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The Morning Risk Report: FinCEN Names New Acting Director, Begins Search for Permanent Chief
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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network headquarters in Vienna, Va. The shuffling at the top comes as the agency works to put a sweeping anti-money-laundering law into effect.
Photo: EPA/Shutterstock
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Good morning. The U.S. Treasury Department’s anti-money-laundering unit is undergoing its second leadership change this year, as current acting director Michael Mosier prepares to leave at the end of the week.
Himamauli Das, a national security expert who has held positions at the White House, National Security Council and Treasury and State Departments, will become the new acting director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the unit said Tuesday.
[Continued below...]
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Mr. Mosier had been appointed acting director just four months ago, when former FinCEN director Kenneth Blanco left for a job at Citigroup Inc. Mr. Mosier, an emerging technologies and cryptocurrency expert who was on his second stint at the agency, was seen as a potential successor to Mr. Blanco at the time.
FinCEN said nothing regarding Mr. Mosier’s plans for after his departure. The unit did say it was launching a public search for a permanent director beginning Tuesday.
Mr. Das, who has held a range of government positions throughout his career, arrives at FinCEN from the private sector, where he served most recently as senior managing director of the risk and compliance firm K2 Integrity.
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Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, at SEC headquarters in Washington last month.
PHOTO: MELISSA LYTTLE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The Securities and Exchange Commission will regulate cryptocurrency markets to the maximum extent possible using its existing authority, Chairman Gary Gensler said Tuesday, while also calling on Congress to grant the agency more scope and resources to oversee the sector.
Calling the asset class rife with “fraud, scams and abuse,” Mr. Gensler signaled the SEC is likely to become more active in policing crypto trading and lending platforms, as well as so-called stablecoins.
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Facebook Inc. has hit a new obstacle in Europe in its planned takeover of a small New York-based startup, showing how antitrust muscle-flexing is increasingly affecting deals an ocean away. With a new interpretation of an old law, European Union competition regulators have given themselves sweeping authority to review merger cases that previously would have escaped their notice, sparking outcry from companies and their lawyers that the change will cause confusion in deal-making.
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Amgen Inc. said it is gearing up for a fight with the Internal Revenue Service over a bill for billions of dollars in back taxes. Amgen said Tuesday that it received notices from the IRS that seek to increase its federal tax bill by $3.6 billion, plus interest, for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. Amgen filed a petition in U.S. Tax Court to dispute the notices, the company said in its second-quarter earnings release.
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Former President Donald Trump won’t sue to block former Justice Department officials from testifying before two congressional committees investigating his administration’s efforts to overturn President Biden’s victory, his lawyer said in a letter this week.
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Medical Technology Company Discloses Probe Into Bribery Concerns in Japan
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Edwards Lifesciences Corp. is conducting an internal investigation into possible violations of a U.S. antibribery law, the medical technology company said.
The probe concerns the Irvine, Calif.-based company’s compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and is related to grants and other payments by employees in Japan, Edwards Lifesciences said in a quarterly financial report on Friday.
Edward Lifsciences voluntarily notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Department of Justice of the probe, the company said. The disclosure was reported earlier by Global Investigations Review.
An Edward Lifesciences spokeswoman declined to comment further on the probe. The company in its filing said it could not predict the outcome of the investigation or its financial impact.
—Dylan Tokar
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Altimeter Capital Management founder Brad Gerstner and others at his firm together stand to make millions through incentives as part of a $40 billion SPAC deal to take Grab Holdings public.
PHOTO: BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS
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Many investment executives who back special-purpose acquisition companies are scoring big paydays as more deals get completed. Some of their clients are missing out.
The divergence results from the varying methods SPAC creators use to share the lucrative incentives known as the “sponsor promote.” It typically consists of deeply discounted shares and other securities executives receive for risking capital to set up the SPAC and vet a company to take public. The promote typically allows creators to make tens of millions of dollars on paper on average—sometimes several times their initial investment—even if that company’s shares fall.
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The U.S. and many of its allies have restricted the use of 5G cellular equipment made by China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Now Beijing is doing the same to Huawei’s Western rivals.
China Mobile Ltd., a government-owned wireless carrier that is the world’s biggest by subscribers, awarded in July 5.4% of its latest 5G-equipment tenders to non-Chinese suppliers, down from 11% in its previous round in 2020.
The biggest loser was Sweden’s Ericsson AB, which after winning all of that 11% last year, fell to just 1.9% in this round. A Chinese state-controlled media outlet described the market-share loss as retaliation for Sweden’s decision to ban Huawei and China’s ZTE Corp. from its 5G networks.
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The Blizzard Entertainment booth at the ChinaJoy expo in Shanghai last year. Blizzard is the unit behind hit franchises such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch.
PHOTO: ALEX PLAVEVSKI/SHUTTERSTOCK
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Activision Blizzard Inc. said the head of its Blizzard Entertainment unit and a senior human-resources executive are leaving the company, as the videogame publisher seeks to stabilize its business after a gender-bias lawsuit and calls to improve its culture.
J. Allen Brack has stepped down as president of the studio behind hit franchises such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch, the company said Tuesday. Jesse Meschuk, who served as Activision’s senior vice president for global human resources, is no longer in his role, an Activision spokeswoman said.
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A Tyson Foods employee receiving a Covid-19 vaccine at a facility in Iowa in March.
PHOTO: TYSON/ZUMA PRESS
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Tyson Foods Inc.’s decision Tuesday to require Covid-19 vaccinations for its entire U.S. workforce drew pushback from some union leaders, signaling tensions between management and workers over stepped-up efforts to guard against the disease.
The Arkansas-based company’s target, which includes both processing plant and corporate office workers, is partly subject to discussions with labor unions that represent around one-third of the company’s hourly workers, Tyson officials said.
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