|
The Morning Risk Report: Treasury Unveils New Rules for Foreign Investors in U.S. Businesses
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The new rules stem from a 2018 law prompted by congressional concerns about U.S. companies being acquired by Chinese interests. PHOTO: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
|
|
|
Good morning. The Treasury Department announced new rules for foreign investors who will need clearance from a panel of national security experts before putting their money into U.S. businesses. The rules mark one of the last steps of tougher restrictions called for by congressional leaders concerned that foreign investors could get access to personal data or American technology used by the U.S. military.
The new rules, unveiled Monday, require that some foreign investors disclose their proposed acquisitions to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. That includes transactions in which foreign governments are buying sizable stakes in businesses that operate in the telecom, energy or transportation industries or that handle sensitive personal data, such as health, genetic testing or geolocation information.
[Continued below...]
|
|
|
|
The regulations were called for in a 2018 law approved by lawmakers concerned that the acquisition of U.S. companies by Chinese interests could pose risks to national security, including purchases of stakes in companies involved in satellites, oil refineries, financial-market systems and drinking water utilities.
Investors whose deals fall outside of the panel’s scope of mandatory reviews may still voluntarily disclose the deals to avoid regulatory scrutiny later. Under the law, failing to disclose investments could trigger fines. Treasury officials will put the rules into place on Feb. 13.
|
|
|
|
South Korean Company Settles Spoofing Charges
|
|
South Korean investment bank Mirae Asset Daewoo Co. on Monday agreed to pay $700,000 to settle charges that a trader at a company it acquired manipulated futures contracts.
The unnamed trader placed numerous orders for a type of futures contract that allows bets on the direction of the S&P 500 Index, with the intent to cancel the orders before execution, an illegal practice known as spoofing, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.
The CFTC credited Mirae in the settlement for its cooperation with the agency's investigation, saying it had awarded the company a reduced civil fine. Mirae acquired Daewoo Securities Co., where the trader worked, from the Korea Development Bank in 2016. Mirae neither admitted nor denied the alleged misconduct.
The CFTC has stepped up spoofing-related investigations, increasing its coordination with federal prosecutors and announcing charges last year against two former traders and a former executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
—Dylan Tokar
|
|
|
|
Lawmaker Luis Parra speaking during his contested swearing-in as leader of Venezuela's National Assembly on Jan. 5 in Caracas. PHOTO: MANAURE QUINTERO/REUTERS
|
|
|
-
The Trump administration on Monday blacklisted seven Venezuelan officials involved in a chaotic play for control of the country's legislature aimed at cementing President Nicolás Maduro’s hold on all levers of power. The U.S. Treasury Department levied sanctions against the lawmakers, saying they helped Mr. Maduro try to take control of the legislature away from its Washington-backed leader, Juan Guaidó, on Jan. 5.
-
Hackers believed to be affiliated with Russia’s military breached the Ukrainian gas company where former Vice President Joe Biden’s son had served on the board as it became a focus of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, according to a U.S. cybersecurity firm.
-
Attorney General William Barr called the December attack by a Saudi aviation student that killed three people at a Florida Navy base an act of terrorism, escalating pressure on Apple to help unlock a pair of the gunman’s iPhones that could provide more information about his radicalization.
-
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on South Sudan’s first vice president, after adding two government ministers to its blacklist in December, accusing them of perpetuating a conflict between the country's warring factions. Washington signaled its frustration in November when the State Department temporarily recalled the U.S. ambassador and said South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s government was no longer suitable to continue leading the country’s peace process.
-
India’s antitrust watchdog ordered a probe into whether Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart have violated competition laws, New Delhi’s latest move to try to rein in American tech giants that dominate its burgeoning internet economy. The investigation launched by the Competition Commission of India Monday said it would focus on allegations that the U.S. titans promote “preferred sellers” of goods on their platforms, which may have hurt smaller rivals.
-
Greg Kelly, the man Carlos Ghosn left behind to face charges of financial crimes alone, says his own case will suffer without his one-time boss. Mr. Kelly had expected Mr. Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, to speak in his defense against Japanese charges he tried to hide tens of millions of dollars in Mr. Ghosn’s compensation. With Mr. Ghosn gone, Mr. Kelly, a former senior executive at the company, says his trial will be adversely affected.
-
A former senior U.S. Treasury Department official pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to give a reporter sensitive financial information about former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and others connected to the president. Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, a former employee at the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, was arrested in October 2018. Federal prosecutors charged her with one count of unauthorized disclosure of “suspicious activity reports,” known as SARs, filed to FinCEN by banks, and one count of conspiracy.
|
|
|
|
Mr. Trump with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in the Oval Office in October. PHOTO: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
-
U.S. talks with China to complete a first-stage trade deal had hit an impasse around Thanksgiving, raising fears a nascent accord would collapse again—and with it, hope for a halt to the nearly two-year-old trade war. About two weeks later, both sides announced the compromise set to be signed at a White House ceremony Wednesday. Here's how the U.S. and China ended up settling on a trade deal neither wanted.
-
The S&P 500 clinched another record Monday as geopolitical tensions remained in check and investors looked ahead to the start of earnings season. The U.S. and China have said they plan to sign a phase-one trade deal Wednesday, helping to defuse tensions that have roiled global markets for two years. The countries also have agreed to semiannual talks to resolve disputes, and the U.S. Treasury Department will
drop its designation of China as a currency manipulator.
-
Boston Fed leader Eric Rosengren warned that the biggest risks the economy faces after last year’s rate cuts are from higher inflation and financial-stability problems driven by very low borrowing costs, although he added these risks are mostly theoretical right now. While there are both positive and negative risks facing what appears to be a solid outlook, Mr. Rosengren said, “I see the potential risks to inflation and financial stability as somewhat more concerning, overall.”
-
In China the wheels are coming off the world’s biggest auto market after decades of blistering growth, as a prolonged and unprecedented sales slump partly induced by policy changes closes thousands of dealerships, idles factories and weighs on an already slowing economy. In Tangshan, a city of about 7.6 million in the country’s north known for its steel producers and heavy industry, around five of the 30 dealerships in the Lunan Car Culture Industrial Park have closed in the past year, dealers said.
|
|
|
|
Away co-founder Steph Korey at a gala in New York last year. PHOTO: DIA DIPASUPIL/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
A month after she said she would step down as chief executive of online luggage seller Away, Steph Korey now says she is keeping her job.
Ms. Korey, who resigned in December after an article in the Verge criticized her management style as harsh, said she and her presumptive successor will be co-CEOs of the New York-based startup. She was previously going to become executive chairman.
In a message Monday to employees that was provided by Away, Ms. Korey, who is in her early 30s, said the initial decision to reshuffle the leadership ranks was an attempt to protect the company after the article “unleashed a social media mob.” She told the New York Times it was a mistake to “let some inaccurate reporting influence the timeline of a transition plan that we had.”
The episode highlights the rising power of employees to put pressure on leaders whose behavior they don’t like, and the potential perils for companies that respond quickly and forcefully to the criticism and ensuing backlash.
|
|
|
-
Employees in G/O Media’s editorial union urged the company’s private-equity owners to replace G/O Chief Executive Jim Spanfeller in a letter Monday, saying a change in leadership was required to improve the performance of the publisher of Jezebel, Gizmodo and Lifehacker. The letter addressed to G/O Media owner Great Hill Partners said Mr. Spanfeller’s leadership has resulted in decreased web traffic and increased turnover among employees.
|
|
|
|
Walmart is laying off managers in India as it invests more in developing e-commerce and delivery technology. Above, a Walmart Best Price wholesale store in Hyderabad, India. PHOTO: DHIRAJ SINGH/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
Walmart has laid off more than 50 of its managers in India as it pivots to business-to-business e-commerce to take on Amazon and other rivals in the South Asian nation.
Walmart said Monday that it let go of 56 managers—eight of whom were senior—as it reorganizes operations of its more than 25 Best Price wholesale outlets in India.
India’s restrictions on foreign investment in retail have kept Walmart from selling directly to consumers there for decades through stores so it set up wholesale stores. Growth has been slow but Walmart bought one of India’s largest e-commerce companies, Flipkart Group, for $16 billion in 2018 to turbocharge its expansion.
|
|
|
|
|
|