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The Morning Risk Report: Ex-Goldman Banker Settles SEC Ghana Bribery Case
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PHOTO: DAVID GRAY/REUTERS
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Good morning. A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker has settled a claim by U.S. regulators that he arranged for millions of dollars in bribes to be paid to government officials in Ghana to help a client win a power-plant contract.
Asante Berko, a former executive at Goldman’s London subsidiary, will pay about $329,000 to resolve the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s case without admitting or denying the regulator’s allegations, according to court filings. The penalty represents what regulators say are the net profits he gained as a result of the alleged bribery scheme, plus interest.
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“Mr. Berko is pleased to put this matter behind him,” said his lawyer, Carl Loewenson Jr., a partner at the law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP. The SEC and Goldman Sachs didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Berko was charged by the SEC in an April 2020 civil lawsuit with facilitating as much as $4.5 million in bribes to help a Turkish energy company win a contract to build the power plant in Ghana. He personally paid at least $66,000 to members of the Ghanaian parliament, according to the SEC’s lawsuit, which accused him of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
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Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said he has asked staff to consider updating rules on disclosure of large stakes in public companies.
PHOTO: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering speeding up the deadline for investors to alert the market when they amass an ownership stake of more than 5% of a company’s stock.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler on Wednesday said he has asked staff to consider updating those rules, which have been a point of contention for years between activist investors and public companies.
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John McAfee, the antivirus software pioneer who founded cybersecurity company McAfee, was found dead Wednesday in a jail cell in Spain, according to a statement from his attorney. A Spanish court earlier in the day ordered for the extradition of Mr. McAfee in connection with a federal criminal proceeding in Tennessee. Mr. McAfee had been detained in the country since October in connection with criminal charges filed in Tennessee by the Justice Department’s tax division.
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The Biden administration ousted the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency after the Supreme Court ruled it was structured unconstitutionally, dealing the latest blow to investors betting that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be returned to private hands after more than 12 years of government control.
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The Supreme Court also struck down a regulation giving union organizers the right to visit farmworkers on agricultural fields, and extended its protection of student speech to social media by ruling that a Pennsylvania school district overstepped its authority by punishing a high-school cheerleader who used a vulgar word on Snapchat when she didn’t make the varsity cheerleading team.
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Separately, a federal judge struck down a set of rules issued by the Trump administration that required immigrants seeking green cards through a federal investor visa program to spend more in the U.S. to qualify.
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A House committee approved far-reaching legislation to curb the market dominance of tech giants, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., but much of the effort faced intensive lobbying by affected firms that slowed the committee’s work and foreshadowed a pitched battle in the Senate.
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The Boy Scouts of America said it could drop a $650 million settlement with insurer Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. if the youth organization can’t break an impasse with sex-abuse victims opposed to the agreement.
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Elliot has argued for separating Glaxo’s vaccines arm and its HIV treatment unit into stand-alone companies, according to an investor contacted by the hedge fund.
PHOTO: FRANCOIS LO PRESTI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC pledged to accelerate growth and gave further details of the long-planned separation of its consumer-healthcare business, as it seeks to ward off a potential clash with activist investor Elliott Management Corp. Glaxo’s strategy has come under investor scrutiny lately after Elliott—known for waging forceful campaigns for change at various companies it has invested in—took a stake in the drugmaker.
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The U.S. could run out of room to keep paying the government’s bills some time during Congress’s August recess unless lawmakers raise or suspend the federal borrowing limit before then, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday. Congress in 2019 suspended the borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, through July 31, 2021. After that, the Treasury Department won’t be able to raise additional cash through the sale of government securities and would need to deploy emergency measures to keep paying the government’s obligations, as it has in the past.
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Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s defiant pro-democracy newspaper that drew the ire of China’s leaders, said it would print its final issue Thursday, ending an era of unfettered reporting critical of Beijing in the city’s mainstream print scene. The 26-year-old newspaper, which is majority owned by jailed Beijing critic Jimmy Lai, has come under immense pressure from Hong Kong authorities, who in the past week froze company assets, seized journalists’ computers and charged two of its top executives under a national-security law that was imposed by Beijing last year to crush dissent in the city.
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Warren Buffett, with Bill Gates in 2017, had served as a trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2006. PHOTO: NATI HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Warren Buffett is stepping down as a trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation less than two months after the couple said they planned to divorce, as the multibillion-dollar charity looks to reshape its leadership structure.
People familiar with the matter said Mr. Buffett’s decision to step down is tied to the foundation’s plans to strengthen its governance and add more independence. Messrs. Buffett and Gates are longtime friends. Together with Ms. French Gates, they were the foundation’s three trustees. Unlike most large charitable groups, the foundation doesn’t have a board of directors or outside trustees.
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Morgan Stanley headquarters in New York. PHOTO: JEENAH MOON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Morgan Stanley has told its employees they must get Covid-19 vaccines before returning to its New York offices.
Staff are required to disclose their vaccination status to the bank by July 1, the Wall Street firm said in a memo to employees. Starting July 12, employees, contingent workers, clients and visitors will be required to confirm that they have been vaccinated before entering Morgan Stanley buildings in New York City and Westchester County.
Unvaccinated employees will work remotely, a person familiar with the matter said. At a conference last week, Chief Executive James Gorman said that well over 90% of employees in its offices had been vaccinated.
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A Peacock event last year. Mr. Roberts wants NBCUniversal to be more aggressive with the streaming app. PHOTO: PETER KRAMER/PEACOCK/NBCU PHOTO BANK/GETTY IMAGES
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Comcast Corp. chief executive Brian Roberts built a colossus, branching out from cable and broadband into entertainment with the acquisition of NBCUniversal a decade ago. Now, he has to prove the company is equipped to compete amid a dramatic industry shift to streaming.
Mr. Roberts is out to show Wall Street that Comcast’s marriage of content and distribution puts it in a strong position to fight on two different fronts of the streaming wars. He has greenlighted new spending and partnerships meant to answer concerns from some investors and analysts that the company has been too timid to be a major streaming contender.
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