Karachi [Pakistan], April 11 (ANI): Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on saturday said that Imran KhanThe government stands on only seven votes. Speaking to the media in Karachi, Abbasi said, “Imran Khan and Usman Buzdarthe seat of power is in hand Jahangir Tareen, the government stands on the basis of only seven votes, “reports Geo News. The leader of the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) also told the Prime Minister Imran KhanThe government was in a weak position from the start.
He said that it was a surprise that a senior member of PTI (Jahangir Tareen) said that he was being cornered. “Jahangir Tareencandidacy in the case has nothing to do with sugar [crisis]. “ Abbasi, noting that several Pakistani lawmakers Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had attended a dinner reception hosted by Tareen the previous evening, said: “More than forty government officials attended. They expressed a lack of confidence in their own government,” he said. said. Fighting PTI support Jahangir Tareen and his son faced multiple cases, including multi-billion sugar scam, money laundering and fraud. The Lahore Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) investigative team registered a case of alleged fraud worth Rs 3.14 billion on March 22 against them, reports Geo News. The FIR stated that Jahangir Tareen allegedly transferred billions of rupees worth of illegal shares to Farooqi Pulp Mills Limited (FPML), which is owned by his son and close relative. (ANI)
Germany’s top financial regulator may need a culture change after its reputation was damaged in the aftermath of the accounting scandal, Mark Branson, who was asked by the government to overhaul it, told lawmakers behind closed doors.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee after being appointed as the next leader BaFin, Branson also said that complex companies with financial and non-financial businesses must be watched as a whole or there must be clarity. ring fence unit, according to someone familiar with the matter.
He refused to speak at length about BaFin, citing the need to develop an image for himself, the person said, asking not to be identified because the statement was not meant for the wider public. A BaFin spokesman declined to comment as did a spokesperson for Swiss regulators Finma, currently headed by Branson.
BaFin’s top leadership resigned earlier this year after a series of missteps at Wirecard AG The scandal destroys trust in Germany as a place to do business. BaFin does not investigate allegations of accounting fraud as strongly as journalists and shortellers point to irregularities. The ban on betting on Wirecard shares also suggests that BaFin and the German authorities want to protect the company.
“BaFin desperately needs a cultural change,” said Antje Tillmann, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, in an emailed statement. “BaFin needs to instill a culture of financial supervision, monitoring of accounts and monitoring of money laundering. The next President of BaFin will have sole role and responsibility in this regard. “
As a financial regulator, BaFin is only responsible for direct supervision of Wirecard’s banking unit, which means the rest of the company escapes surveillance. While German regulators have experienced another failure, the arrangement has limited its actions.
Germany is expanding BaFin’s powers and strengthening its presidential role to help prevent a repeat of the Wirecard scandal. The supervisor plans to hire more highly qualified professionals and establish a task force to carry out forensic investigations and investigate potential accounting fraud on their own, rather than relying on a separate authority.
Branson is scheduled to take over the leadership of BaFin in the middle of this year. The committee should hold a public meeting with Branson “soon” to discuss his views on how Germany’s financial surveillance system could be improved, according to Christian Democrat Matthias Hauer.
– With the help of Hugo Miller and Iain Rogers
(Updates with comments from MPs from the fifth paragraph.)
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks at a press conference on March 10.
Photographer: Victor Moriyama / Bloomberg
Photographer: Victor Moriyama / Bloomberg
The battle for Brazil’s top job is likely to take place between two men whose careers were made – or thought to have ended – by an anti-corruption investigation known as Car Wash Operation.
On March 10, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva denounced the investigation, declaring himself “the victim of the greatest legal lie in 500 years” in the nation’s history, before taking aim at his main rival and accusing current President Jair Bolsonaro of turning Brazil into a Covid and economic disaster. . Lula declined to say whether she would run for president next year. “Those are discussions for the future,” he told reporters.
But he didn’t have to. Two days earlier, a Supreme Court judge overturned a pair of corruption convictions that had placed Lula, a leftist who was Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010, behind bars and permanently barring him from elective office. Now a consensus is growing among investors, law scholars, and even potential opponents is that Lula might back live.
The decision is not final, and prosecutor Bolsonaro is already challenging it. But even the president admits that the call is unlikely to succeed and that a 2022 fight with Lula is a real possibility. Bolsonaro sees the left-wing Labor Party as his main enemy in next year’s elections, and he is not afraid to face Lula, according to close adviser Onyx Lorenzoni. “Lula will suffer the biggest defeat of her life in 2022,” Lorenzoni said in an interview at the presidential palace.
After the decision, the Brazilian real slumped as investors suspected that the prospect of competing for voters against Lula would see Bolsonaro, a hard-right populist, put aside his promises to fix ailing public finances. They worry that the candidates will promise more spending amid the prolonged fiscal crisis.
In her speech – her first public appearance since her sentence was canceled – Lula accused Bolsonaro of instigating one the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the world with a business-over-life attitude. The usually wary Bolsonaro in a mask appeared on television hours later with his face covered. “We have been and are tireless in fighting the pandemic,” he said.
Initial polls are mixed. (The campaign officially begins in the second half of 2022.) But veteran politicians say that given the political weight of the two men, there is now much less room for a third candidate, even though many voters have reservations. “Both Bolsonaro and Lula have a strong electoral base, which indicates polarization,” said Congressman and former Speaker of the House Rodrigo Maia. “At the same time, there was a huge opposition from the Labor Party and bolsonarism. “São Paulo’s governor João Doria, once seen as a major competitor, indicated that he may no longer be seeking the presidency. “Polarization is not going to bring Brazil any advantage,” he said in an interview.
As a former trade union member, Lula served in an era of relatively large numbers driven by a commodity boom and growing social programs. The subsequent economic downturn and allegations of corruption have left a lasting stain on him and his long-ruling Labor Party.
Lava Jato, or Washing car, born out of a 2014 investigation into money laundering at a gas station in the capital Brasilia. Prosecutors uncovered a network of bribes and illegal contracts centered on state oil giant Petrobras and ensnared some of Latin America’s most elite executives and leaders – including Lula. According to the Brazilian prosecutor’s office, hundreds were arrested and more than 4.3 billion reais ($ 770 million) of illicit funds found.
Bolsonaro may hope to sell himself as a clean candidate once again. Back in 2018, he was a political outsider who found a loophole when carwashing-related accusations ended Lula’s candidacy. But after years of shocking revelation about their leaders, analysts say, Brazilians are becoming jaded about corruption and much more worried about the pandemic. There are also many doubts about the true power of Bolsonaro himself to fight corruption. Perhaps most striking of all is him ends Car Wash, stated that last year there was no more corruption in the Brazilian government. The president’s office declined to comment on the Car Wash closure. But Geert Aalbers, a partner at Control Risks in Brazil, said there had been a setback in anti-corruption enforcement since Bolsonaro took office.
One of the biggest doubts about the Car Wash investigation is a shooting star judge Sergio Moro, who spearheaded the operation. He became Bolsonaro’s minister of justice in 2019. A series of hacked phone messages were published by Intercept demonstrated clear coordination between Moro and the case prosecutor, casting doubt on his methods and motivations. (Moro later quit the government and denied wrongdoing.)
In a March 8 verdict involving Lula, Chief Justice Edson Fachin cancel two beliefs corruption and money laundering (and two pending cases) on the grounds that they were tried in the wrong jurisdiction. Another case is pending. However, it is highly unlikely that the government can retry one of the country’s most high-profile cases and get two sentences before Election Day, and given the statute of limitations, 75-year-old Lula is likely to leave, said Michael Mohallem, a law professor at Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro.
The bigger concern, say legal experts and anti-draft activists, is that the Supreme Court will soon decide whether Moro is a biased judge. His fear is that there will be reasons to put away any faith that he once gained. This “could – and it is extreme – invalidate much of the conviction that Lava Jato has achieved over the past six or seven years,” said Aalbers. —With Marisa Wanzeller
BOTTOM LINE – Brazil’s Lula is likely to be free to run for president again next year. The prospect of a Lula-Bolsonaro race could deter other competitors and scare off investors.
Amid the aftermath of the money laundering scandal, Crown Resorts Australia CEO Ken Barton announced his resignation on Monday. Crown Resorts is accused of facilitating illegal activities at casinos in the cities of Melbourne and Perth.
Crown Resorts, Australia’s biggest games and entertainment group, was rocked by blistering reports about the company’s operations last week. The investigation, carried out by New South Wales supervisor Liquor and Gambling Authority, recommended that Crown Resorts not be granted permission to run a luxury casino tower on Sydney’s waterfront.
Barton shows ‘astonishing lack of attention’
Patricia Bergin, a retired judge who spearheaded the report, scoffed at the companies in the investigation, saying Crown Resorts had “bad corporate governance, insufficient risk management” and a “bad corporate culture.” Bergin said a series of reforms must be taken by the company in order to operate its planned casino tower in Sydney.
Bergin accused the Crown Resort of doing business with figures linked to the mafia and organized crime. He also claims Barton is unfit to serve as CEO of the company, saying he shows “a lack of concern” when dealing with allegations of money laundering at the company.
Barton has worked at Crown Resorts for more than a decade, and previously served as chief financial officer. Crown, Australia’s largest gambling and entertainment company, is majority owned by Australian billionaire James Packer.
Crown is taking steps to improve the company, the chairman said
Crown Chair Helen Coonan responded to the question, saying the company “is taking significant steps to improve our governance, compliance and culture.”
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (AUSTRAC) is the country’s premier financial intelligence agency working to tackle illegal activities such as money laundering and organized crime. AUSTRAC has previously urged casinos in Australia to do more against money laundering and to report suspicious activity to the agency.
Prosecutors suspended an investigation into the alleged involvement of Norwegian bank DNB in handling payments from an Icelandic fishing company involved in the bribery investigation.
A said on Friday that an investigation into his alleged involvement in handling payments from an Icelandic fishing company involved in the bribery investigation had been dropped.
The Norwegian National Authority for the Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, known as Okokrim, launched an investigation in November 2019 following the disposal of WikiLeaks data and the subsequent allegations made in the Icelandic media.
DNB said in a statement on Friday that it had been informed that the investigation had not yielded any information that provided a basis for criminal prosecution of the individual and that the public prosecutor did not think the company sentence was applicable in this case. “Because of that the case has been closed,” said DNB.
WikiLeaks published more than 30,000 documents called “Fish Files”, which show that the Icelandic fishing group Samherji hf has for years paid billions of dollars to Namibian officials for fishing quotas in the country’s waters.
Icelandic media later claimed that Samherji used DNB to funnel more than $ 70 million to a shell company in the Marshall Islands, part of the proceeds from his activities in Namibia.
Samherji said the figure was actually $ 28.9 million and related to fees for the crew but did not disclose which bank was used for the transaction.
“The dismissal of the case confirms that the allegations are pointless,” Samherji said in a statement on Friday. “Samherji is pleased with this result, because the company has always maintained that the allegations regarding Samherji’s affiliated transactions with DNB are baseless.”
