Category Archives: Business

Sam Bankman-Fried trial: ‘I may have unwittingly contributed to a crime’, FTX developer tells court – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest on the trial below:

Sam Bankman-Fried’s confidants were along for the ride. At his side was Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s CEO and his on-again, off-again lover.

Ellison, too, projected tech bro-like eccentricities, waxing philosophical about free love and drugs. She wrote in a now-notorious tweet.:

Nothing like regular amphetamine use to make you appreciate how dumb a lot of normal, non-medicated human experience is.

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Sam Bankman-Fried built empire on ‘lies’, prosecutor says in fraud trial

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Second day of trial featured prosecutors’ first witness as defense presented Bankman-Fried as ‘math nerd’ with good intentions who got in over his head

Opening arguments began in Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial on Wednesday, with prosecutors accusing the former cryptocurrency star of building his empire “on lies” and living a lavish lifestyle while defrauding his customers. Defense attorneys countered by presenting Bankman-Fried as a “math nerd” with good intentions who got in over his head.

The second day of the trial began with Judge Lewis Kaplan finalizing a group of 12 jurors who would hear the case, along with six alternates, and later in the afternoon featured prosecutors calling their first witness.

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‘Burnt out and fed up’: 75,000 workers begin largest healthcare strike in US

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Kaiser Permanente workers start three-day strike, demanding wage increases and better staffing, after union contracts expire

More than 75,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have started a three-day strike on Wednesday in the largest demonstration of its kind by healthcare workers in US history.

The workers, represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, are currently bargaining for new union contracts after their current contracts expired on 1 October. Workers are demanding significant wage increases and substantive improvements to what they say have been severe understaffing in healthcare facilities that worsened throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Holiday pay ruling ‘entitles many UK workers to thousands in unfairly deducted wages’

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Unison says decision affects other types of employee payments and is ‘victory for underpaid workers’

Many UK workers could be entitled to thousands of pounds “unfairly” deducted from their pay after a supreme court decision, according to unions.

The judgment relates to a long-running row about holiday pay but Unison, which participated in the case, said the ruling affected all other types of payment to employees and called it a “victory for underpaid workers”.

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Lotteries should not be exempt from credit card ban for online gambling, experts say

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Proposed laws provide carve out but financial counsellors say lottery products can cause ‘serious gambling harm’

Lottery companies should not be exempt from a ban on credit card use due to the harms they cause people with gambling addiction, according to financial counsellors, anti-gambling advocates and industry competitors.

The federal government has introduced legislation to ban credit card use for online wagering, citing high levels of community harm and people gambling with money they don’t have, but has proposed a carve out for lotteries.

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Certificate to own car in Singapore rockets to $106,000

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Cost of ‘certificate of entitlement’, introduced in 1990 to control number of cars, now equivalent to four Toyota Camry Hybrids in US

To own a car in Singapore, a buyer must bid for a certificate that now costs $106,000, equivalent to four Toyota Camry Hybrids in the US, as a post-pandemic recovery has driven up the cost of the country’s vehicle quota system to all-time highs.

Singapore has a 10-year “certificate of entitlement” (COE) system, introduced in 1990, to control the number of vehicles in the small city-state, which is home to 5.9 million people and can be driven across in less than an hour.

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Bond market sell-off sends UK long-term borrowing cost to 25-year high

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Rate tops level last seen after Liz Truss mini-budget as fears of global inflation and US political instability spook markets

Britain’s long-term cost of borrowing has hit its highest level since 1998, as political instability in the US and fears of sustained high levels of inflation triggered a sell-off in global bond markets.

The yield, or interest rate, on 30-year UK government bonds hit 5.115% early on Wednesday, according to the financial data provider Refinitiv.

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UK cost of diesel soars as RAC says petrol is ‘overpriced by about 7p a litre’

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Diesel up by more than 8p to 163p in September and petrol by 4.5p to 152p amid global oil production cuts

The price of diesel in the UK has shot up at one of its fastest rates in more than 20 years – while retailers have been accused of charging “unjustifiably” high petrol prices.

Diesel prices rose by more than 8p a litre to 163p in September, the fifth biggest monthly rise since 2000, and on top of another 8p rise the previous month, the RAC said. Petrol prices rose by 4.5p a litre to 152p, the fourth consecutive monthly increase.

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Judge issues gag order after Trump’s comments on court clerk in civil trial

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The second day of Trump’s trial got off to another combative start after Trump branded the case a ‘fraud’ and ‘scam’

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial issued a gag order on Tuesday after the former president made comments about the judge’s clerk.

“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” the judge, Arthur Engoron, said on Tuesday afternoon. “Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances.

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Sam Bankman-Fried arrives in Manhattan court as fraud trial kicks off

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FTX founder shed his signature T-shirt and shorts look to don on suit with freshly cut hair as day one of fraud trial commenced

The criminal trial of the former cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried began on Tuesday, with jury selection getting under way in a Manhattan federal court.

Bankman-Fried, who founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and associated hedge fund Alameda Research, is facing trial on finance crimes stemming from the shocking collapse of FTX. Before its sudden downfall last year, FTX was valued at around $32bn.

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Greggs keeps prices on hold as sales leap and it opens new shops

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Britain’s biggest bakery chain says cost inflation is easing, although staff costs are rising

Greggs, Britain’s biggest bakery chain, said it had no plans to raise its prices before Christmas after its cost inflation eased, as sales soared over the last three months.

The retailer raised its prices in June, when some products went up by 5-10p.

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Rishi Sunak refuses to make ‘premature decision’ over HS2

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PM declines to reveal if Manchester to Birmingham line will be scrapped amid speculation over soaring costs

Rishi Sunak has insisted he is not going to be forced into a “premature decision” over the fate of the HS2 high-speed rail line as speculation about the multibillion pound project continued to overshadow the Conservative conference.

“I am not going to be forced into a premature decision because it is good for someone’s TV programme,” the prime minister told BBC Breakfast.

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Evergrande shares soar as trading in crisis-hit China firm resumes

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Stock was suspended after report billionaire founder Hui Ka Yan was under police surveillance

Shares in the embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande jumped after trading resumed in Hong Kong after their suspension last week.

Shares soared more than 40% early on and were later 20% ahead. Trading in Evergrande and its property services and electric vehicle subsidiaries was suspended on Thursday, after a Bloomberg report that the company’s billionaire chairman and founder, Hui Ka Yan, was under police surveillance. On Friday, the company said he was being investigated over suspected “illegal crimes”.

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Rishi Sunak prepares to confirm scrapping of Manchester leg of HS2

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Tory mayor of West Midlands says PM in danger of ‘cancelling the future’ as bitter row threatens to derail conference

Rishi Sunak has become embroiled in a bitter row with regional politicians, the transport industry and members of his own party as he prepared to announce the cancellation of the multibillion high speed rail line to Manchester.

The prime minister is set to call an emergency cabinet meeting on Tuesday at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, where ministers are expected to give their approval to the biggest infrastructure climbdown in a generation.

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Trump attacks New York court for fraud trial that threatens his business career

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Ex-president rails against judge and prosecutors accusing him of years-long fraud they say inflated his wealth by as much as $2.2bn

Donald Trump attacked the judge and New York prosecutors who have charged him with orchestrating a years-long fraud on Monday as state prosecutors accused the former president of using the scam to inflate his wealth by as much as $2.2bn.

Trump arrived at a New York court just a few miles south of Trump Tower on Monday for the first day of a fraud trial that could see the former president and his family business paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and that has already threatened to end his business career in the city where it started.

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J-pop agency Johnny & Associates to change name amid sexual abuse scandal

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Japanese talent agency to create new firm to manage artists as it tries to distance itself from disgraced founder

The Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates, whose late founder has been accused of sexually abusing hundreds of boys and young men, will change its name and establish a new firm to manage upcoming artists, as it struggles to repair its battered reputation.

The agency’s president, Noriyuki Higashiyama, told a televised press conference on Monday that the company would be renamed Smile-Up, as part of its attempts to distance itself from its disgraced founder, Johnny Kitagawa.

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Inflation uptick increases risk of another RBA interest rate rise, economists say

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First Reserve Bank meeting under new governor Michele Bullock has the potential to surprise after CPI spike

Australia’s inflation rate has picked up again, increasing the risk households will need to endure yet another rate rise before Christmas.

While most traders and economists expect the Reserve Bank board will keep the official cash rate steady at 4.1% when they gather on Tuesday, that outcome is not set in stone and the meeting has the potential to surprise.

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Tory swing voters switch to Labour after Sunak’s green retreat, poll finds

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Survey shows nearly 90% of 2019 Conservative voters say green industry is vital to UK’s economic growth

Almost nine in 10 voters who intend to switch their support from Conservative to Labour candidates in the next general election believe that “green growth” is important for the future of Britain’s economy, according to a poll.

Carried out by pollsters Opinium, the survey found that 82% of all respondents backed the growth of Britain’s green industry to boost the economy, in the same week that the prime minister announced a series of U-turns on the government’s green commitments in an attempt to create a dividing line with Labour before the election.

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Travel website Booking.com leaves hoteliers thousands of dollars out of pocket

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As the website boasts about increased revenue, some partners say they have not been paid for months

Travel website Booking.com has left many hotel operators and other partners across the globe thousands of dollars out of pocket for months on end, blaming the lack of payment on a “technical issue”.

The issue is widespread in Thailand, Indonesia and Europe among hoteliers who are venting their frustrations in Facebook groups as rumours swirl about the cause of the failure to pay.

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Rail passengers in England face further strike disruption

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Saturday train services halted as Aslef drivers begin industrial action in long-running pay dispute

Rail passengers are facing another day of disruption as a strike by train drivers halts virtually all national rail services in England.

Members of the Aslef union have started a 24-hour walkout in the long-running pay dispute, targeting the start of the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

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