribulation is far from over. The US still wants to extradite him on serious criminal charges, while $ 140 million is frozen in New Zealand bank accounts. Jared Savage Report.
A Russian “computer genius” with $ 140 million frozen in bank funds in New Zealand has been convicted of money laundering in France.
Alexander Vinnik was arrested while on vacation in Greece in 2017 and extradited to France this year, where he is on trial for laundering millions of Euros for cybercriminals and extortion from cyber-hacking attacks.
Prosecutors have accused the 41-year-old of being the creator of the notorious Locky ransomware; e-mailbox disguised as an invoice, once opened, activates malware that shuts down users’ computers.
A message will appear on the hacked computer with instructions to pay a ransom in Bitcoin cryptocurrency to regain control of the machine.
Vinnik is accused of making 135 million Euros from the fraud. While a French court acquitted Vinnik as the mastermind behind the Locky attack, according to overseas media reports, he was found guilty of laundering money extorted from the ransomware hack.
The laundering is carried out via BTC-e, one of the largest and most widely used cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
Described by his legal team as a “computer genius” who was persecuted because he threatened the international banking system, Vinnik said he was a BTC-e employee and not the one responsible.
But his conviction in France will raise the likelihood of $ 140 million in funds being withheld by New Zealand police investigators, because disclosed by the Herald in June, confiscated as the proceeds of a crime.
Vinnik was sentenced to five years in prison in France, and now faces the possibility of being extradited to the United States on further charges related to BTC-e, where at least $ 4 billion in Bitcoin was traded on a “high level of anonymity”.
While the Bitcoin exchange is completely legal, prosecutors from the US Department of Justice accused Vinnik of creating a customer base for BTC-e that “relies heavily on criminals” by not asking users to validate their identities, obfuscating and anonymizing transactions and their sources of funds, and having no anti-process. money laundering.
Thus, the extradition order accuses Vinnik of being responsible for BTC-e receiving criminal proceeds from computer hacking by cybercriminals, ransomware fraud, identity theft schemes, corrupt public officials, tax fraud and drug networks.
Alexander Vinnik, center, escorted by Greek police after his arrest while on vacation in 2017.Photo / Getty Images
According to the unsealed US indictment, BTC-e has a base of operations in the Seychelles Islands and its web domain is registered with shell companies in, among others, Singapore, the British Virgin Islands and New Zealand.
Company Office records show Vinnik registered the business, WME Capital Management Ltd, to a North Shore address in 2008. It was removed from the list in 2012, because the Corporate Office thought the business had ceased operations.
The initials “WME” have also appeared in US indictments, because Vinnik is suspected of operating a “WME” account on BTC-e.
The web domain for the Bitcoin exchange is registered with several other companies registered in New Zealand, which have teamed up with the police’s Asset Recovery unit to recover alleged criminal proceeds linked to Vinnik.
About $ 140 million in offshore bank accounts controlled by New Zealand-registered companies have been withdrawn back to New Zealand, where the funds have been held under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.
“New Zealand police have been working closely with the United States Internal Revenue Service to address this very serious offense,” Police Commissioner Andy Coster said in June.
“This fund is likely to reflect the gains made from the sacrifice of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people around the world as a result of cybercrime and organized crime.”
Coster said given the global nature of money laundering there was always a risk that New Zealand companies would get involved inadvertently.
“However, these restraint show that New Zealand is not, and will not be, a safe haven for the illegal proceeds resulting from crime in other parts of the world.
“The global criminal community needs to understand New Zealand’s financial system, and the companies that are set up here, are not places to try to hide illegal income.
“This detention order also demonstrates that New Zealand Police are actively conducting investigations with our international partners and that we have the expertise to investigate money laundering at the most serious level.”
Russian national Alexander Vinnik was found guilty of laundering money through the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e and now faces extradition to the United States. Photo / Getty Images
Controlled bank funds of $ 140 million were by far the largest case taken under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act, nearly double the $ 70 million frozen in bank accounts linked to wealthy Chinese-Canadian mogul.
Cases taken under the law are determined by the level of civil evidence, the “balance of probability”, rather than the much higher “no doubt” threshold of criminal evidence.
To grant a detention order, a High Court judge must be convinced that there are “reasonable grounds” that a person has taken advantage of “significant criminal activity”.
Whether the confiscated assets are ultimately handed over to the Mahkota will be determined by a High Court judge, either through a trial or a potential settlement agreement.
The New Zealand police case will rely on evidence gathered by the United States, including allegations that Vinnik received funding from a notorious hack, or computer infiltration, of Mount Gox.
The early digital currency exchange, Japan-based Mt Gox finally collapsed, in part, due to losses from a hack in which several hundred million US dollars worth of bitcoins were stolen.
More than half of the stolen bitcoins were sent to three separate, but linked BTC-e accounts, including those allegedly controlled by Vinnik.
The suit against Vinnik is the latest example of police testing their power under the Criminal Proceeds (Remedies) Act, which came into effect in 2009.
In the past, laws were most often used to seize wealth amassed by gangs and drug dealers, but it has been pushed into new territory in recent years.
Brazilian financial market infrastructure player, B3, has signed up for the Genesis low code application platform.
Genesis says it has built the only low code platform designed entirely for the needs of the financial market, enabling fast product creation without having to write substantial lines of code.
B3 has performed due diligence on a low code platform as it seeks to help handle extremely complex multi-faceted post-trade workflows, safely at speed and scale.
It chose Genesis after it took the company just six weeks to provide a proof-of-concept view platform process and test millions of post-trade allocation messages in real time, in a secure, high-performance, low-latency and high-throughput environment.
Paulo D’Angelo, MD, B3, says: “As the industry grows and matures, Genesis LCAP provides the foundation and agility to handle the very specific requirements of the Brazilian market across the asset class market trading infrastructure.”
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