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The Morning Risk Report: Former Cognizant Executives Charged in Probe |
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Two of Cognizant’s former executives were alleged to have authorized bribes to secure permits necessary for the construction of an office campus in India. PHOTO: CHRIS HELGREN/REUTERS
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Hello. Two former executives of outsourcing-operations company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. were charged by U.S. authorities with foreign bribery for allegedly approving illicit payments to help build a corporate campus in India. The Teaneck, N.J., company also agreed to pay $25 million to settle with U.S. authorities.
Gordon Coburn, the company’s former president, and Steven Schwartz, its former chief legal officer, authorized a $2 million bribe to at least one government official in India to secure permits necessary for the construction of a campus there to support roughly 17,000 employees, prosecutors said.
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Cognizant has more than 250,000 employees globally, more than half of whom work in various locations in India. Cognizant helps companies outsource their information technology and other business processes. Earlier this month, the company reported revenue of $16 billion in 2018, up 8.9% from the year prior.
Hank Walther, an attorney for Mr. Coburn, said he was disappointed that U.S. authorities chose to pursue the allegations and that Mr. Coburn intends to fight the charges. Roberto Finzi, a lawyer for Mr. Schwartz, said his client was innocent and also will fight the charges.
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| From Risk & Compliance Journal |
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A Senate bill seeking to impose sanctions on Russia also would tackle money laundering through certain real-estate deals. PHOTO: DON EMMERT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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A bipartisan group of U.S. senators reintroduced sanctions legislation targeting Russia that also includes a provision tackling money laundering in all-cash purchases of real estate.
The bill seeks to impose sanctions on Russia, targeting the country’s banks, energy projects, cyber sector and sovereign debt, for Moscow’s interference in democratic processes and aggression against Ukraine. The Kremlin dismissed the legislation, describing it as a racketeering effort.
One aspect of the bill focuses on residential real-estate purchases made in cash by limited liability corporations, also known as shell companies.
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A trader working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. PHOTO: RICHARD DREW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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In an unprecedented legal confrontation, the three biggest U.S. stock-exchange groups are taking on their own regulator to block an initiative that seeks to limit the fees they can charge for trading. Nasdaq Inc. and Cboe Global Markets Inc. on Friday sued the Securities and Exchange Commission in a federal appeals court to stop the regulator from carrying out the program, a day after the New York Stock Exchange filed a similar challenge.
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A former Goldman Sachs banker has agreed to be extradited to the U.S. from Malaysia to contest charges over one of the world’s largest financial scandals, his lawyer said. Malaysian citizen Roger Ng is accused of aiding his boss, Tim Leissner—then Goldman’s head of Southeast Asia—in siphoning off billions of dollars from Malaysian state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd., or 1MDB. Mr. Leissner pleaded guilty in the U.S. last year to conspiring to launder money and violate laws against bribery of foreign officials.
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Brazilian police arrested eight employees of mining giant Vale SA as part of the investigation into the collapse of a mining tailings dam in the small town of Brumadinho that has left more than 160 people dead and scores more missing.
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Federal air-safety regulators are investigating Southwest Airlines Co. for widespread miscalculation of the total weight of checked bags loaded onto each of its flights, according to government officials and internal agency documents.
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Toyota Rav4 sport-utility vehicles are transported at the Nagoya Port in Tokai, Japan, on Feb. 1. PHOTO: AKIO KON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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American car buyers are facing sticker shock as President Trump weighs new tariffs on imported vehicles and auto parts.
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The collapse of Amazon.com Inc.’s plan to build a second headquarters in New York City has the potential to damp some states’ willingness to offer tax breaks. Spurred by Amazon’s selection process, politicians and groups long opposed to incentive packages have launched legislative efforts to prohibit them in some states.
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HSBC Holdings PLC reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter profit Tuesday as choppy financial markets, U.S.-China trade tensions and Brexit uncertainty weighed on the global bank.
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Large sections of a report by a U.K. parliamentary committee were devoted to criticism of Facebook. PHOTO: LOIC VENANCE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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A U.K. parliamentary committee rebuked Facebook Inc. in a report that calls for regulation and intensified scrutiny of social-media companies.
The report urged a compulsory code of ethics for technology companies to deal with harmful or illegal content on their sites. It also called for the creation of an independent regulator with the power to launch legal action against companies in breach of the code that could result in hefty fines.
Large sections of the report were devoted to criticism of Facebook, which it said had intentionally and knowingly violated both privacy and anticompetition laws in how it handled user data and tried to stifle competitors.
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Apple elevated John Giannandrea, shown in 2017, to its executive team months after hiring him away from Google. PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Apple Inc. is shaking up leadership and reordering priorities across its services, artificial intelligence, hardware and retail divisions as it works to reduce the company’s reliance on iPhone sales. The changes have included high-profile hires, noteworthy departures, meaningful promotions and consequential restructurings.
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When the proposed train merger between Siemens AG and Alstom SA was blocked by the European Union last week, several observers seized on it as fresh evidence of a regulatory clampdown on deal making. But recent data show the number of deals blocked by regulators is actually falling.
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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador unveiled a $5.2 billion rescue package for Petróleos Mexicanos, which the new government hopes will help stem the state oil company’s bleeding and reverse falling output. Mr. López Obrador, a left-wing nationalist, has staked his plan for transforming Mexico’s economy on pulling Pemex back from the brink.
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Apollo Global Management APO LLC has taken the first step to becoming one of the nation’s biggest owners of local television stations. On Friday, the private-equity firm struck a deal to acquire a majority stake in 13 television stations owned by Cox Media Group, a division of closely held Cox Enterprises Inc. The deal also includes Cox’s radio and newspaper properties in Ohio.
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Great Hill Partners is in exclusive talks with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc. to buy Gizmodo Media Group, according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that would add a marquee digital brand to the private-equity firm’s portfolio.
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A worker welding a field cultivator main frame at the Case IH plant in Goodfield, Ill., in December. PHOTO: FRED ZWICKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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U.S. industrial output fell sharply in January because of a large drop in vehicle production, adding fuel to rising worries about the current economic expansion.
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PepsiCo Inc.’s new Chief Executive Ramon Laguarta said he has no plans to break up the snacks and drinks giant, nor divest the company’s bottling operations, after completing a four-month review of the global business.
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Amazon’s decision to abandon its $2.5 billion plan for a New York City headquarters could disrupt redevelopment and dash hopes for a surge in hiring in the neighborhood of Long Island City. One entity unlikely to suffer much: Amazon itself. The e-commerce giant expects to continue hiring even if it doesn’t build a campus jewel in Queens that makes good on its pledge of bringing 25,000 new jobs to the area.
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Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co. will shut a major production plant in the U.K., becoming the latest auto group to plan a pull back from the U.K. as Brexit looms. The closure of the plant in Swindon, a pro-Brexit district in southwest England, was confirmed by local British lawmaker Justin Tomlinson and fills out a picture suggesting that the nation’s car-manufacturing industry is in decline.
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Auto makers are pulling back on discounts on sedans and shifting more promotional dollars to sport-utility vehicles and trucks. The changing emphasis, analysts say, has spawned a new problem: How to move rising inventories of SUVs on dealer lots.
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Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro speaking at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on Thursday. PHOTO: ARIANA CUBILLOS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions against the head of Venezuela’s state-owned oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela SA and five top intelligence and security officials as Washington seeks the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro.
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Months before the arrest of auto titan Carlos Ghosn, the Japanese government intervened in talks about whether to merge Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, according to a person familiar with the deliberations. Nissan executives initially asked Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, or METI, for help in fending off a proposal to merge the car makers that Mr. Ghosn was shepherding, the person said.
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The two biggest outside investors in the $100 billion Vision Fund are complaining about the high prices the fund’s manager, SoftBank Group Corp., has paid for tech companies and the control wielded by SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son over investment decisions.
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