Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

The European Union Times


Posted: 01 Feb 2016 02:58 PM PST

Eighty Swiss banks have agreed to pay the US fines totaling $1.36 billion in order to avoid court prosecution, according to the US Justice Department.
After the investigation has been completed all the banks are required to cooperate in related criminal or civil proceedings, said the department.
The US Justice Department began its Swiss Bank Program in 2013. It provided a way for Swiss banks to admit tax-related criminal offenses in connection with the US.
Under the program, the banks were obliged to disclose cross-border activities and provide detailed information on accounts in which US taxpayers have interests. The financial institutions under investigation also had to close accounts of US tax evaders.
The banks have managed to avoid a trial, with those already facing criminal charges excluded from the program.
The US started its tax avoidance push in 2009 after UBS Group confirmed it held accounts of Americans evading tax. The US government managed to recover $13 billion in unreported wealth.
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Posted: 01 Feb 2016 02:32 PM PST

Microsoft’s Bing technology has called Iowa for Hillary Clinton, a result that has not gone unnoticed amongst Bernie Sanders supporters given that an app created by Microsoft will help tally the vote during tonight’s caucus.
Using, “data from polls, prediction markets, and anonymized and aggregated search-engine queries to predict its results,” Microsoft forecasts that Hillary will win three out of the first four Democratic primaries, taking Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, with Sanders taking New Hampshire.
Although the technology isn’t perfect, Microsoft correctly predicted the outcome of the 2015 Academy Awards, the ‘No’ vote for Scottish independence, and the outcome of more than 95 percent of the 2014 U.S. midterm elections.
That track record is causing consternation amongst some Bernie Sanders supporters, who have pointed out a potential conflict of interest given that precinct officials will be using an app created by Microsoft to report caucus results.
Last week, Pete D’Alessandro, who is running Sanders’ Iowa campaign, questioned the impartiality of the app, telling MSNBC, “You’d have to ask yourself why they’d want to give something like that away for free.”
Some fear that hackers could penetrate the cloud network on which the app runs in order to skew the vote.
“Closed source technologies from companies like Microsoft could, in theory, contain backdoors or vulnerabilities that hackers and evildoers could exploit. Even worse, Microsoft or its employees could purposely alter voting software to influence outcomes,” writes Brian Fagioli.
Both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns have built independent reporting systems based on the Microsoft app.
Microsoft has numerous ties to the Clintons, the most notable being Mark Penn, once described as Hillary’s “pollster, chief strategist and message guru all wrapped into one.”
Up until June last year, Penn was also Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corporation. In 2014, Penn created an ad campaign that Time’s Laura Stampler speculated was a, “slick, subliminal and one-hundred percent free endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.”
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Posted: 01 Feb 2016 02:10 PM PST

Tim Leissner, chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia’s operations, has taken a “personal leave” amidst corruption scandals associated with Malaysia’s state-owned 1MDB fund, with which Goldman worked closely.
President of Goldman’s Singapore operations since 2006 and chairman of its Southeast Asia operations since 2014, Leissner oversaw the bank’s operations in Malaysia, where it became the top international bank with a 20.3 percent market share since 2010.
Leissner was seen as a “key player” in cultivating the bank’s very profitable relationships with Kuala’ Lumpur’s banking and government elite, including Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Financial Times reports.
Goldman worked on Malaysian mergers and acquisitions worth a total of $18.8 billion over the last five years, but it is the bank’s involvement with the state-owned investment and development company, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), that has attracted scrutiny.
A number of investigations into 1MDB’s activities are being carried out in various countries, prompted by claims of corruption involving Razak, who chairs 1MDB.
Switzerland’s chief prosecutor, Attorney General Michael Lauber, said in a statement on Friday that he has asked for Malaysia’s help in investigating possible violations of Swiss law by 1MDB, Reuters reported. The suspected misappropriations reportedly amount to $4 billion and concern “bribery of foreign officials, misconduct in public office, money laundering and criminal mismanagement.”
It was discovered this week that Leissner has moved from Singapore to his Los Angeles home, calling it a “personal leave,” Bloomberg reports.
Goldman orchestrated the $6.5 billion sale of three 1MDB bonds in 2012 and 2013, from which the bank earned $593 million in fees and expenses. The deal has raised questions, as such fees in Malaysia are usually much lower.
It has since emerged that Razak received a $681 million “donation” to his personal bank account, which his opponents say is linked to the deal.
The results of an investigation into the matter by Malaysian Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali, who was appointed by Razak in 2015, were published this week, but found no wrongdoing.
The probe found that the money had come from a Saudi Arabian royal family and that $620 million was returned within the following five months. There was no indication in the report as to what happened to the unaccounted for $61 million.
State agencies in Hong Kong and the United States are also investigating other deals involving 1MDB.
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Posted: 01 Feb 2016 02:00 PM PST

The German government is set to spend €600 million euros housing migrants in upmarket Berlin hotels at a cost of 18,000 per “refugee,” while the city’s 10,000 homeless population will remain on the streets.
According to a Frankfurter Allgemeine report, “The Berlin Senate is negotiating with a hotel chain over the longer-term leasing of 10,000 hotel places for refugees.” Grand City Hotels will provide 22 hotels which will include Holiday Inn and Wyndham properties.
The 10,000 figure is noteworthy given that it equates to the homeless population of Berlin.
The cost for each migrant will be €50 euros a night for the hotel accommodation or €18,000 euros per year and will include an “all inclusive” program of care and integration.
“Since the Senate has reportedly interested in a multi-year term of the lease, it would amount to a volume of at least €600 million euros,” a source told the newspaper. A Senate spokesperson expressed surprise that Frankfurter Allgemeine had uncovered details of the secret plan, remarking, “That’s not public.”
The deal is attractive to the hotel chain because the government would guarantee an occupancy rate of 95% compared to the usual figure of 60 to 65 per cent.
80,000 asylum seekers arrived in Berlin alone last year, part of the 1.1 million that flooded into Germany, a figure eight times Berlin’s homeless population.
In other words, Berlin could have completely solved its homeless problem eight times over yet will instead use taxpayer money to fund accommodation for non-Germans flooding in from the Middle East and north Africa.
Critics allege that the deal is wide open to corruption and abuse because it was conducted secretly via no-bid contracts.
Authorities in Berlin have already confiscated 50 gymnasiums as well as office and bank buildings to house migrants arriving in the city.
The issue is only likely to increase public opposition to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open border policy. During demonstrations in Neubrandenburg, protesters jeered and booed Merkel.

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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 19:30