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Senin, 02 Desember 2019

Exclusive: U.S. digs deeper into Deutsche role in Danske money laundering scandal - sources - Reuters

FRANKFURT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has in recent weeks stepped up its investigation into Deutsche Bank’s role in the 200 billion euro ($220 billion) Danske Bank money laundering scandal, four people familiar with the inquiry told Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Germany's Deutsche Bank are photographed in Frankfurt, Germany, July 8, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

One source said the DoJ’s new line of inquiry is whether Deutsche (DBKGn.DE) helped move tainted money from Danske(DANSKE.CO), Denmark’s largest lender, into the United States. If proven, that could lead to steep financial penalties.

Officials from the DoJ, who have been working closely with Estonian prosecutors for around a year, have also begun cooperating with Frankfurt state prosecutors, the sources said.

The Frankfurt prosecutors have been exploring Deutsche’s role in processing payments for the Danish bank.

The DoJ’s focus on Germany’s largest bank and its work with Frankfurt prosecutors have not previously been reported.

A Danske spokesman said it continued to cooperate with the authorities in Estonia, Denmark, France and the United States.

The DoJ and Frankfurt state prosecutors declined to comment on the U.S. investigation, which two sources told Reuters is due to be completed next year.

Deutsche Bank’s spokesman said it had significantly improved controls in recent years.

“We have repeatedly stressed that we are in a good and constructive exchange with the authorities,” he added.

Danske’s admission last year that suspicious payments totaling 200 billion euros from Russia and elsewhere flowed through its branch in Estonia has triggered worldwide probes.

The bulk of these payments were processed by Deutsche, sources have previously told Reuters.

Although the Justice Department requested information from Deutsche last year relating to Danske transactions, at the time its executives believed that the investigation was focused onDanske and that the German bank itself was not a target.

However, Deutsche officials were made aware in recent months that the scope of the DoJ probe had broadened to the bank’s role in facilitating the Danske trades and its possible failure to report suspicious transactions quickly enough, one of the people said.

Deutsche has already paid nearly $700 million in fines by New York and British regulators in a separate money laundering case involving $10 billion in so-called mirror trades from Russia, which the DoJ is still investigating.

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

U.S. investigators have spoken to current and former Deutsche compliance staff in the U.S. who raised concerns over possible suspect transactions with supervisors but were ignored, two people said, adding that some involved Danske.

Estonian prosecutors are sharing their findings on Danske, hoping they will share in the proceeds in the event of U.S. fines, four people said.

One source said Estonian prosecutors are examining more than ten transactions involving up to $2 billion of suspect criminal funds in total. Reuters could not ascertain the details of those deals.

Deutsche alerted Germany’s money laundering data authority and state prosecutors in February to more than one million suspect money transfers, two people said, five years after a whistleblower raised the alarm at Danske.

Washington and Frankfurt are now asking what led to the delay and whether there were lapses as some of the contested money transfers, which were earlier singled out by compliance staff, are among those Deutsche later flagged, two people said.

Slideshow (3 Images)

Frankfurt prosecutors have also questioned Sylvie Matherat, Deutsche’s former top official in charge of anti-moneylaundering and the highest ranking of ten Deutsche bankers and executives they have interviewed.

Matherat, who left Deutsche this year, and the others were interviewed as witnesses whose first-hand knowledge is being drawn on to form an overall picture, the person said.

Matherat declined to comment. A Deutsche spokesman confirmed she had been interviewed as a witness.

Editing by Alexander Smith

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-12-02 06:09:00Z
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China's factory activity expands at quickest pace in almost three years - Fox Business

Gatestone Institute senior fellow and China analyst Gordon Chang discusses China-related headlines from intellectual property to the Hong Kong human rights bill.

China's factory activity unexpectedly expanded at the quickest pace in almost three years in November, with solid increases in output and new orders, a private business survey showed on Monday.

But business confidence slipped and companies were reluctant to replenish their inventories, worried about the uncertain outlook for demand and the prolonged China-U.S. trade war.

The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) index rose to 51.8 in November from 51.7 in the previous month. That marked the fastest expansion since December 2016, when it was 51.9.

The 50-mark separates expansion from contraction on a monthly basis. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a dip to 51.4.

Zhengsheng Zhong, director of macroeconomic analysis at CEBM Group, noted both domestic and overseas demand rose in November.

"Manufacturing investment may be lingering near a recent bottom," Zhang wrote in a release accompanying the data.

"If trade negotiations between China and the U.S. can progress in the next phase and business confidence can be repaired effectively, manufacturing production and investment is likely to see a solid improvement," he said.

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China's official factory activity gauge on Saturday also surprised, returning to growth for the first time in seven months as domestic demand picked up in response to stimulus measures. But gains were slight and export orders sluggish.

The official survey focuses more on heavy industry than Caixin's, which is believed to include firms that are more export oriented. The two surveys also cover different geographical areas.

The Caixin survey showed total new orders and factory production remained at buoyant levels in November, although they both eased slightly from record highs in the previous month, when they grew the fastest in over six years and nearly three years, respectively.

The sub-index for new export orders came in at 51, marginally below that in October, when it was the highest since February 2018.

Resilience in the sector led to a notable recovery in the labor market in the month, with companies adding workers

for the first time in eight months.

However, profit margins remained under pressure, with input costs continuing to rise while output charges fell, suggesting some firms are still cutting their prices due to fierce competition for sales.

MORE STIMULUS NEEDED?

The Chinese government has been trying to spur domestic demand for well over a year, largely through higher infrastructure spending and tax cuts, but the measures have been slow to gain traction.

Economic growth cooled to a near 30-year low of 6.0 percent in the third quarter and some analysts warn it could fall into the high 5 percent range in the current quarter.

To help avert a sharper slowdown, China has brought forward 1 trillion yuan ($142.07 billion) of the 2020 local government special bond quota to this year. The bonds are used largely to fund public works.

While China has cut some of its key lending rates in the last few months to reduce corporate financing costs, the reductions have been quite modest. Analysts believe policymakers are reluctant to unleash more aggressive stimulus out of concern it could heighten financial risks and add to a mountain of debt.

A central bank official said on Friday China has room to ease monetary policy further, but authorities should not be careless in how they use such stimulus options, reinforcing its cautious stance.

TRADE UNCERTAINTIES

Washington and Beijing said in October they were working on a "phase one" trade agreement, but initial market hopes for a quick deal are fading after weeks of conflicting headlines.

A deal could slide into next year as Beijing presses for more extensive tariff rollbacks, and the Trump administration counters with heightened demands of its own.

U.S. President Donald Trump said last week the United States and China were close to an agreement. Additional U.S. duties on Chinese exports are set to kick in on Dec. 15.

But months of protests in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong have also exacerbated tensions.

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A trade deal has now stalled after the U.S. passed legislation backing protesters in Hong Kong, news website Axios reported on Sunday, citing a source close to Trump's negotiating team.

(Reporting by Yawen Chen and Kevin Yao; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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2019-12-02 05:23:43Z
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Minggu, 01 Desember 2019

Two storms leave 50 million under winter alert as travelers return from Thanksgiving - CNN

Airlines have delayed flights across the country on what is expected to be the busiest travel day in the US. American, Delta and other airlines issued travel waivers for those who want to cancel or change their plans.

A winter storm that has pounded the Upper Midwest with heavy snow is shifting over to the Northeast, where it will dump more snow mixed with freezing rain, the National Weather Service said.

Many roads in Duluth, Minnesota, are "extremely treacherous" or impassable, the National Weather Service said.

Blizzard-like conditions will finish off the holiday weekend in the Great Lakes region, the weather service said, while up to 12 inches of snow may cover parts of the Dakotas to Michigan, it said.

By Tuesday, parts of the Northeast will see up to a foot of snow, the service said. New York will see up to 2 inches of snowfall each hour on Sunday and Monday, it said, making for dangerous roads as the snow piles on. Downed trees and power lines are also possible.

Meanwhile, rain will stretch from coastal areas in the Northeast to farther south where it will be accompanied by thunderstorms and strong wind gusts, the weather service said.

"A cold front will be positioned from central Ohio, arcing eastward near the Appalachians, then south-southwestward into the Florida Panhandle," it said. Thunderstorms are possible along that front, it said.

Rain and wind in California

Across the country, a storm in the West Coast will continue to drench California through Monday, while parts of the state in higher elevations will see snow.

"Some flooding is possible in parts of Northern California, especially for areas with burn scars," the weather service said. "Meanwhile, the Sierra Nevada could see snow measured in feet."

In parts of Southern California, about 10,000 customers were in the dark, Southern California Edison said. The utility said the outage was storm-related, after winds and snow topped trees downed wires.

"No Wi-Fi, no electricity, so it's like we're back in the 1800s," Fabrice Vignati who was in Crestline --- a little more than 70 miles east of Los Angeles -- told CNN affiliate KTLA.

The company said it would be passing out firewood to affected residents with the help of authorities.

The storm will linger over the state through Tuesday, the weather service said.

Sunday, expected to be a historically busy day for US airlines, will see an anticipated 3.1 million passengers, according to Airlines for America, an airline trade organization. A record 31.6 million passengers were forecast to travel on US airlines during the Thanksgiving holiday period, up 3.7% from last year.

But by early Sunday morning, more than 150 flights had been delayed, according to FlightAware.com. Travel impacts are expected to last through Monday, the weather service said.

Delta Airlines announced weather waivers for 16 cities in the Upper Midwest on Saturday, and 22 cities in the Northeast for Sunday and Monday, including airports in Boston and the New York area.

American Airlines issued waivers for passengers traveling Sunday and Monday on flights to and from New York's John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports as well as Newark and the airline's hub in Philadelphia. Other cities in the American Airlines announcement include Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Toronto, Canada.

CNN's Faith Karimi and Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

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2019-12-01 14:26:00Z
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Two storms leave 50 million under winter alert as travelers return from Thanksgiving - CNN