|
|
|
|
|
The Morning Risk Report: North Face Owner Pulled Xinjiang Criticism, Then Reinstated It
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A North Face store last year in China. The country accounts for 7% of parent company VF’s sales.
PHOTO: ALEX TAI/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
|
In late March, the maker of North Face jackets and Vans sneakers quietly took down a statement raising concern about allegations of forced labor in China’s cotton-rich Xinjiang region. Rival fashion company H&M had just been erased from China’s internet for a similar statement.
Three other big apparel companies also pulled or altered statements critical of Xinjiang from their websites in the days that followed the boycott of H&M, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. At Denver-based VF Corp., though, executives quickly convened to deliberate over what they felt was the right thing to do, according to a person familiar with the matter. Twenty-four hours after pulling its statement, the company posted a new, shorter statement reaffirming its stance.
[Continued below...]
|
|
|
The moves, previously unreported, show the mounting pressure facing Western companies doing business in China. The country has become one of the biggest and fastest-growing fashion markets in the world, and apparel companies have flooded in. But China’s government—and many of its shoppers—have become newly assertive in dumping brands they see as critical of Beijing.
Many big apparel companies, meanwhile, have made environmental and human-rights concerns central to their image in recent years, responding to demands by activists, governments and consumers in their home markets.
|
|
|
|
Justice Department Appoints Acting Criminal Division Officials
|
|
The U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division has made a number of promotions as it awaits the confirmation of its new assistant attorney general, a DOJ spokesman confirmed.
Daniel Kahn, the acting chief of the division’s fraud section, will serve as acting deputy assistant attorney general, which oversees the fraud and appellate sections, according to a memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Joseph Beemsterboer, a veteran healthcare fraud prosecutor, will become acting chief of the fraud section, which investigates white-collar crimes such as medical fraud, market manipulation and foreign bribery.
Rob Zink, who held the role Mr. Kahn is now taking, is leaving for private practice, the memo said, without disclosing his new employer. Mr. Zink led the Justice Department’s effort to crack down on spoofing, a type of manipulation once rampant in futures markets, and oversaw its campaign to combat fraud affecting the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program.
The White House has nominated Kenneth Polite, a former U.S. attorney in New Orleans, to serve as assistant attorney general of the criminal division.
—Dave Michaels
|
|
|
|
|
The case grew out of efforts by Eaze, a marijuana marketplace, to expand its business by accepting credit-card payments.
PHOTO: MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
|
A federal judge sentenced a California businessman to 2½ years in federal prison Friday for orchestrating an international scheme that tricked U.S. banks into processing more than $150 million in marijuana-related purchases.
Hamid “Ray” Akhavan and his co-defendant, German e-commerce consultant Ruben Weigand, were convicted in March on one count apiece of bank-fraud conspiracy, following a trial that underscored the challenges facing the cannabis industry as it seeks a foothold in the mainstream banking system.
|
|
|
-
The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to require public companies to disclose more information about how they respond to threats linked to climate change—and businesses are gearing up for a fight.
-
With all nine justices voting to exempt a Catholic social-service agency from Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination policies, the Supreme Court sent a message Thursday that secular interests will increasingly have to give way to some religious rights. The question now is how many—and how fast.
-
Companies in certain industries received more auditor warnings about their ability to stay afloat over the past year, compared with the previous period, as the coronavirus pandemic put finance chiefs and balance sheets under pressure.
|
|
|
|
|
Silicon wafers made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
PHOTO: MAURICE TSAI/BLOOMBERG
|
|
|
|
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s chips are everywhere, though most consumers don’t know it.
TSMC has emerged over the past several years as the world’s most important semiconductor company, with enormous influence over the global economy. Its dominance leaves the world in a vulnerable position, however. As more technologies require chips of mind-boggling complexity, more are coming from this one company, on an island that’s a focal point of tensions between the U.S. and China, which claims Taiwan as its own.
|
|
|
-
Credit Suisse Group AG and SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son recently dissolved a longstanding personal lending relationship and the bank clamped down on transactions with his company, according to regulatory filings and people familiar with the matter. The moves came after the collapse of SoftBank-backed Greensill Capital in March plunged Credit Suisse into turmoil.
-
HSBC Holdings PLC expects to take $3 billion in losses as part of an agreement to sell its unprofitable French retail bank, in a sign of the souring fortunes of European banking. London-based HSBC, one of the world’s largest lenders, said Friday that it had agreed to sell the bank to a company owned by Cerberus Capital Management LP, a New York-based private-equity firm.
-
When Iranian diplomats resume talks with Western officials to revive a battered nuclear deal, one name will stand out on the list of individuals Tehran wants removed from the U.S. sanctions list: Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president-elect. The 60-year-old hard-line judge, who won Friday’s presidential election in Iran, was sanctioned two years ago by the Trump administration for his close ties to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
-
As the U.S. and its allies chase China in procuring critical minerals essential for modern technologies, they face a major hurdle: a lack of companies and projects with an established record. The U.S. has pumped millions of dollars into researching how to extract rare-earth minerals from abandoned coal fields, an approach some say won’t work.
|
|
|
|
|
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday with the signed bill making Juneteenth a new federal holiday.
PHOTO: ROD LAMKEY - CNP/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
|
When President Biden signed legislation making June 19, or Juneteenth, a new national holiday, he set off a race inside corporations to figure out how to mark it and whether to allocate more paid time off to workers.
Employers from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. and Ohio State University were among the organizations around the U.S. that quickly rolled out new holiday policies for workers, with some allowing people to take Friday off with mere hours of notice.
A key question for many companies has been whether to grant more paid time off at all. This week’s legislation to create the first federal holiday in nearly four decades came together quickly, prompting companies to make decisions about whether to give time now—or later—or offer a floating holiday or no time off.
|
|
|
|
|
Wylie Brown, a driver with American Dedicated Logistics, loads his delivery truck with car parts in Catonsville, Md. The company has been recruiting at shopping centers, hoping to attract retail workers and Uber drivers, with better or more consistent pay than their current jobs offer.
PHOTO: AMANDA ANDRADE-RHOADES FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
|
|
|
|
Low-wage workers found something unexpected in the economy’s recovery from the pandemic: leverage.
Ballooning job openings in fields requiring minimal education—including in restaurants, transportation, warehousing and manufacturing—combined with a shrinking labor force are giving low-wage workers perks previously reserved for white-collar employees. That often means bonuses, bigger raises and competing offers.
|
|
|
-
American Airlines Group Inc., which rapidly increased flying to meet a surge in travel demand, is trimming some flights to alleviate potential strains on its operations.
-
Like other manufacturers struggling with wobbly supply chains, sports-vehicle maker Polaris Inc. is deciding what to produce based on what parts it has on hand. Polaris is changing its manufacturing and sales strategies on the fly to cope with shortages of materials and parts and an unreliable global transportation system that has disrupted precise production planning.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|