|
The Morning Risk Report: U.S. Charges Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro With Drug Trafficking
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaking at a news conference in Caracas on March 12. PHOTO: MANAURE QUINTERO/REUTERS
|
|
|
Good morning. U.S. authorities charged Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with drug trafficking and offered a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest, in a sweeping set of actions that target more than a dozen current and former Venezuelan officials and escalate the Trump administration’s effort to unseat the leftist regime.
Prosecutors unsealed a series of criminal cases in New York, Florida and Washington on Thursday that they described as the product of a decadelong investigation and accused Mr. Maduro and others of coordinating with a Colombian drug-trafficking guerilla group to flood the U.S. with tons of cocaine for the past 20 years.
[Continued below...]
|
|
|
Attorney General William Barr described the Venezuelan regime as “plagued by criminality and corruption,” saying that it was dominated by a “system constructed and controlled to enrich those at the highest levels of the government.” He spoke at a Thursday press conference held online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In another case, filed in federal court in Miami, prosecutors accused the sitting chief justice of Venezuela’s Supreme Court, Maikel José Moreno Pérez, with taking millions of dollars in bribes related to cases he was overseeing and spending the funds on luxury goods and real estate in southern Florida.
|
|
|
|
|
Damage from a missile attack inside Ain al-Assad air base in Anbar province, Iraq, in January. Hostilities have escalated between Tehran and Washington.
PHOTO: STR/SHUTTERSTOCK
|
|
|
The Trump administration levied another round of sanctions against Iran, targeting 20 companies, officials and business executives it says have helped U.S.-designated terror groups attack American forces in Iraq.
The action follows a series of deadly strikes by Iranian-backed forces in Iraq in an escalation of hostilities between Tehran and Washington, and comes as the administration faces increasing pressure to ease its sanctions campaign while Iran struggles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
The administration also has cut its latest waiver allowing Iraq to import Iranian gas and electricity to 30 days, dialing up pressure on the government in Baghdad to cut back its ties to Iran as low oil prices push it to the brink of an economic crisis.
|
|
|
|
Companies and auditors are grappling with logistical hurdles in adhering to reporting deadlines and completing site visits.
PHOTO: CHARLES PLATIAU/REUTERS
|
|
|
Regulators are continuing to ease up on rules and enforcement in an effort to offer companies a bit of relief against the backdrop of the coronavirus.
In the U.K., the Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Reporting Council and Prudential Regulation Authority announced a series of measures Thursday to ease the burden of financial reporting, including an extra two months for listed companies to publish audited annual financial reports and guidance for auditors grappling with new uncertainties.
In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency said it doesn’t expect to seek penalties for some civil environmental rule violations caused by the coronavirus pandemic. That applies to “routine monitoring and reporting obligations,” the agency said, calling the move a temporary policy.
Meanwhile, U.S. financial regulators stressed the importance of keeping financial markets open during the coronavirus pandemic, though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin didn’t rule out limiting trading hours.
|
|
|
-
The Trump administration is moving ahead with new restrictions aimed at cutting off Chinese telecom-equipment maker Huawei Technologies from one of its main suppliers of advanced semiconductors, according to people familiar with the situation.
-
Defense lawyers representing parents charged in the nationwide college-admissions scandal have filed a motion seeking to dismiss the cases or suppress the government’s centerpiece evidence: the tapes between mastermind William “Rick” Singer and the parents who hired him.
|
|
|
|
Stanley Sporkin said, ‘Good ethical common sense will give you the right answer every time.’
PHOTO: CHRIS KLEPONIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
Stanley Sporkin forced changes in corporate behavior in the 1970s as a crusading enforcement chief at the Securities and Exchange Commission who cracked down on bribery of foreign officials.
Mr. Sporkin, who died of congestive heart failure Monday at the age of 88, didn’t accept the typical excuses for bribery—that “everybody does it” or “it’s the only way to win contracts overseas.”
When he became the SEC’s enforcement chief in 1974, Mr. Sporkin led a probe into slush funds. His investigators found evidence that Exxon, Lockheed, 3M and hundreds of others had made questionable payments overseas. The findings spurred Congress to pass the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, barring companies from paying foreign officials to win business.
|
|
|
|
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, after the rate-cut announcement March 3 in Washington, D.C.
PHOTO: ERIC BARADAT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
Singapore said it was bracing for what could be its deepest-ever recession, while European data showed tumbling business and consumer confidence, as evidence mounted that the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic was getting worse.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy “may well be in a recession,” but that the central bank is taking unprecedented action to help ensure economic activity can resume as soon as the coronavirus pandemic is under control.
A record 3.28 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the new coronavirus hit the U.S. economy, marking an abrupt end to the nation’s historic, decadelong run of job growth. As the outbreak upends the job market, health-care companies, convenience stores and meal-kit makers are looking to hire.
Meanwhile, more than two months after imposing quarantines to counter the coronavirus, China is getting back to work. Yet many Chinese factories find demand for their products has evaporated. Consumers in China and elsewhere are reluctant to spend over worries about what they have lost and what lies ahead.
|
|
|
-
The world-wide spread of the new coronavirus is throwing into disarray studies critical to the development of promising new medicines.
-
Among this year’s planned cutbacks for consumers amid the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic: no new iPhones. The question of consumer demand looms large for Apple as it prepares to unveil a new low-price iPhone model.
-
ViacomCBS’s parent company is losing some of its ability to borrow money at a time when its key revenue drivers—movie theaters, new film releases and live-sports broadcasts from the CBS network—have ground to a halt because of the novel coronavirus.
|
|
|
|
Container ship operator Ocean Network Express is expecting decreased demand as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
PHOTO: KRISZTIAN BOCSI/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
Container ship operators that canceled more than half their sailings to China, as coronavirus-driven restrictions froze work at its ports last month, are bracing for a second wave of disruption. Now that China has resumed exporting, shipping companies expect thousands of shipments to be stranded at seaports as the pandemic engulfs the U.S. and Europe.
“In China we had a supply shock, a production shortage from closed factories and reduced truck numbers,” said Jeremy Nixon, chief executive of Japan’s Ocean Network Express, the world’s sixth biggest container carrier by capacity. “Now we are looking at a demand side shock which is impacting North America and Europe by the sudden lockdowns of cities.”
|
|
|
-
For nursing homes, the new coronavirus is a double-whammy, hitting not just vulnerable elderly residents, but already-stretched staffs, putting heavy pressure on their operations as workers are forced to stay home because of potential infection.
-
New York told nursing-home operators that they will be required to accept patients infected with the new coronavirus who are discharged from hospitals but may be still convalescing, amid more cases in the state that are straining the health-care system.
-
The Navy confronted a mounting crisis at sea as at least 23 sailors aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, defense officials said.
|
|
|
|
Facebook said its new board member will begin immediately.
PHOTO: THOMAS WHITE/REUTERS
|
|
|
Facebook’s board suffered another surprise departure with the exit of Jeffrey D. Zients, leading to an almost complete shake-up of the directors overseeing the social-media giant.
Facebook said Mr. Zients wouldn’t seek reelection after joining the board in 2018 as an independent director. He will be succeeded by Robert Kimmitt, a lawyer and former deputy secretary to the Department of the Treasury during the George W. Bush Administration, the company said.
Mr. Zients was generally aligned with Kenneth Chenault, another Facebook board member who recently gave up his seat, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Mr. Chenault resigned from Facebook’s board following disagreements with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and others at Facebook. They differed over governance at the company and policies around political discourse.
|
|
|
|
An Oyo hotel in Tokyo. Some hotel operators that signed on to Oyo’s network didn’t register promised booking levels, leaving Oyo on the hook to make up the difference.
PHOTO: TORU HANAI/BLOOMBERG NEWS
|
|
|
-
Oyo Hotels and Homes, which built itself into the world’s second-biggest hotel chain by total number of rooms, is phasing out an important tool that fueled its rise—the practice of offering independent hotel owners guaranteed revenues if their hotels join Oyo’s chain.
-
With millions of Americans stuck at home, dealers and auto makers are giving their online car-selling operations a push in an effort to salvage some business as vehicle sales collapse and customers forgo service work and repairs.
-
New York manufacturers are stepping up to address a shortage of protective medical equipment needed to treat coronavirus patients.
|
|
|
|
Police officers in Hong Kong last month. Tensions have continued between protesters and the police in the city.
PHOTO: KIN CHEUNG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
Authorities arrested an elected opposition politician under a British colonial-era anti-sedition law after she shared a Facebook post containing personal information of a police officer who allegedly shot a journalist, as recriminations continue from the protests that swept the city for more than half a year.
|
|
|
|
|