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The Morning Risk Report: SEC Investigates How Amazon Disclosed Business Practices
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Good morning. Federal securities regulators are investigating how Amazon.com Inc. has disclosed certain details of its business practices, including how it uses third-party-seller data for its private-label business, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing how the technology giant—the largest U.S. e-commerce retailer and cloud-computing company—handled disclosures of its employees’ use of data from sellers on its e-commerce platform, the people said. The SEC’s enforcement division has asked for emails and communications from several senior Amazon executives, according to one of the people.
A spokesman for Amazon declined to comment.
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Content from our Sponsor: DELOITTE
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How Strategic Intelligence Programs Can Blunt Complex Risks
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By leveraging data and technology, organizations can improve their risk assessments of threat actors that prey on highly interdependent organizational relationships. Read More ›
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In April 2020, a Wall Street Journal investigation, citing internal documents and interviews with former Amazon staffers, found the company’s employees routinely used individual third-party-seller data to develop products for its own brands. A company spokesman denied that such actions were taken, echoing an Amazon lawyer’s congressional testimony a year earlier, saying the company does “not use their individual data when we’re making decisions to launch private brands.”
Amazon has since launched an internal investigation of the group but has declined to provide a copy of its report to a congressional committee that earlier investigated Amazon and other technology companies’ size and power, the Journal has reported. Read more.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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Regulatory Uncertainty Is a Barrier for Wider Bitcoin Adoption
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Uncertainty about how cryptocurrency regulation will roll out in the future, particularly in the U.S., remains a significant barrier for wider adoption of digital assets such as bitcoin, said panelists Wednesday at one of the largest bitcoin conferences of the year.
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Conservative Group Wants to Stop State Pensions From Pursuing ESG Initiatives
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State pension funds should be barred from considering social and environmental factors in their investment decisions, a conservative association said in a push for new state legislation that would clash with the financial industry’s efforts to focus on greener investments.
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Justice Department charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations. The Justice Department on Wednesday charged a Russian oligarch with violating U.S. sanctions levied on him in 2014, and officials said they were joining the international effort to collect evidence of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
Officials said the sanctioned oligarch, Konstantin Malofeyev, sought to evade the earlier economic sanctions by trying to secretly acquire media outlets across Europe. They also seized millions of dollars they said are connected to his sanctions violations.
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Biden prepares to announce pair of SEC nominees. The Biden administration plans to nominate a Republican and a Democrat to serve on the Securities and Exchange Commission, filling the remaining vacancies at the top U.S. markets regulator.
The White House said Wednesday that President Biden would tap Jaime Lizárraga, a top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), to fill a Democratic seat currently occupied by commissioner Allison Herren Lee. Ms. Lee has said she plans to leave the agency once a successor is in place.
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French prosecutors have opened a tax-fraud and money-laundering investigation stemming from a Senate report on government spending on consulting firms, delivering a blow to President Emmanuel Macron just days before voters head to the polls.
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European Union foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc had made energy payments worth around $38 billion to Russia since it invaded Ukraine.
PHOTO: FREDERICK FLORIN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Europe keeps Russian oil, gas flowing despite tightening sanctions. Six weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union is taking its first steps to reduce Russian energy imports, depriving Moscow of some of the revenue that covers much of its budget and helps fund its military campaign.
But the EU can’t agree to sanction the bloc’s biggest business dealings with Russia: the purchase of oil and natural gas. The EU, which imports around 60% of its energy needs, is making large payments to Russia, boosted by higher oil-and-gas prices during the war.
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SEC says employees improperly accessed privileged legal records. Employees at the Securities and Exchange Commission improperly accessed documents prepared for cases being litigated in the agency’s administrative court system, according to an agency notice Tuesday. The disclosure highlights concerns about the independence of the SEC’s in-house court system, which have persisted for years.
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Maker of ‘Axie Infinity’ game raises funds to reimburse victims of crypto hack. The cryptocurrency startup behind the popular online game “Axie Infinity” has raised $150 million to help it reimburse users after hackers last month stole $500 million worth of cryptocurrency, one of the biggest thefts in the sector’s 13-year history.
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Google bans apps with hidden data-harvesting software. Google has yanked dozens of apps from its Google Play store after determining that they include a software element that surreptitiously harvests data.
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What Elon Musk's addition to Twitter's board could mean for the social platform. Mr. Musk hasn’t been shy about questioning Twitter’s values. After beginning to build his stake in the company, he mused publicly in recent weeks about Twitter’s commitment to free speech and said he was considering starting a rival social-media platform of his own.
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GlaxoSmithKlein said its flu relief medication Theraflu will still be available for sale in Russia.
PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS
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Glaxo walks ethical tightrope. GlaxoSmithKline PLC is to cut nearly a third of its consumer healthcare products in Russia as executives across the pharmaceutical industry grapple with an ethical dilemma over their response to the war in Ukraine.
While hundreds of businesses from auto makers to brewers have pulled back from Russia, drugmakers have mostly maintained sales in the country, saying they are duty-bound to supply sometimes vital medicines even as they condemn the war.
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Pinterest targets climate-change misinformation. Pinterest Inc. is rolling out new guidelines prohibiting posts that it says contain misinformation about climate change, as social-media companies continue to grapple with curbing the spread of false and misleading information.
The social-media platform, where users post anything from photos and links to recipes and home-decor ideas, said Wednesday it will remove content from users or advertisers that it deems as misinformation about the existence or impact of climate change.
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