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The Morning Risk Report: Businessman Joined Plot to Oust Maduro—and Escape Sanctions
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Raul Gorrín, seen here in 2013, was a key figure in the failed uprising in Venezuela, according to people familiar with the matter. PHOTO: EL NACIONAL/GDA/ZUMA PRESS
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Good morning. To tempt Venezuelan officials to turn on their president, opposition leaders turned to a Venezuelan businessman wanted in Florida for allegedly laundering billions of dollars for top regime figures. Raúl Gorrín, who amassed a fortune while forging alliances with figures in President Nicolás Maduro’s government, played a central role in an ill-fated scheme in April to push out Mr. Maduro, people familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Gorrín had a simple pitch when he met with regime figures: In exchange for helping opposition leaders unseat Mr. Maduro, U.S. officials would, as a quid pro quo, lift sanctions imposed on them for alleged corruption and rights abuses, these people said. They could then travel freely and access their money. The plan called for the top court to issue a decree shifting power from the president to the opposition-controlled National Assembly and its U.S.-backed leader, Juan Guaidó.
[Continued below...]
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The effort failed on April 30. In its aftermath, Mr. Maduro leveled rebellion charges against several lawmakers allied with Mr. Guaidó and arrested the vice president of congress. Weakened, the opposition has agreed to begin talks with the regime in Norway this week, though many opposition leaders accuse Mr. Maduro of using previous negotiations to buy time.
Despite the plot’s failure, U.S. officials and opposition leaders say American sanctions on more than 100 Venezuelan officials have succeeded in tempting regime insiders to engage with the opposition—leverage that they want to keep using. The sanctions bar officials from retrieving cash from U.S. banks or using properties in Florida, New York and elsewhere.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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Zimmer Biomet in 2017 settled investigations by the SEC and the Justice Department into alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. PHOTO: MORITZ HAGER/REUTERS
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A former orthopedic surgeon in Brazil received an award of more than $4.5 million for raising concerns to the Securities and Exchange Commission about an alleged kickback scheme operated by a subsidiary of a medical device maker, according to lawyers for the whistleblower.
The SEC announced the award Friday, but the regulator didn’t identify the company or the whistleblower. Lawyers representing the tipster identified the subsidiary’s parent company as device maker Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc., which in 2017 settled investigations by the SEC and the U.S. Department of Justice into alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Zimmer Biomet declined to comment.
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Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, shown here in March, alleges that drugmakers’ marketing practices are to blame for widespread addiction in the state. PHOTO: MIKE SIMONS/TULSA WORLD/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The first major test of whether states can hold drugmakers accountable for the opioid crisis is headed to an Oklahoma courtroom. In a trial starting Tuesday, lawyers for Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter will argue that the marketing practices of Johnson & Johnson are to blame for widespread drug addiction that has devastated the state.
The case is the first to go to trial of about 2,000 lawsuits brought by states, municipalities and Native American tribes against pharmaceutical companies over their alleged role in fueling the opioid epidemic. Another drugmaker expected to be in the trial, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., settled Sunday for $85 million without admitting to wrongdoing.
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U.S. companies would be able to seek penalties against foreign competitors they say benefit from artificially weak currencies, under a new rule proposed by the Trump administration. The proposal—on which the Commerce Department is now seeking public comment—would treat an undervalued currency as a subsidy that allows foreign businesses to export their goods more cheaply.
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A high-ranking Federal Emergency Management Agency official who oversaw the reconstruction of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid is under investigation by a government watchdog over allegations she steered work to a utility contractor, people familiar with the matter said.
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New York lawmakers are considering a stricter standard for workplace-harassment claims that they say would better protect employees from inappropriate behavior.
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President Trump is expected to release an executive order as early as this week to mandate the disclosure of prices in the health-care industry, according to people familiar with the discussion. The order could direct federal agencies to pursue actions to force a host of players in the industry to divulge cost data, the people said.
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Stockbrokers will soon have to disclose more about conflicts of interest that can bias investment advice under a government plan favored by Wall Street. The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to vote on a final rule on June 5.
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A judge on Friday temporarily barred Bud Light from suggesting in its advertising that rival beers Coors Light and Miller Lite contain corn syrup. The decision granted parts of a preliminary injunction requested by MillerCoors LLC, which sued Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC in March over Bud Light ads pointing out that Coors Light and Miller Lite use corn syrup in their brewing processes.
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The ratio of business debt to U.S. gross domestic product had reached 73.1% at the end of last year, according to Federal Reserve data, just short of the high of 73.7% set in 2009. PHOTO: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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A decadelong rise in corporate borrowing is prompting new scrutiny about how debt markets might hold up in an economic downturn. While few worry that the corporate debt market is in imminent danger, regulators and investors are grappling with how stress could ripple through it.
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Investors seeking yield have poured $8 billion into funds that deal in high-yield muni bonds—or junk munis—this year, the most through May since at least 1992, according to Refinitiv data. Muni-bond funds overall have attracted $37 billion during that same period, the most in almost three decades.
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Tariffs and trade tensions are pushing makers of U.S. farm-equipment into a deeper ditch. Meanwhile, Danish shipping giant A.P. Moeller-Maersk AS warned that rising trade tensions between could cut container growth by up to a third this year.
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First American provides title insurance as well as banking and trust services. PHOTO: H. LORREN AU JR/THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER/ZUMA PRESS
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Real estate title insurance company First American Financial Corp. may have given unauthorized access to customers’ financial information. The firm said it learned of a design defect on Friday in one of its production applications that exposed customer data. The company said in a statement that it shut down external access to the application and that it hired an outside forensic firm to assure it that there hasn’t been “any meaningful unauthorized access to our customer data.” A company spokesman declined to say how many customers may have been affected.
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A long-awaited multibillion-dollar settlement between Facebook Inc. and federal regulators over privacy missteps has been bogged down by a split between Republicans and Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission, according to people familiar with the matter. Facebook said April 24 that it was expecting to pay up to $5 billion in an accord with the FTC. At the time, people closely following the talks said a settlement was expected within days.
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Securing corporate data and networks from hackers is complex and challenging, but companies compound their problems by making many needless errors, serial entrepreneur and hacker Dug Song tells The Wall Street Journal’s Steven Rosenbush.
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Workers on the production line at Huawei Technologies Co.’s Dongguan, China, campus. PHOTO: KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES
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Huawei has grown from a little-known interloper into China’s global tech champion, the world’s biggest maker of telecoms gear, a leader in next-generation 5G networks, and a significant source of friction between the world’s biggest powers. Along the way, Huawei has been dogged by allegations that its gains came on the back of copying and theft. A review of 10 cases in U.S. federal courts, and dozens of interviews with U.S. officials, former employees, competitors, and collaborators suggest Huawei had a corporate culture that blurred the boundary between competitive achievement and ethically dubious methods of pursuing it.
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Deutsche Bank investment-banking chief Garth Ritchie at the bank's annual general meeting in Frankfurt on Thursday PHOTO: ALEX KRAUS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Deutsche Bank AG executives have discussed the potential departure of investment-banking chief Garth Ritchie, who has come under fire from investors for dismal results since he became the highest-paid senior executive at the embattled lender last year, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions are part of a bigger shake-up in the investment bank. Leadership uncertainty and potential business closures have added to employees’ unease stemming from a record-low share price, regulatory investigations and strategic doubts.
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Ryan Graves, Uber Technologies Inc.’s first hired employee and one of its longest standing directors, is leaving the board two weeks after the company’s initial public offering cemented his status as a paper billionaire.
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The chief executive of ASGN Inc., Peter Dameris, resigned last month as his lawyers negotiated with federal prosecutors who have been investigating him in connection with the nationwide college-admissions cheating scandal, the company said in a securities filing.
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In the U.S., Fiat Chrysler is best known as the maker of Jeeps and Rams. Above, a Jeep Grand Commander at an auto show in Shanghai recently. PHOTO: QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV proposed a roughly $40 billion merger with French rival Renault SA, a deal that if completed would create the third-largest auto maker by production and scramble an industry that has been seeking scale to cope with fast-globalizing markets and rapidly changing technology. Among the factors helping propel the proposed combination: a death in Zurich, an arrest in Tokyo and a young heir who has long wanted to ease his family’s dependence on the car business.
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Seeking an edge in the increasingly competitive market for cancer drugs, one of the industry’s largest companies is taking a bold but risky approach: targeting the early stages of the disease. AstraZeneca PLC’s new cancer research chief, José Baselga, wants the company to prioritize early-stage cancers over advanced disease when developing new cancer drugs. If successful, his unorthodox strategy could reap rewards for both patients—the potential to cure cancer is much greater when it is treated early—and company coffers.
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Meredith Corp. agreed to sell Sports Illustrated for $110 million, more than a year after putting it on the block, but that doesn’t mean the fabled sports magazine is leaving the family. Instead, Meredith will continue to publish the print magazine, manage its website, and will still be responsible for advertising, video and social media.
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