Good morning. The U.S. quietly unsealed criminal cases against two former officials at Venezuela’s state oil monopoly this month as part of what American officials say is a new round of charges and sanctions against a Maduro government they accuse of systemic corruption, narcotrafficking and stealing billions of dollars in state funds. Prosecutors have also charged a businessman associated with the subsidiary of the company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA), that the officials worked for.

Some of the actions have been delayed in part by the coronavirus pandemic. But senior U.S. officials say they are part of a Trump administration effort to double down on its pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro’s government after failing to deliver on its primary goal of ousting the regime.

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Federal prosecutors in Miami, New York and Washington, D.C., are targeting what they allege is vast corruption in the country’s beleaguered petroleum sector and currency markets, state-aided narcotrafficking, and money-laundering through Venezuela’s military-run emergency food program.

They have charged dozens of defendants—many of whom have pleaded guilty in U.S. courts—and are continuing to probe alleged bribery and money laundering involving joint ventures with PdVSA, according to court documents and people familiar with the matter.

The palm oil industry’s sustainability certifier has for the first time been asked to review allegations that one of its member companies paid bribes to cover up the improper use of protected forest land in Indonesia. The bribery and land-use claims against Golden Agri-Resources Ltd., one of Indonesia’s largest palm oil producers and a supplier in recent years to Kellogg, Unilever, Nestlé and others, is under review by the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, an organization comprising producers, buyers and environmental groups.

The allegations underscore ongoing challenges faced by consumer food and retail companies, and their suppliers, as they work to root out environmental, labor and human rights issues throughout their supply chains, especially as investors pay closer attention to how companies manage these issues.

A group of Democratic U.S. senators is calling on the European Union to impose economic pressure on a Russian businessman and certain businesses over concerns of potential foreign interference as the U.S. presidential election nears. The senators urged the EU in a March 12 letter to step up economic isolation of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch with alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Wagner Group, a Russian security company that the senators say is tied to Mr. Prigozhin.

“We know that Mr. Prigozhin and his associated firms remain actively engaged in spreading malign influence,” wrote the senators. They said concerns about potential threats weren’t limited to the U.S. and asked the EU to take steps to constrain Mr. Prigozhin and companies they say are connected to him that “pose a threat to western security interests and to our democratic institutions.” Mr. Prigozhin was blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018 for alleged involvement in interference with U.S. elections.

Facebook employees were aware that the company was overestimating how many people advertisers could reach, according to an amended complaint filed in a nearly two-year-old lawsuit accusing the company of misrepresenting that data.

“This is a lawsuit waiting to happen,” a Facebook product manager wrote to colleagues in October 2018, regarding the company’s alleged overstatements, according to the amended complaint filed Thursday. The emails were produced as part of the discovery process in the lawsuit, which is seeking class-action status and was originally filed by a small-business owner in federal court in San Francisco in 2018.

• President Trump continued to resist calls to use a federal wartime law to mandate the production of additional medical supplies because he said he is concerned about nationalizing American businesses, as governors and health officials face shortages of masks, ventilators and other crucial equipment. “We’re a country not based on nationalizing our business,” Mr. Trump said at a press briefing on Sunday. “The concept of nationalizing our businesses is not a good concept.”
   
• The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority warned the pharmaceutical and food-and-drink industries against exploiting customers amid the spread of the new coronavirus and said it is creating a new task force aimed at monitoring corporate behavior. The regulator said it has received reports that some firms in the sectors are charging unjustifiably high prices for essential goods and items, and are even making misleading claims around their efficacy.
   
• With casinos closed and many Americans confined to home, the online gambling industry is seeking to expand in the U.S. An industry trade group, iDevelopment & Economic Association, is pushing states to allow online casino games to replace disappearing revenue from temporarily closed casinos, including exploring how governors can use wide emergency powers to quickly allow online casinos to operate, leaders of the group said.
   
• Light-touch regulation on U.S. employers is widely seen as a cornerstone of U.S. businesses’ dynamism. But economists say one trade-off is a risk of wider coronavirus transmission than in countries that provide sick leave to more workers.
   
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped his opposition to PG&E's plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection after striking a deal requiring certain concessions from the company. As part of the deal, PG&E has agreed to put itself up for sale if it can’t obtain court approval of its bankruptcy exit plan by June 30, a state-imposed deadline if it wants to qualify for a state wildfire fund.
   
• The board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances said a push to restructure $35 billion in debt would be paused indefinitely as the U.S. territory struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus.

• The coronavirus pandemic is taking the bottom out of the car market at a time when Nissan Motor is gearing up for a restructuring plan, retrenching in major markets and cooperating more with its biggest shareholder, Renault of France. “The timing is terrible for them,” said Christopher Richter, a Tokyo-based analyst with CLSA. “It’s going to be like crossing a tightrope with a swamp full of alligators beneath you.”
   
• The new coronavirus’s spread in America has prompted corporations to close offices, factories and stores, sending tens of millions of people home, where a swath of the workforce—from customer-service representatives to chief executive officers—have had to figure out new ways to work.
   
• The pandemic is reshaping global airfreight operations as passenger airlines ground planes and companies scramble for capacity to keep medical supplies, industrial parts and high-demand consumer goods moving. Some airlines are putting passenger planes to work as freight-only aircraft, with main cabins empty and cargo holds filled with shipments. The tactic provides some revenue for carriers hit hard by plunging travel demand and may help ease freight bottlenecks caused by cascading cancellations of passenger services, which has dramatically reduced capacity for goods traveling in the bellies of planes.
   
• More companies are trying to get into the mask-making business, as hospitals and public officials scrounge for protective gear for medical workers confronting the coronavirus pandemic. A Texas businessman, a company that makes pee pads for pets in Virginia and a longtime medical-supply executive in New York are all buying machines or retooling production lines to make medical-grade face masks. However, the new entrants are facing the same problem as established mask makers: shortages of key supplies and equipment.

The crisis from the economic slowdown is most acute for the smallest businesses, which tend to operate on thinner profit margins and with smaller cash reserves. They employ about 60 million Americans, or nearly half the private workforce. With fewer dollars coming in, small businesses have hard decisions to make about whether to pay rent, workers or bills from their supply chain, said William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business.

Meanwhile, dozens of large companies so far have extended pay and benefits to workers whose livelihoods are affected by the virus.

The fallout from the pandemic is expected to have a significant negative impact on U.S. economic prospects, with predictions emerging for losses of up to five million jobs this year and a drop in economic output of as much as $1.5 trillion.

Occidental Petroleum is nearing a truce with Carl Icahn that would conclude one of the highest-profile corporate clashes of the past year and usher the activist investor into the embattled oil producer’s boardroom as it seeks to recover from a series of setbacks.

Andrew Langham and Nicholas Graziano, two lieutenants of the billionaire investor, would receive seats on Occidental’s board under the terms currently being discussed, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Icahn and the company would also mutually agree on a third, independent director, who is likely to be Herbalife Nutrition board member Margarita Paláu-Hernández, some of the people said.

As part of the deal, Mr. Icahn would also bless Occidental’s plan to bring back Stephen Chazen, its former chief executive, as chairman, as The Wall Street Journal reported. Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub, who has come under fire from Mr. Icahn, is expected to retain her position.

• Some WeWork directors are gearing up to fight SoftBank Group’s move to back away from part of its bailout of the shared-office provider, presaging what could be a fierce internal battle just as the startup grapples with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Independent WeWork board members have spent recent days weighing their options, including legal remedies, after SoftBank indicated it would back out of a deal to spend up to $3 billion to buy shares from the company’s investors and employees.
   
• MGM Resorts International has picked Bill Hornbuckle, the company’s president and chief operating officer, to take over as acting chief executive as the global casino operator responds to widespread closures of its properties amid the coronavirus pandemic.
   
• Goldman Sachs Chief Executive David Solomon got a 19% raise in 2019, a message likely to resonate poorly among traders and bankers who saw their own bonuses cut and who are facing a long period of economic uncertainty.
   
• Temporary succession planning could become a more pressing issue in the coming weeks, as companies prepare for the possibility of executive absences related to the coronavirus pandemic, governance experts say.