|
The Morning Risk Report: Companies Closely Watching U.S. Sanctions on Turkey
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smoke billows from targets in Syria on Wednesday after bombardment by Turkish forces. PHOTO: CAVIT OZGUL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
Good morning. Companies conducting business in Turkey are bracing for more possible restrictions and lost revenue in the wake of President Trump’s authorization of new sanctions on the country, in a move that could further complicate compliance as geopolitical tensions grow, Risk & Compliance Journal's Mengqi Sun reports.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday levied sanctions against Turkey’s Defense, Interior and Energy ministers and the Ministry of National Defence and Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. The U.S. also warned that any individuals or entities engaging with them risk being blacklisted as well, including banks losing access to dollar markets.
[Continued below...]
|
|
|
Although the initial designations, which aim to stop Ankara’s incursion into Syria, are limited, the executive order signed by President Trump authorizes the U.S. Treasury Department to issue a broad range of sanctions. That could pose more significant consequences to multinational companies, especially if the Treasury imposes more sanctions on Turkish government bodies, industries, companies and individuals, according to sanctions lawyers.
“This is a major G-20 economy,” said Adam M. Smith, a sanctions lawyer at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. “So long as you’re going after jurisdictions that big and integrated, the knockoff effect of the consequence will be broad,” he said.
|
|
|
|
|
The charges against Halkbank are the latest flashpoint in a high-profile yearslong U.S. Justice Department investigation into sanctions evasions and international corruption involving the bank. PHOTO: NICOLE TUNG/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
-
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Turkish state-owned lender Halkbank with a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran, ramping up pressure on Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he conducts a military offensive on Syria. Prosecutors say some Turkish and Iranian government officials received payouts of tens of millions of dollars in exchange for promoting and helping conceal the alleged scheme, which occurred between 2012 and 2016.
-
The U.K.'s antitrust watchdog has launched a formal probe into Amazon's investment in Deliveroo, a food-delivery startup, marking the official start of a relatively novel review that regulators signaled earlier this month. The regulator could block the deal if it finds the companies have breached antitrust rules. The probe is the latest in Europe amid a flurry of regulatory moves—and heightened scrutiny—targeting technology companies.
-
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has extended the implementation deadline for several accounting standards, giving many U.S. companies additional time to prepare. The accounting standard-setter on Wednesday approved its proposals for companies—mostly private businesses and nonprofits—that haven’t yet had to implement new rules on lease and hedge accounting.
-
With its bitcoin-like payments system libra, Facebook promised to change payments world-wide. Instead, partners bolted after lawmakers and regulators challenged its plans, an early sign of how Washington is putting the social-media giant on a tight leash.
-
Johnson & Johnson has offered to pay about $4 billion to settle all lawsuits in the U.S. accusing the company of contributing to the opioid-addiction epidemic, according to people familiar with the matter. If completed, the deal would resolve more than 2,000 lawsuits by state and local governments alleging J&J’s marketing of pain drugs, including Duragesic and Nucynta, fueled the opioid crisis. J&J sold the U.S. rights to Nucynta to another company in 2015.
Also...
|
|
|
|
Events like the Hong Kong protests have given a voice to human-rights hawks exercised by China’s intolerance of democracy and dissent. PHOTO: JORGE SILVA/REUTERS
|
|
|
When President Trump first hit China with tariffs more than a year ago, he was pursuing narrowly defined, transactional goals: a smaller bilateral trade deficit and better treatment of U.S. companies inside China. But the trade war has since blossomed into a broader, deeper ideological conflict. Events in the last week show that the two economic superpowers, though reaching a truce in their trade war, are drifting closer to a new Cold War.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Bundesbank leader Jens Weidmann said that rising trade tensions around the world have the potential to slow growth markedly, in comments that also expressed continuing concern with the European Central Bank’s stimulus efforts.
“A full-blown trade war between the United States and the European Union could cost both sides dearly,” Mr. Weidmann said in a speech in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations.
|
|
|
-
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have stepped up efforts to protect the kingdom’s oil production, holding talks on connecting Saudi missile defenses to U.S. systems and investigating new antidrone technologies, after an attack last month knocked out half of the country’s crude production.
|
|
|
|
A hand-lettered notice last May at the door to a Baltimore city-government building referred to the impact of a ransomware attack. PHOTO: STEPHANIE KEITH/REUTERS
|
|
|
-
Officials in Baltimore approved the city’s purchase of $20 million in cyber-insurance coverage, five months after a debilitating ransomware attack. The decision Wednesday to buy specialized insurance comes as U.S. cities face a growing threat of hackers seizing municipal computer systems and demanding ransoms that can top $1 million. Baltimore, which didn’t previously have cyber insurance, has estimated the attack cost at least $18 million in recovery expenses and lost revenue.
-
Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment, reported accelerated revenue growth in the third quarter despite its U.S. export blacklisting. The results suggest the impact to Huawei’s core business from its addition to the U.S. Commerce Department’s entity list in May on national-security grounds has been limited. The blacklisting prevents companies from exporting to Huawei U.S.-sourced technology without a license.
-
The Supreme Court on Wednesday explored whether states can prosecute undocumented immigrants for identity theft when they provide false social security numbers or other information when applying for jobs.
|
|
|
|
LeBron James wasn’t the only Twitter user who thought Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong’s protesters was misinformed. There was a whole army of pro-China troll accounts that happened to agree.
A review of nearly 170,000 tweets, plus analysis from expert information warfare researchers, shows that Mr. Morey was the target of what appears to be a coordinated harassment campaign after his tweet on Oct. 4 set off an international furor and threatened the NBA’s future in the world’s most populous country.
In the 12 hours immediately after Mr. Morey’s tweet, the Houston Rockets general manager’s account was flooded with comments from pro-Chinese-government accounts that mentioned him more than 16,000 times, according to an analysis by Ben Nimmo, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.
|
|
|
|
GM’s union-represented workers must approve any labor deal by a simple majority. PHOTO: BILL PUGLIANO/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
The United Auto Workers struck a tentative labor deal with General Motors on Wednesday, a critical step in ending a monthlong strike that brought more than 30 GM factories in the U.S. to a standstill.
The UAW said the agreement, covering more than 46,000 union-represented workers at GM, achieves major gains for members but declined to provide specifics.
The nationwide strike, the company’s longest since 1970, will continue for now as union-hall leaders travel to Detroit to decide whether to end the walkout immediately or continue it until the contract is ratified by rank-and-file workers, a process that could take a week or two. That decision is expected to come Thursday.
|
|
|
-
Nestlé said it would overhaul its struggling bottled-water arm, hoping to reinvigorate growth in a business grappling with rising competition, high costs and growing concerns about single-use plastic.
|
|
|
|
|