The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has opened as case against HKMEx for using US dollar-dominated gold futures in 2011, which is seen as an attempt to ‘steal’ commodity deals from other trading floors.The SFC statement on May 21st says “the suspected irregularities are serious ones”, and HKMEx surrendered its trading license earlier in the month.According to some sources, Cheung borrowed large sums of money from the Hong Kong business and hasn’t yet paid back his loans, an accusation which he denies.Cheung stepped down from his official obligations on Tuesday, after the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), in partner with local police, raided to the HKMex office and seized several electronic records as evidence of false documentation in trading securities.Following the seizure, police arrested three men that aren’t current or former employees of HKMEx, according to Cheung. Police arrested another unidentified man by the surname ‘Zhu’ on Wednesday, on suspicion he possessed instruments used to falsify documents.Cheung, 54, has chaired the HKMEx Executive Council since it was founded in 2006, and hasn’t been accused of any crime, and says he will fully cooperate with the investigation.Cheung said he is the HKMEx’s largest shareholder.The Russian Oligarch DanceThe board of Rusal nominated and approved Cheung as an independent director at Rusal in 2012 and he was elected Chairman after billionaire Vicktor Vekselberg resigned in March.According to the company’s website, Mr. Cheung remains on the Board of Directors of Rusal.Vekselberg quit on March 12 2013 as chairman of Rusal, citing the company’s deep crisis brought on by rival oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Other members accused Vekselberg of ‘jumping ship’ because for one year prior to his resignation, he had disengaged from company activities- he didn’t even attend board meetings.Barry Cheung of the Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange was nominated and approved by the board 4 days after he quit.Sual Partners, headed by Victor Vekselberg, owns 15.8 per cent of Rusal and proposed a resolution that Cheung be replaced as head.The shareholders meeting of Rusal will be held on June 14, when the board is due to re-elect seven directors whose term expires.Cheung, a former McKinsey and Co. employee received his MBA from Harvard Business School. … Read More
UK Independence Party Draws Attention To Bilderberg 2013
Member of the European parliament Gerard Batten has raised the alarm on Bilderberg, stating he has written all major mainstream media outlets in the UK as well as submitting a freedom of information request for the Hertfordshire police commissioner asking who is paying for the expenses of all this policing. … Read More
Death toll rises after China’s deadly earthquake
Related
Death toll rises after China’s deadly earthquake 20/04/2013 05:45 CET
China quake kills scores and injurers thousands 20/04/2013 10:47 CET
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TV reporter breaks off her wedding to start reporting… 21/04/2013 09:26 CET
It was a long day of searching for trapped survivors, after China’s worst earthquake in three years.
At least 157 people are dead and 5,700 wounded after the magnitude 6.6 quake struck.
A series of aftershocks happened soon after. The strongest one just five minutes after the main tremor.
Tents have been set up outside a hospital to treat some of the injured.
The earthquake happened close to the city of Ya’an in China’s south west Sichuan province.
There are warnings of possible landslides in the county.
Thousands of soldiers are helping with the rescue efforts, hampered by water and electricity being cut off some places.
The area is prone to seismic activity. Almost 70,000 people died in an earthquake nearby in 2008.
More about: China, China earthquake, Earthquake
Copyright © 2013 euronews
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G20 gives ‘currency war’ stamp of approval
Japan reassured other finance ministers that it isn’t intentionally weakening the yen with its stimulus plan.According to the Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, his colleagues understand that Japan is pursuing “price stability and economic recovery,” rather than competitively weakening the yen.Expert are split on whether the meeting will bring significant positive results. Some believe the communiqué will repeat February’s decision, when the group agreed to avoid using competitive currency devaluation to gain advantages in trade, the Associated Press reports.US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew spoke of the intention to put more pressure on Europe to boost efforts to support growth, and on Japan and China to avoid lowering the value of their currencies in order to improve exports.In Europe countries have yet to agree on the scale of austerity measures they apply locally, while Germany is pressing on deficit reduction.IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is urging countries to focus on growth rather than on adjusting budget imbalances. She also said that Europe needs “to fix its frayed banking system” first and foremost.Earlier this week, the IMF lowered its outlook for the world economy, predicting government spending cuts would slow US growth and keep the Eurozone in recession.The G20 talks, chaired by Russia, kicked off in in Washington on April 18 and continued on Friday. The meeting preludes the upcoming spring meetings of the 188-nation International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told reporters that the BRICS’ proposed creation of a new development bank is a good plan, as it will create new sources of capital needed to meet the world’s need to fund infrastructure projects.The plan to create a new development bank was agreed by the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa last month during the summit in South Africa. The project is aimed to attract investment to help fund $4.5 trillion in infrastructure projects in emerging economies. … Read More
‘Mustafa repeated mistakes despite warnings’
Social Democrats in Stockholm say they did not follow up after telling Omar Mustafa a year ago to purge intolerant speakers from Islamic Association meetings, before nominating him to the opposition party’s governing board. … Read More
D.C. Really Does Not Want Want Me to Eat a Delicious Lobster Roll from a Truck
After much consideration, consultation with
stakeholders, community meetings, and related dog-and-pony shows,
Washington, D.C., is proposing a new regulatory scheme for food
trucks. And it
sucks quite a bit, reports the Washington City
Paper:
D.C.’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs released
the latest round of proposed food truck regulations. The rules
would create special zones throughout the city that would limit how
many trucks could vend where. A monthly lottery system would
determine who gets the spots. Those who didn’t win or want a place
in the so-called “mobile roadway vending zones” would have to stay
at least 500 feet away in metered parking spots with at least ten
feet of unobstructed sidewalk.
Want to guess what happened next?:
Several food truck owners say they are considering shutting down
or moving their operations to Virginia, Maryland, or other states
if the regulations prove too limiting.
And those “special zones”? Not all of them are equally
special:
D.C. Food Truck
Association ;chairman and ;Red Hook Lobster
Pound ;co-owner ;Doug
Povich ;says trucks could end up winning proposed
locations with little weekday lunch traffic like Navy Yard,
Historic Anacostia, Minnesota or Benning avenues NE, and Friendship
Heights. Because they’ve spent $150 for the spot, they’ll likely go
the first time. But if they’re losing money there, they may not
want to come back the following weeks, Povich says. The result
would be empty parking spots that nobody else could use for four
hours.
Povich believes only five areas—Farragut Square, L’Enfant Plaza,
Franklin Square, Metro Center, and Union Station—have enough
traffic and congestion to warrant a zone, not 23. He says his
trucks do half the business in a lower-traffic location like
Friendship Heights or Navy Yard as they do downtown. Trucks that
don’t have Red Hook’s 25,000 Twitter followers might do as little
as 5 to 10 percent, Povich estimates.
The Daily Beast’s Megan McArdle sums the situation up
nicely:
To be sure, the food truck owners are undoubtedly overstating
their case, since that’s what business owners do in this sort of
situation. ;But that said, it’s obviously going to make their
businesses less viable, and there’s no reasonable basis for that.
;It hurts consumers and it hurts the food truck
owners–scrappy entrepreneurs who are improving the quality of food
in DC and creating jobs, and possibly building businesses that will
become bigger in the future. ;The only people who benefit are
restaurant owners, and while I feel bad for them, they do not have
a right to sell food to harassed office workers. ;
… Read More
Bildt accused of leaking secrets to the US
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has denied claims he leaked details of secret meetings to the United States following media reports based on diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. … Read More
