#offshore loans

[whats-in-a-sentence]

In May 1985 he wrote to the paper in support of offshore loans as a solution to boosting farm incomes:

The answer . . . could well be foreign-currency loans. The term to be five years with no principal repayment, and an interest rate of about seven-and-a-half per cent to be paid half-yearly in arrears . . . It will be found that the average bank manager knows little of offshore lending. He knows that currencies fluctuate and influence interest rates and is extremely nervous of the whole deal. So he steers his clients back to onshore loans, with 16-17-18 per cent interest rates, which he understands.

"Westpac: The Bank That Broke the Bank" - Edna Carew

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #12

March 29-April 5 2024

President Biden united with Senator Bernie Sanders at the White House to review Democratic efforts to bring down drug prices. President Biden touted his Administration’s capping the price of insulin for seniors at $35 a month and capping the price of  prescription drugs for seniors at $2,000 a year. Biden hopes to expand both to all Americans through legislation next year with a Democratic congress. The President also praised Senator Sanders' efforts as chair of the Senate Health Committee which has lead to major drug manufacturers capping the price of inhalers at $35 a month. “Bernie, you and I have been fighting this for 25 years,” Biden said “Finally, finally we beat Big Pharma. Finally.”

The White House gave an update on its actions around the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster. The federal government working with state and local governments hope to have enough of the remains of the bridge cleared to partially reopen the Port of Baltimore by the end of the month and have the port working normally by May. The Administration has already released $60 million in emergency money toward rebuilding and promises the federal government will cover the cost. The Department of Labor has released $3.5 million for Dislocated Worker Grants and plans up to $25 million to cover lost wages. The Small Business Administration is offering $2 million in emergency loans to affected small businesses. The Administration is working with business and labor unions to keep workers at work and cover lost wages.

Vice-President Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced $20 billion to help finance tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across the country. The kinds of projects that will be financed through this project include distributed clean power generation and storage, net-zero retrofits of homes and small businesses, and zero-emission transportation. 70% of the funds, $14 billion, will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities. The project is part of a public private partnership so for every 1 dollar of federal money, private companies have promised 7 dollars of investment, bring the total to $150 billion for ongoing financing of climate and clean energy projects for years to come.

The Department of Transportation announced $20.5 billion in investments in public transportation. This represents the largest single investment in public transit by the federal government in history. The money will go to improving and expanding subways, light rail, buses, and ferry systems across America. The DoT hopes to use the funds to in particular expand and improve options for public transport for people with disabilities and seniors.

The Departments of Energy and The Treasury announced $4 billion in tax credits for businesses investing in clean energy, critical materials recycling, and Industrial decarbonization. The credits till go toward 100 projects across 35 states. 67% of the credits ($2.7 billion) will go to clean energy, wind, solar, nuclear, clean hydrogen, as well as updates to grids, better batter storage, and investments in electric vehicles. 20% ($800 million) will go to to recycling things like lithium-ion batteries, and 13% ($500 million) to decarbonization in industries like automotive manufacturing, and iron and steel.

The Department of Agriculture announced $1.5 Billion in investments in climate-smart agriculture. USDA plans to support over 180,000 farms representing 225 million acres in the next 5 years move toward more climate friendly agriculture. 40% of the project is reserved for disadvantaged communities, in line with the Biden Administrations standard for climate investment. $100 million has been reserved for projects in Tribal Communities.

The Department of the Interior approved the New England Wind offshore wind project. To be located off Martha’s Vineyard the New England project represents the 8th such off shore wind project approved by the Biden administration. Taken together these projects will generate 10 gigawatts of totally clean energy that can power 4 million homes. The Administration's climate goals call for 30 gigawatts of off shore wind power by 2030. The New England Wind project itself is expected to generate 2,600 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 900,000 homes in the New England area.

The Department of the Interior announced $320 Million for tribal water infrastructure. Interior also announced $244 million to deal with legacy pollution from mining in the State of Pennsylvania, as well as $25 million to protect wetlands in Arizona and $19 million to put solar panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah. While the Department of Energy announced $27 million for 40 projects by state, local and tribal governments to combat climate change

[mariacallous]

The price of bitcoin went over $100,000 for a few hours on Dec. 5, peaking at $103,400. The financial press can’t resist constructing a hand-waving story of market forces, so bitcoin going past $100,000 has been attributed to a market reaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s lining up a slate of pro-cryptocurrency cabinet, advisory, and regulatory picks after the crypto industry put more money into funding Republican candidates in this last election cycle than anyone had previously put into an election in history.

But crypto trading is thin and almost entirely unregulated—perfect conditions for commodity market manipulation. The public image of cryptocurrency is still shaped by the 2023 trial of Sam Bankman-Fried of the failed FTX crypto exchange, culminating in his conviction—and not to mention the hangover from the NFT fiasco. Crypto is seen as the domain of cheap scammers. Ordinary people are not flocking into crypto.

Coincident with the bitcoin price news was the collapse of the Hawk Tuah crypto token. Haliey Welch, who told an oral sex joke that went viral on YouTube, leveraged her momentary fame into a career as an influencer and podcaster. This culminated in the meme-coin cryptocurrency $HAWK, marketed entirely on amusement value, which crashed on launch in what looked very like a pump-and-dump—tokens were dumped on ordinary buyers soon after launch, crashing the price.

Welch denied that insiders had dumped her token and blamed automated snipers who bought the token the moment it was released, then dumped immediately. The Hawk Tuah-token fiasco only strengthened crypto’s image as a place where fools lose their money being foolish.

The price of bitcoin has recovered since the November 2021 peak of the last bubble—but actual-dollar retail trading volumes have not. Coinbase’s retail trading volumes are $127 billion so far in 2024—much better than 2023’s $75 billion, but nothing like the 2021 bubble’s $545 billion.

Bitcoin remains a strangely useless asset that doesn’t do anything. All you can do with it is buy, sell, or hold. The only use for cryptocurrency other than pure zero-sum speculation is bitcoin’s original use case: evading regulations, most often for illegal purchases, money laundering, or dodging sanctions. One might be justified in evading some regulations in some cases—but most are there for good reason.

The largest actual-U.S.-dollar crypto exchange is Coinbase. But price discovery takes place at the venue with the largest trading volume: the offshore exchange Binance. This exchange admitted a string of money laundering offenses in 2023, was fined over $4 billion, and was placed under stringent compliance monitoring by the U.S. Department of Justice and FinCEN.

But the Binance trading floor itself remains an unregulated free-for-all as long as U.S. entities are not caught trading there. Every market manipulation that would be illegal in the United States happens at Binance and similar unregulated, offshore floating crypto casinos—wash trading, flash crashes, delayed settlements, spoofing, and the exchange trading against its own customers.

Bitcoin trading volume is substantially against two dubious U.S.-dollar stablecoins: tether and FDUSD. These are minted in round billions at a time. It is frankly not plausible that anyone put billions of U.S. dollars into tethers or FDUSD to buy bitcoins on an offshore exchange with above-board intentions. They could have just used the money to buy bitcoins directly at a U.S.-dollar crypto exchange or, safest of all, to buy bitcoin ETF shares from any securities broker. The purpose of buying billions of tethers is to manipulate the price of bitcoin.

Each stablecoin is supposedly backed by a U.S. dollar held in a bank account—except when it isn’t. Tether Inc. has long created tethers out of thin air as loans, with the listed backing asset being the loan itself. Banks do this, too, but banks are regulated. Eighteen billion tethers have been created just since Trump’s election on Nov. 5, bringing the total issuance to 135 billion. How far could you pump the price of bitcoin with 18 billion instant pseudo-dollars?

The other use case for tethers is crime. Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up details the value of tethers as a dollar substitute for those too crooked to get dollars��it’s the favored currency for “pig-butchering” romance scams run by human traffickers. The U.K. National Crime Authority and the U.S. Treasury recently cracked an international money-laundering ring that used tethers to serve drug dealers, ransomware groups, Russian espionage operations, and sanctioned entities; the NCA called tether, not bitcoin, the “cryptocurrency du jour.” The news of the bust came out just before bitcoin hit $100,000. Tether-fueled bitcoin pumps seem to coincide with bad news mentioning tethers.

Tether Inc. is sensitive to the criminal use case for its coin and frequently freezes tainted tethers on the requests of the Office of Foreign Assets Control and FinCEN—but only after the fact. This requires Tether Inc.’s operations to be much more organized than they have been previously—such as during the years when the reserve was tracked, not in proper accounts but in a shared spreadsheet that was often out of date. Despite its compliance efforts, Tether Inc. is the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation by the Manhattan office of the Southern District of New York into possible anti-money-laundering and sanctions failures.

Tether Inc. has worked to mend its reputation in the corridors of power. The company does not operate in the United States, but it does keep much of the cash portion of its reserve in U.S. Treasury bills. These are custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald, whose CEO, Howard Lutnick, wanted to become Trump’s new Treasury secretary and will be brought in for commerce. Cantor Fitzgerald recently bought a share in Tether Inc.

After the crypto industry’s success with directing unheard-of quantities of campaign funding to the cause of electing Trump, we should anticipate further such attempts to curry favor. The Trump family’s own crypto project, World Liberty Financial, was set to fail until crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, proprietor of offshore crypto exchange HTX, dived in and bought $30 million of its WLFI coin—taking World Liberty over the threshold so Trump would get a $15 million payout from the project.

Sun is given to flashy stunts, like purchasing Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped banana artwork Comedian (with cryptocurrency) and then eating the banana on stage. These give the media something to talk about other than Sun’s legal and regulatory issues, most recently the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s ongoing suit against Sun for securities violations. Sun looks forward to a more “friendly” U.S. crypto market under the new administration, with the pro-crypto Paul Atkins as Trump’s planned SEC chair.

One of the greatest channels for payback to his crypto allies may be Trump’s proposal at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in June for a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve, apparently on the basis that the nation needs a store of this speculative commodity largely used for crime. Trump originally proposed that the government hold onto bitcoins that had been seized as proceeds of crime, rather than sell them off.

The current proposal to bolster crypto is Senator Cynthia Lummis’ Bitcoin Act of 2024, in which the Treasury and the Federal Reserve would buy 200,000 bitcoins each year for five years. The U.S. government would become the bitcoin holder of last resort, and the beneficiaries would be the crypto industry—and not ordinary Americans.

The incoming U.S. administration wants to clear “experts” from the bureaucracy. If the incoming executive branch wants crypto to operate freely, it will do its best to force crypto through and remove all possible impediments. Crypto’s perennial issues with fraud and impoverishing retail investors, and regulator’s fears of the risk of contagion from crypto to the wider economy, are likely to be glossed over so as to ensure market opportunities for administration insiders.

But in the end, gravity still works, and a balloon can be inflated only so much. The bitcoin bubble is an artifact of market manipulation and has no more economic substance than the Hawk Tuah coin does. The U.S. government may be ripe for plunder, but other nations need to take steps to shield themselves from the impact of rug-pulling on a global scale.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Canary Media:

Three days before President Trump took office, an undersea-cable company abandoned plans to build a plant that would employ up to 350 people in Somerset, Massachusetts. Media outlets were quick to spotlight the loss as a specter of what’s to come for the offshore wind industry that Trump put on ice with the stroke of a pen last week.

It’s a reminder that Trump’s attempts to kill the offshore wind industry threaten not just the decarbonization plans of a few states, but job opportunities for a wide array of Americans. In fact, over 64% of the offshore wind manufacturing and supply-chain investments made or announced are in Republican congressional districts, according to data from industry group Oceantic Network.

The 64% statistic describes mostly private investment into offshore wind but also includes some public investment, including money flowing in from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s cornerstone climate law and a favorite target of Trump. In total, $3.4 billion has either been invested in or pledged to Republican districts to build a domestic offshore wind supply chain.

“Who’s benefiting? It’s the entire United States,” said Liz Burdock, president and CEO of the group, which previously went by the name Business Network for Offshore Wind.

But Trump last week signed an executive order that paused the approval of leases, permits, and loans for both offshore and onshore wind energy pending a federal review. The freeze will likely impact projects in earlier stages of development while the nine commercial-scale offshore wind projects that already have federal permits in hand appear safe.

It could also ripple throughout the emerging U.S. offshore wind supply chain. Developers have signed nearly 2,000 supply-chain contracts with manufacturing firms in 40 states, including some that are hundreds of miles from a coastline, like Ohio and Wisconsin.

For example, said Burdock, Italian shipbuilding firm Fincantieri is building customized offshore vessels in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, which is part of a Republican congressional district. And in Houston, Texas — which she called the ​“engine” of offshore wind manufacturing — multiple companies are adapting technologies used for the region’s offshore oil operations to accommodate offshore wind.

America currently has 73 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in various stages of development, according to the latest data collected by the American Clean Power Association. Before Trump returned to office, the industry group estimated that offshore wind would support 56,000 jobs by 2030. About a third of those would be operation and maintenance jobs while the vast majority would be direct construction jobs, at least in these early years of the sector.

Only one commercial-scale U.S. offshore wind project is in operation today, but at least five more are under construction, all off the coastlines of Northeastern states.

In addition to the money flowing to manufacturing projects to support these installations, Oceantic reports that offshore wind has spurred $1.8 billion worth of direct investments into updating 21 shipyards and across 12 states, like the St. John’s Ship Building shipyard in Palatka, Florida, which sits in a district that’s been represented by a Republican since 1989.

Thousands of workers are also helping to update 25 ports across the East, West and Gulf coasts that will store massive wind components and safely load them onto vessels that can then carry them miles out to sea for installation. Oceantic reports that a recent revitalization project at a Connecticut port created 400 construction jobs and sourced components from Texas.

[trump-executive-orders]

Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government's Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects

Issued January 20, 2025.

Section 1. Temporary Withdrawal of Areas. Consistent with the principles of responsible public stewardship that are entrusted to this office, with due consideration for a variety of relevant factors, including the need to foster an energy economy capable of meeting the country's growing demand for reliable energy, the importance of marine life, impacts on ocean currents and wind patterns, effects on energy costs for Americans -- especially those who can least afford it -- and to ensure that the United States is able to maintain a robust fishing industry for future generations and provide low cost energy to its citizens, I hereby direct as follows:

Under the authority granted to me in section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1341(a), I hereby withdraw from disposition for wind energy leasing all areas within the Offshore Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331. This withdrawal shall go into effect beginning on January 21, 2025, and shall remain in effect until this Presidential Memorandum is revoked.

To the extent that an area is already withdrawn from disposition for wind energy leasing, the area's withdrawal is extended for a time period beginning on January 21, 2025, until this Presidential Memorandum is revoked.

This withdrawal temporarily prevents consideration of any area in the OCS for any new or renewed wind energy leasing for the purposes of generation of electricity or any other such use derived from the use of wind. This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation.

Nothing in this withdrawal affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas. With respect to such existing leases, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Attorney General as needed, shall conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for such removal, and submit a report with recommendations to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.

Sec. 2. Temporary Cessation and Immediate Review of Federal Wind Leasing and Permitting Practices. (a) In light of various alleged legal deficiencies underlying the Federal Government's leasing and permitting of onshore and offshore wind projects, the consequences of which may lead to grave harm -- including negative impacts on navigational safety interests, transportation interests, national security interests, commercial interests, and marine mammals -- and in light of potential inadequacies in various environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy Act to lease or permit wind projects, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Energy, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the heads of all other relevant agencies, shall not issue new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases, or loans for onshore or offshore wind projects pending the completion of a comprehensive assessment and review of Federal wind leasing and permitting practices. The Secretary of the Interior shall lead that assessment and review in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Secretary of Energy, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The assessment shall consider the environmental impact of onshore and offshore wind projects upon wildlife, including, but not limited to, birds and marine mammals. The assessment shall also consider the economic costs associated with the intermittent generation of electricity and the effect of subsidies on the viability of the wind industry.

(b) In light of criticism that the Record of Decision (ROD) issued by the Bureau of Land Management on December 5, 2024, with respect to the Lava Ridge Wind Project Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), as approved by the Department of the Interior, is allegedly contrary to the public interest and suffers from legal deficiencies, the Secretary of the Interior shall, as appropriate, place a temporary moratorium on all activities and rights of Magic Valley Energy, LLC, or any other party under the ROD, including, but not limited to, any rights-of-way or rights of development or operation of any projects contemplated in the ROD. The Secretary of the Interior shall review the ROD and, as appropriate, conduct a new, comprehensive analysis of the various interests implicated by the Lava Ridge Wind Project and the potential environmental impacts.

(c) The Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Energy, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall assess the environmental impact and cost to surrounding communities of defunct and idle windmills and deliver a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, with their findings and recommended authorities to require the removal of such windmills.

(d) The Attorney General may, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, provide notice of this order to any court with jurisdiction over pending litigation related to any aspect of the Federal leasing or permitting of onshore or offshore wind projects or the Lava Ridge Wind Project, and may, in the Attorney General's discretion, request that the court stay the litigation or otherwise delay further litigation, or seek other appropriate relief consistent with this order, pending the completion of the actions described in subsection (a) or subsection (b) of this section, as applicable.

This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. You are authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

[buzzblend]

Widow loses life savings after ‘firetrap’ developer fails to repay €150k loan

A controversial developer who asked to borrow the life savings of an 81-year-old widow has failed to repay the money after half a decade of broken promises.

In 2017, the widow gave €160,000 in cash to developer Paddy Byrne, who built the Millfield Manor estate in Co. Kildare where six houses burnt to the ground in under 30 minutes in 2015.

The cash was for a penthouse apartment in Dublin she planned to move into.

The development was built by Victoria Homes, a company that was established by Mr Byrne’s sister Joan just before Mr Byrne was precluded from acting as a company director in Ireland for five years.

After viewing plans for the €630,000 property, in a development called Greygates in Mount Merrion, the pensioner withdrew the cash from her bank and gave it to Mr Byrne.

Some €10,000 of this was a deposit, with the remaining €150,000 provided on the advice of a third party who was known to Mr Byrne and the widow, who said the cash would secure a good price.

According to a handwritten receipt, signed by Mr Byrne, the money was provided on May 29, 2017.

But in November 2017 the widow, a retired primary school teacher, found a more suitable home and asked for her money back.

Mr Byrne agreed to this, saying he would have no problem selling the penthouse and promptly refunded the €10,000 deposit.

However, he asked that the remaining €150,000 be treated as a 14-month loan and promised to pay a 10% annual interest rate.

This effectively turned the widow into an unwitting creditor of Victoria Homes.

According to a handwritten agreement, signed by Mr Byrne, the loan was to be ‘paid back from the sales proceeds’ of the penthouse at his Greygates development.

More than half a decade later, the loan remains unpaid – even after the widow made a criminal complaint to gardaí and took legal action to secure a judgement.

As it is a civil matter, the Garda investigation faltered. And because various other unpaid creditors had previously secured judgements against Victoria Homes, the widow is now unlikely to get her savings back. During the Celtic Tiger years, Paddy Byrne was renowned for his €2.4m Sikorsky helicopter and sponsorship of the Irish National Hunt festival.

But in 2011 his then-firm, Barrack Homes, went bust and Mr Byrne declared bankruptcy in Britain with debts of €100m.

He was banned from acting as a UK director for 10 years in 2012.

This ban was scheduled to end in 2022 – and ran the full course – but it only applied in the UK and Wales.

According to the UK insolvency register today, Mr Byrne’s discharge from UK bankruptcy is ‘suspended indefinitely’ until the fulfilment of conditions made in a 2012 court order.

Separately, in Ireland, he was also restricted from acting as a director for a period of five years – which ended in January 2018.

Mr Byrne is also known for building the Millfield Manor estate in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, where half a dozen houses were razed to the ground within 30 minutes in 2015.

A report into the blaze found ‘major and life-threatening serious shortfalls and discrepancies and deviations from the minimum requirements of the national mandatory building regulations’ at Mr Byrne’s development.

Today, having exited bankruptcy, Mr Byrne is best known as the figurehead behind Victoria Homes and associated businesses, which was set up by his sister and her husband in December 2012, while he was bankrupt.

Mr Byrne was not a director or owner of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy. But, in 2017, Mr Byrne’s sister and her husband stepped back from Victoria Homes, transferring their shares to an offshore entity in Belize city called Victoria Holdings.

In November 2022, the main lenders to Victoria Homes – the Lotus Development Group – forced the firm into receivership for the second time.

In 2020, Lotus had forced a previous short-lived receivership before agreeing a deal that saw Victoria Homes begin trading normally once more.

Today, Mr Byrne appears to have left Victoria Homes behind and seems to be focusing on a new firm instead.

Set up in the summer of 2020, Branach Developments is entirely owned by Mr Byrne and is not encumbered by any bank debt or mortgages as Victoria Homes was.

According to the latest filed accounts, for the year ended 2021, Branach Developments held ‘tangible assets’ of €210,000 and ‘stocks’ of €600,000.

The accounts also show that, in 2021, Mr Byrne provided the company with an interest-free loan of €1,024,438.

Just last week Mr Byrne’s new firm was one of the winners at the National Property Awards sponsored by the Business Post and Deloitte, among others.

At the award ceremony, Branach Developments took home the prize for best sustainability initiative of the year.

However, Mr Byrne, who shuns publicity and is rarely photographed, does not appear to have attended the ceremony and the award was accepted by a colleague.

This week the Irish Mail on Sunday sent queries to Mr Byrne via his mobile phone, his email at Victoria Homes and his email at Branach Developments, without response.

Queries to his solicitor and the separate accountancy firms representing Victoria Homes and Branach Developments also went unanswered as did calls to the numbers on the websites of these firms.

Mr Byrne also previously declined to respond to questions from the MoS relating to the establishment of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy.

At the time, Mr Byrne appeared to be living at Ballinrahin House, close to Rathangan on the border of Offaly and Kildare.

The home is a luxury build on 26 acres of stud-railed paddocks with six stables and a 1.3km tree-lined avenue behind electric gates.

The property was on sale for €2.8m in 2009, but land registry records confirm that, in November 2014, it was sold to Victoria Homes for a knockdown price of €484,000.

Ownership of Ballinrahin House was transferred offshore to Victoria Holdings in Belize on April 10, 2018, just weeks before Mr Byrne was due to repay the €150,000 back to the widow.

[theculturedmarxist]

In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic raged unchecked across America, President Donald Trump offered Democratic state governors an exceedingly cruel ultimatum: If you want help from the federal government, you “have to treat us well.” That exchange — lifesaving medical equipment for blue-state political support — reflects the inverse logic of the Biden administration as it seeks to revamp domestic manufacturing by directing billions of dollars into deep-red states, money that will be used to subsidize lower-paying jobs that will ultimately be able to replace union work in states that voted for Joe Biden.

In late June, the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office granted a $9.2 billion loan — its largest ever — to Ford and its joint venture partner, the Korean firm BlueOval SK, to build battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky. The cash injection follows other projects, like a sprawling chip manufacturing plant and close to a dozen solar manufacturing sites across the South.

The loan, issued from the Department of Energy office that drew billions of dollars for investments in green energy under the Inflation Reduction Act, stems from Biden’s pledge to make half of all vehicles sold in 2030 zero emission. That undertaking means more plants that manufacture components of gas-powered vehicles are sure to close in coming years. Those jobs are overwhelmingly union and heavily based in swing states or blue states. While the administration’s investments so far may notch it a win in the war against offshoring and the White House’s perceived threat in the looming menace of Chinese competition, the White House’s handling of the transition to green energy — including where it invests federal dollars and whether it protects union workers’ jobs — will have implications not only for the climate crisis, but also for Democrats’ electoral prospects.

The success of the climate program will require continued federal commitment. Biden is placing a bet that clean energy investments could ultimately work the same way as the military-industrial complex. The military and its allied contractors have made sure to set up bases and/or manufacturing facilities in nearly every congressional district in the country, with extra attention paid to areas represented by key lawmakers. That has produced durable support for ever-expanding military budgets. Whether the same could be accomplished for the clean energy industry is an open question, but so far, Republicans from districts that have won federal awards have nevertheless voted to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which funds the tax breaks. By subsidizing the decline of union jobs, the Biden administration risks empowering lawmakers who will then move to end the subsidies altogether.

“What Biden is doing is politically insane, environmentally bankrupt, and it’s poor economics,” Larry Cohen, former president of the Communications Workers of America and board member of Our Revolution, told The Intercept. “The White House and my old friend John Podesta” — who is overseeing the federal government’s spending of climate incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act — “should have labor-centered guidelines about where these investments are going, whether it’s in purple states like Michigan, whether it’s in Philadelphia, whether it’s in Ohio, there are acres and acres of devastated industrial landscape that need new investment as opposed to cornfields. The total lack of consideration for workers could certainly make the difference in 2024.”

During the 2020 presidential election, Biden won Michigan by just 150,000 votes. It was a hard-fought win for Democrats, who had lost the state in 2016 for the first time in two decades — and it was due in no small part to the United Auto Workers’, or UAW, political machine, which spent just under $10 million on nationwide political donations during the 2020 election cycle and many millions more on political outreach and media in Michigan. That money followed Biden’s promise to be the most pro-union president in recent memory, a claim he has continued to make while in office.

Ahead of 2024, Michigan Democrats find themselves in a strong position against their GOP opponents. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cruised to reelection with a 10-point margin in November after seizing on the need to safeguard abortion access from GOP attacks, and, for the first time in 40 years, Democrats gained control of both of Michigan’s legislative chambers.

Despite the tailwinds, the Biden campaign will need to court every voter it can to clinch the election in what is still a purple state. Republicans, who will also be vying to gain a Senate seat in Michigan, have signaled that they believe the state is competitive given the election year turnout boost that a Trump candidacy will provide.

The UAW’s 130,000 members in Michigan — almost the same number of votes that made the difference for Biden three years ago — form an important voting bloc. In addition to their individual votes, UAW members are active donors and get-out-the-vote organizers. The union’s newly elected president, Shawn Fain, recently said the UAW would continue withholding the endorsement of its hundreds of thousands of members for Biden’s reelection until more progress was made on supporting members through the green energy transition.

Fain also lashed out at the president when news of the Energy Department loan to Ford broke, reminding him that union support is a privilege, not a right.

“We have been absolutely clear that the switch to electric engine jobs, battery production and other [electric vehicle] manufacturing cannot become a race to the bottom,” Fain said in a June 23 statement. “Not only is the federal government not using its power to turn the tide — they’re actively funding the race to the bottom with billions in public money.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents autoworkers in her Detroit-area district, was similarly critical of the loan. “The federal government shouldn’t be subsidizing the automakers’ expansion into states that are hostile to labor rights,” Tlaib told The Intercept. “The automakers must act fairly towards its union workers, especially after the UAW workers sacrificed so much during hard times for the industry. The rapid transition to electric vehicles that we need cannot come at the expense of the people making them.”

Union members have already taken losses in the run-up to the Biden administration’s investments in green energy. General Motors, another one of the big three automakers, recently opened a battery plant in Warren, Ohio, where starting wages for union members are about half of what wages were at an Ohio plant the manufacturer shuttered in 2019. Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized GM’s reduction in wages at the new plant, which opened last year. “The government is putting a lot of money into transitioning our economy to a non-fossil fuel economy,” Sanders said in April. “We want to see workers get a fair shake, not just the CEOs of the companies.”

The same week Ford secured a loan for its joint venture, the manufacturer announced it would lay off significant numbers of employees, following a 3,000-person cull in August of last year. While the plants planned for Tennessee and Kentucky will create 7,500 jobs, according to the Energy Department, workers will have to fight for higher wages and benefits while the company continues to downsize its combustion operations.

When it announced the joint venture loan to Ford, the Department of Energy’s loan office project said that it was committed to creating good-paying jobs with labor protections. “[BlueOval SK] is actively engaging with local stakeholders to develop a diverse local workforce and network of suppliers. To ensure the availability of skilled labor for construction, BOSK is constructing the projects under project labor agreements. In addition, [the Loan Program Office] works with all borrowers to create good-paying jobs with strong labor standards during construction, operations, and throughout the life of the loan and to adhere to a strong Community Benefits Plan.”

Yet neither the loan office nor the White House responded to The Intercept’s questions about the community benefits plan, including whether there are legally binding aspects in the loan terms that could provide tangible benefits for workers seeking to unionize in right-to-work states.

Ford, for its part, told The Intercept that it “has every reason to expect that BlueOval SK will pay competitive wages and benefits so they can attract and retain the workforce needed to build high tech batteries. Employees at BlueOval SK’s battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky will be able to choose whether they organize, a right that Ford fully respects and supports,” according to spokesperson Melissa Miller. Asked whether the loan contained any terms to that effect, Miller added, “We’re not able to provide additional details on loan terms.”

Fain, the UAW president, took a different view. “These companies are extremely profitable and will continue to make money hand over fist whether they’re selling combustion engines or [electric vehicles],” Fain said. “Yet the workers get a smaller and smaller piece of the pie. Why is Joe Biden’s administration facilitating this corporate greed with taxpayer money?”

[nicklloydnow]

“Is China about to have its ‘Lehman’ moment? After Chinese property developer Evergrande filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S., that’s been the question some have whispered. The country’s debt crisis that’s rumbled on for two years is coming to a head, with China’s shadow bank sector now defaulting on payments.

(…)

Last week, Evergrande filed for protection in the U.S. under Chapter 15 of the bankruptcy code, which helps keep creditors at bay when a company is restructuring. Evergrande’s debt is held mainly by Western investors, hence filing in Manhattan.

It’s been at the center of the Chinese property sector’s debt crisis, which first unfolded in 2021 and has reared its head again this summer. Nearly two years ago, Evergrande defaulted on making interest payments on bonds, which sparked a set of failures across the Chinese property sector.

Companies accounting for roughly 40% of China’s home sales have now defaulted on debt since the crisis first unfolded. This has led to unfinished homes and ‘ghost cities’, supply chain disruptions and institutional investors out of pocket.

(…)

It’s not the only property developer struggling this week. China’s Country Garden Holdings is looking to restructure its bond repayments totaling $535 million over three years to stave off financial trouble.

(…)

Given real estate is estimated to make up 30% of China’s GDP, there are fears the contagion in China’s real estate market could spread and create a downward spiral of the property market depressing growth.

Last week, there were rare protests in Beijing after bank subsidiary Zhongrong defaulted on several investment products without immediate plans to repay its clients. Its parent company, Zhongzhi, manages $138 billion in assets, 10% of which are exposed to the real estate market.

Moody’s has previously stated that the increased amount of defaults from property developers has raised Chinese banks’ non-performing loan rate to 4.4% by the end of last year, up from 1.9% in 2020. China’s property sector is also considered the world's largest asset class, worth around $62 trillion, so any further signs of trouble could lead to the Chinese government intervening.

(…)

As for the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong, it’s officially entered a bear market. Around half the stocks on the index are now oversold, and it’s lost 11% of its value in August so far, which sets the scene for the Hang Seng’s worst performance since October.

The fear has spread to the U.S. markets in August, with the S&P 500 suffering three straight weeks of decline. The Nasdaq lost 5.5% in value in the same period, while the Dow Jones has seen a 3.2% decline.

Several banks have also downgraded China’s GDP growth outlook, which was previously estimated at 5% for 2023. Nomura now predicts 4.8% growth, with the likes of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Barclays all following suit.”

“Country Garden Holdings Co., the distressed Chinese developer that earlier this month missed interest payments on some dollar bonds, is leaving investors in the dark about the exact date the grace period ends.

That’s adding to signs of opaqueness in the nation’s offshore junk debt market, which has lost $87 billion in the past two years.

One of China’s biggest developers, Country Garden must repay a combined $22.5 million in two coupons within the grace period, otherwise creditors could call a default that would be the developer’s first on such debt. That would threaten even worse impact than defaulted peer China Evergrande Group given Country Garden has four times as many projects.

(…)

China’s worsening property debt crisis has prompted a slew of developers including Evergrande to use grace periods in recent years. In many cases, doing so has only bought time before they eventually went on to default, adding to record debt failures.

Growing concerns that the same fate could strike Country Garden, which had 1.4 trillion yuan ($192 billion) of total liabilities at the end of last year, have dragged Chinese junk dollar bonds deeper into distress under 65 cents. The market value of Bloomberg’s index for the securities, mostly issued by builders, has shrunk to only about $44.7 billion from some $131.8 billion two years ago.”

[newstfionline]

Saturday, May 6, 2023

Canada mulls expelling China diplomat for targeting lawmaker (AP) Canada’s foreign minister said Thursday the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said her department was summoning China’s ambassador to a meeting to underline that Canada won’t tolerate such interference. She said the intelligence agency report indicated that opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticized Beijing’s human rights record. “We’re assessing different options including the expulsion of diplomats,” Joly said before a Parliament committee. Many governments, the United Nations, and human rights groups accuse China of sweeping a million or more people from its Uyghur community and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups into detention camps, where many have said they were tortured, sexually assaulted, and forced to abandon their language and religion. China denies the accusations, which are based on evidence including interviews with survivors and photos and satellite images from Uyghur’s home province of Xinjiang, a major hub for factories and farms in far western China.

Smaller Banks Are Scrambling as Share Prices Plunge (NYT) A cluster of regional banks scrambled on Thursday to convince the public of their financial soundness, even as their stock prices plunged and investors took bets on which might be the next to fall. The tumult brought questions about the future of the lenders to the fore, suggesting a new phase in the crisis that began two months ago with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and was punctuated on Monday by the seizure and sale of First Republic Bank. PacWest and Western Alliance were in the eye of the storm, despite the companies’ protestations that their finances were solid. PacWest’s shares lost 50 percent of their value on Thursday and Western Alliance fell 38 percent. Other midsize banks, including Zions and Comerica, also posted double-digit percentage declines. Unlike the banks that failed after depositors rushed to pull their money out, the lenders now under pressure have reported relatively stable deposit bases and don’t sit on mountains of soured loans. The most immediate threat the banks face, analysts said, is a crisis of confidence.

Oil boom starts to transform Guyana (AP) Villagers in this tiny coastal community lined up on the soggy grass, leaned into the microphone and shared what they wanted: a library, streetlights, school buses, homes, a grocery store, reliable electricity, wider roads and better bridges. “Please help us,” said Evadne Pellew-Fomundam—a 70-year-old who lives in Ann’s Grove, one of Guyana’s poorest communities—to the country’s prime minister and other officials who organized the meeting to hear people’s concerns and boost their party’s image ahead of municipal elections. The list of needs is long in this South American country of 791,000 people that is poised to become the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer, placing it ahead of Qatar, the United States, Mexico and Norway. The oil boom will generate billions of dollars for this largely impoverished nation. It’s also certain to spark bitter fights over how the wealth should be spent in a place where politics is sharply divided along ethnic lines: 29% of the population is of African descent and 40% of East Indian descent, from indentured servants brought to Guyana after slavery was abolished. Change is already visible. In the capital, Georgetown, buildings made of glass, steel and concrete rise above colonial-era wooden structures, with shuttered sash windows, that are slowly decaying.

Beyond King Charles (Washington Post) Though the British monarchy attracts the most global attention, there are wealthier, more powerful royals among the 28 monarchs around the world. Seventeen of them are kings. Margrethe II of Denmark is the only queen. The microstate of Andorra has co-princes, the president of France and a Spanish bishop. Japan has an emperor. Brunei and Oman have sultans. Liechtenstein and Monaco have princes. Qatar and Kuwait have emirs. Luxembourg has a grand duke. And the United Arab Emirates has a president, though he is a monarch. Although Charles is estimated to have a personal net worth between $750 million and $1.44 billion, others far surpass him. Leaders in Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Brunei are estimated to be worth well over $10 billion.

Italian foreign minister calls off Paris trip after French ‘insults’ (Reuters) Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called off a trip to Paris on Thursday, saying the French interior minister had offended Italy and its Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with unacceptable “insults”. Earlier, the French minister, Gerald Darmanin, told RMC radio that Meloni was “unable to solve the migration problems on which she was elected” and accused her of “lying” to voters that she could end a crisis over growing numbers of boat migrants. News of his comments came as Tajani was preparing to fly to Paris to see his French counterpart—a trip that was aimed partly at improving relations between the two European Union countries that have grown increasingly brittle. France swiftly issued a statement in which it sought to reassure Rome of its willingness to work closely with Italy, but it was not enough to persuade Tajani to catch his plane. It was the latest in a series of clashes between Paris and Rome since Meloni took office last October at the head of a nationalist, conservative government which has a very different world vision to that of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Kremlin accuses Washington of directing drone attack on Putin (Washington Post) The Kremlin spokesman on Thursday accused the United States of ordering what Moscow alleges was an assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin with two drones that were sent to attack the Russian president’s official residence. “We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv, but in Washington, and Kyiv does what it is told,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. John Kirby, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said Peskov “is just lying.”

Russian mercenary chief Prigozhin says his forces will leave Bakhmut next week (Reuters) Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force, said in a sudden and dramatic announcement on Friday that his forces would leave the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that they have been trying to capture since last summer. Prigozhin said they would pull back on May 10—ending their involvement in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war—because of heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies. He asked defence chiefs to insert regular army troops in their place. “I’m pulling Wagner units out of Bakhmut because in the absence of ammunition they’re doomed to perish senselessly,” Prigozhin said in a statement. Prigozhin has vented increasing anger at what he describes as lack of support from the Russian defence establishment. Earlier on Friday he appeared in a video surrounded by dozens of corpses he said were Wagner fighters, and yelling and swearing at Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov. He said they were to blame for Wagner’s losses because they had starved it of ammunition.

Earthquake-Proof, Not Corruption-Proof: Turkey’s Needless Deaths (NYT) The building began convulsing at 4:17 a.m. Firat Yayla was awake in bed, scrolling through videos on his phone. His mother was asleep down the hall. The region along Turkey’s border with Syria was known for earthquakes, but this apartment complex was new, built to withstand disaster. It was called Guclu Bahce, or Mighty Garden. Mr. Yayla’s own cousin had helped build it. He and his business partner had boasted that the complex could withstand even the most powerful tremor. So, as the earth heaved for more than a minute, Mr. Yayla, 21, and his 62-year-old mother, Sohret Guclu, a retired schoolteacher, remained inside. At that very moment, though, Mr. Yayla’s cousin, the developer, was leaping for safety from a second-story balcony. What Mr. Yayla and his mother had not known was that the system to ensure that buildings were safely constructed to code had been tainted by money and politics. A developer won zoning approval for the project after donating more than $200,000 to a local soccer club, where the mayor is an honorary president. The building inspector said that, even after the project had failed its inspection, the developers used political influence to get the doors open. The Feb. 6 earthquake revealed the shaky foundation on which so much growth was built. More than 50,000 people died as buildings toppled, crumbled or pancaked. Guclu Bahce, the mighty earthquake-proof complex, was among them. An estimated 65 people died there.

8 Are Dead in Shooting in Serbia, a Day After School Massacre (NYT) The Serbian police arrested a suspect early Friday after an hourslong overnight manhunt for a gunman who killed eight people and injured at least 14 others near Belgrade, according to Serbia’s Interior Ministry. The attack late Thursday was the nation’s second mass shooting in two days and rattled a country still reeling from an attack at a school that killed eight students and a security guard. Hundreds of police officers had gone door to door in the search for a 21-year-old male suspect, according to RTS, Serbia’s public broadcaster. They deployed helicopters and surrounded the area where they believed he was hiding, the report said. The gunman, who was in a moving vehicle, used an automatic weapon and fled the scene, according to RTS, which said the attack took place around Mladenovac, a municipality in the southern part of the capital, Belgrade.

Press group: China biggest global jailer of journalists (AP) China was the biggest global jailer of journalists last year with more than 100 behind bars, according to a press freedom group, as President Xi Jinping’s government tightened control over society. Xi’s government also was one of the biggest exporters of propaganda content, according to Reporters without Boarders. China ranked second to last on the group’s annual index of press freedom, behind only neighbor North Korea. The ruling Communist Party has tightened already strict controls on media in China, where all newspapers and broadcasters are state-owned. Websites and social media are required to enforce censorship that bans material that might spread opposition to one-party rule.

Israelis call out perks for ultra-Orthodox in latest protests (Washington Post) Israel’s protest movement, having forced the government to pause its attempt to overhaul the national judiciary system, pivoted to other targets in demonstrations across the country Thursday, including the exemption from military service and other special privileges long granted to the growing ultra-Orthodox community. Thousands marched for a “Day of Disruption to Demand Equality” focused on the unequal burdens of citizenship and status of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim as they are known in Israel. Ultra-Orthodox citizens are largely shielded from the country’s mandatory draft and educational standards and their families benefit from heavy public subsidies that allow boys and men to devote years to religious study instead of working and paying taxes in the mainstream economy. Demonstrators blocked roads, lined bridges and picketed the homes of cabinet members. While many still chanted against the judicial overhaul, which some ministers are seeking to revive, most focused on other concerns, including spiking inflation and rising crime. The anger against the special status of the Haredi has long been a dynamic in Israeli politics, but it has grown more intense as the community has ballooned to roughly 13 percent of Israel’s total population, making them the country’s fastest growing demographic.

Fighting rages in Khartoum, civilians complain of being forgotten (Reuters) Heavy gunfire echoed around Khartoum again on Friday as civilians trapped by fighting in the Sudanese capital said the army and rival paramilitary forces were ignoring their plight. “It’s been four days without electricity and our situation is difficult... We are the victims of a war that we aren’t a part of. No one cares about the citizen,” said Othman Hassan, 48, a resident of the southern outskirts of Khartoum. Despite multiple ceasefire declarations, the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) appeared to be battling each other for control of territory in the capital ahead of proposed talks. The sudden collapse into warfare has killed hundreds, triggered a humanitarian disaster, sent an exodus of refugees to neighbouring states and risks dragging in outside powers, further destabilising an already restive region.

[bottledfool]

Today I learned that "inflammatory misinformation" is when a post is almost 100% correct but says something mean about Biden.

* Biden's abortion access executive order was to say that he thinks congress should really do something about codifying Roe v. Wade into law, the thing Democrats have been promising to do for decades but somehow have never gotten around to doing, almost like it isn't actually a priority. The order also provided a few accomodations for women who are forced to travel out if state to get abortions, but did nothing to actually fix the fact that they had to do so in the first place. Aside from these few accommodations - which shouldn't be necessary anyway - Biden just did the same thing every Democrat president has ever done about Roe v. Wade: the bare minimum.

* Biden's total student debt relief totals about 12.7% of all student loan debt. Much better than nothing, but far from what it should be.

* Biden's executive orders responding to covid were fine in 2021, setting aside his complete failure to properly help those who were put out of work during that time. A one-time check for less than what most people pay for a month's rent is not real assistance. What is less fine is the fact that, while covid is still very much around and people are still getting sick at rates the government would prefer to ignore, covid vaccine mandates were actually removed by another executive order in May 2023. This one was handled somewhat better for a little while, but has been fumbled all the same.

* Biden brought the US back into the Paris Accord, which, yeah, that was good. The extent of his climate change work after that has been to sign off on a federal budget and restate some vague commitments from the Clinton administration to hopefully reduce pollution and to build some offshore wind turbines. Oh, and after making a big show at the start of his administration of opposing the creation of that new Alaskan pipeline Trump tried to push through, Biden then approved it anyway last year.

* Biden doesn't seem to have signed any executive orders related to BLM protests. He signed one that said something to the effect of "Boy, we should really hold police officers more accountable when they murder people," but no protections have been afforded by the Biden administration to racial justice protests of any kind.

* His school shooting executive order consists of slightly strengthening red flag laws, which do nothing to prevent people from getting guns in the first place, and apply specifically to the circumstances under which someone close to a gun owner - specifically a gun owner with a documented history of domestic abuse or mental illness - can go to the police, tell them they think that person is a danger to themselves or others, and if the police conduct an investigation and agree with them, then that person can have their guns temporarily confiscated. The exact wording the Biden administration used was "as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation." If you cut through all the impressive-sounding language, even his own administration admits that these executive orders don't fundamentally change anything.

* Biden did sign an executive order providing some relief to Hawaii. One out of seven, baybeeeee!!

Biden - and Democrats in general - are very good at writing mandates that sound like they're getting a lot done, when the actual crux of them is a series of polite suggestions that they have no intention of seriously implementing.

Also, even if we assume he did all the positive things the post above mine claims he did, he's still enthusiastically supporting and enabling the genocide of Palestinians. All the good things in the world do not justify that.

In short,

[tsmom1219]

Trump’s executive orders cause hesitation, confusion for clean energy developers

Read the full story at Utility Dive. Several of the executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in the first two weeks of his second term have impacted the clean energy industry, including: a six month pause on offshore wind development in federal waters, a pause on certain Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding and a freeze on federal grants and loans. Some…

[mariacallous]

Journalists from 69 global media outlets working under the auspices of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the German publication Paper Trail Media have published a new investigation titled Cyprus Confidential. The reporting relies on 3.6 million leaked documents from six Cypriot companies described as “financial enablers.” Among other findings, the journalists uncovered that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has long denied having any connections with Vladimir Putin, sold a quarter of the shares of one of Russia’s largest advertising holdings to entrepreneurs close to the Russian president in 2010. Additionally, the project’s investigators determined that Hubert Seipel, a German journalist who has written multiple books praising Putin, received hundreds of thousands of euros from offshore accounts linked to Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov. Meduza outlines some of the investigation’s key findings.

Reporting based on records from the leak

The auditing firm PwC Cyprus may have violated sanctions by continuing to work on transferring Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov’s shares in a German travel company to his partner in the days after the E.U. named him in new sanctions. Leaked documents suggest PwC Cyprus also rushed to restructure assets owned by Russian billionaires Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov as U.K. sanctions loomed.

A prominent German journalist, Hubert Seipel, received at least €600,000 ($653,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov (see above) to support two books seen as favorable to Putin. According to The Guardian, the revelations about Seipel will likely fuel further debate “over the role parts of [Germany’s] political and business elite played in helping to keep Putin in power.”

With the help of a Cypriot corporate services firm called MeritServus, Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev was able to move debt worth millions of dollars between his shell companies (remaining in control of the shares while keeping it effectively “off the books”) despite Western sanctions against him for his support of Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine. MeritServus and Malofeev’s Cypriot company likely violated sanctions in these loan deals.

Just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich transferred control of his $1-billion art collection to his ex-wife, Dasha Zhukova. The switcharoo was likely to prevent Western officials from freezing or seizing the collection in case of sanctions against Abramovich, which the U.K. and E.U. imposed in March 2022 for his alleged association with Vladimir Putin. (Zhukova, a U.S. citizen, has not been sanctioned.)

Abramovich was also part of a secret $40-million deal in 2010 that used offshore shell companies to conceal his involvement in the transfer of shares in the profitable advertising company Video International to two close associates of Vladimir Putin known as his personal “wallets,” Sergey Roldugin and Alexander Plekhov. “The secret deal with Mr. Roldugin and Mr. Plekhov,” writes The BBC, “suggests a close financial relationship between Mr. Abramovich and President Putin” (which Abramovich denies).

Roman Abramovich sold his stake in an advertising firm to Putin’s friends

In September 2003, two Cypriot companies called Finoto Holdings and Grosora Holdings purchased 25 percent of the shares in Video International, a major Russian advertising holding company. At the time, according to the BBC, Video International “enjoyed a dominant position” in Russia’s domestic TV advertising market and was “half a step away” from the Kremlin.

Each of the companies paid just $130,000 for 12.5-percent stakes in Video International. According to journalists who analyzed newly leaked records, an entity called the Sara Trust Settlement owned both companies through a series of intermediaries — and its ultimate beneficiary was Roman Abramovich.

The following year, Abramovich received $1.8 million in dividends from the company — seven times what he had paid for the shares.

In December 2010, Finoto Holdings sold its share of another Cypriot company called Med Media Network, which nominally belonged to cellist Sergey Roldugin, a close friend of the Russian president who E.U. investigators who studied the Panama Papers in 2016 referred to a “Putin’s wallet.”

On the same day, Grosora Holdings sold its own stake in the company to Namiral Trading Ltd, a company with ties to Alexander Plekhov, an entrepreneur close to Rossiya Bank founder Yury Kovalchuk. The total value of the two sales amounted to $40 million.

According to the independent Russian outlet iStories, which took part in the ICIJ investigation, Abramovich’s role in the Video International deals was not previously known publicly. For years, observers assumed 100 percent of the company’s shares had been sold to entities associated with Yury Kovalchuk.

After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Alexander Plekhov came under U.K. sanctions for his ties to Vladimir Putin, while Sergey Roldugin was sanctioned by the U.K., the E.U., and the U.S. Washington dubbed the musician “the custodian of President Putin’s offshore wealth.”

In the spring of 2023, the Swiss prosecutor’s office, which was investigating cases involving managers of Gazprombank’s Swiss affiliate, referred to Roldugin and Plekhov as “straw men” for Rossiya Bank, which the U.S. government has referred to as “Putin’s personal cashbox.”

Abramovich has long denied having any connections with Putin. In 2010, a representative of the billionaire stated that he had “no financial relationship” with Putin, who was prime minister at the time.

In 2021, Abramovich sued journalist and former Financial Times Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton over an excerpt from her book Putin’s People that said Abramovich had purchased Chelsea Football Club at Putin’s request. Abramovich won the case in a London court, and the book’s British publisher, HarperCollins, agreed to change the text and apologize to the businessman.

Abramovich did not respond to journalists’ questions regarding the Cyprus Confidential findings. Sergey Roldugin and Alexander Plekhov also declined to comment.

Generous payments to a top German ‘Russia expert’ for books about Putin

Another part of the investigation links Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov to the German journalist Hubert Seipel, who has authored multiple complimentary books and films about Vladimir Putin.

In 2012, Seipel wrote and directed the film I, Putin: A Portrait, which was nominated for a German TV award for best documentary. In 2015 and 2021, he published the books Putin: The Logic of Power and Putin’s Power: Why Europe Needs Russia, both of which became bestsellers. Seipel has met with Putin multiple times and is considered one of Germany’s leading Russia experts. His public statements, meanwhile, often echo the Russian president’s own rhetoric.

The Cyprus leak reveals that in 2018, Seipel signed a “sponsorship agreement” for the creation and promotion of a book about the “political climate in Russia.” The deal ultimately led to the publication of Putin’s Power by the Hamburg-based publisher Hoffmann und Campe. According to the agreement, Seipel received at least 600,000 euros ($653,000). In addition, the document also contains a handwritten note that reads, “Similar to the 2013 agreement: biography of Putin.” This suggests the same sponsor paid Seipel for his earlier book on Putin.

The payment was made by a British Virgin Islands company called De Vere Worldwide Corporation, which is registered under the name of Igor Voskresensky, one of the directors of the Russian energy company Power Machines. The witness’s signature on the agreement belongs to Dmitry Fedotov, the head of the legal department of the steel company Severstal.

The funds for Seipel’s payments were issued to De Vere Worldwide from offshore accounts whose beneficiary was billionaire Alexey Mordashov, the owner of both Power Machines and Severstal. In 2018–2019, two of Mordashov’s offshore entities transferred a total of 610,000 euros ($664,000) to De Vere Worldwide.

In an interview with Paper Trail Media, Seipel admitted that Mordashov sponsored his books about Putin. However, he disputed that idea that this discredits the books themselves, saying the sponsorship agreements with De Vere Worldwide included a clause stating that he was under no obligation to his sponsor regarding the books’ contents. He also described Mordashov as an “entrepreneur who sponsors projects with private funds.”

Hoffmann und Campe said in a statement that it reserves the right to take legal action against Seipel for concealing the conflict of interest.

Alexey Mordashov, who Forbes lists as Russia’s fifth-richest billionaire, did not respond to journalists’ requests for comment.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Canary Media:

America’s newly inaugurated president sought to deliver on his campaign pledge to ​“end” offshore wind development on his first day in office. ​“We aren’t going to do the wind thing,” Trump said Monday, moments before signing an executive order that presses the pause button on new activity within the sector.

Wind opponents had been calling for an all-out freeze on turbine construction — a so-called ​“stop work” order. But the order signed by Trump stopped short of that ambition. It paused the approval of leases, permits, and loans for both offshore and onshore wind energy pending a federal review. It also temporarily withdrew new offshore wind lease sales and called for a review of the ​“ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending existing wind energy leases.”

“While it’s clear that this will essentially ban permitting activity, we expected that,” said Christian Roselund, a renewables analyst and volunteer for Climate Action Rhode Island, a pro-wind advocacy group. He described the federal permitting process under Trump’s first administration as ​“essentially frozen.”

There are seven offshore wind projects whose permitting was underway and several more in earlier stages that will now be temporarily halted by the order, according to data collected by Canary Media from the federal permitting dashboard.

But seemingly safe from Trump’s pause are plans for nine commercial-scale offshore wind projects that already have federal permits in hand. Five are actively under construction across a swath of ocean that reaches from Maryland to Massachusetts. In total, the capacity of the fully permitted offshore wind plans left untouched by Trump’s order is 13,973 megawatts — enough to power nearly 5 million homes.

At least one company, Dominion Energy, has already confirmed its project is moving forward as planned. The utility told the publication Virginia Business that its 2.6 gigawatt offshore wind project off the coast of Virginia would be completed by 2026 as scheduled. 

[ajunicetryagain]

For a bit of context, let's look at Donald Trump's record and promises in the same areas:

Trump's EPA cut the minimum number of lead pipes that need to be replaced each year by more than half – 3%, down from 7% under the previous 1991 rule. [Bloomberg Law]

Trump notoriously had his own fraudulent university, repeatedly tried to eliminate public service debt forgiveness and has consistently opposed Biden's efforts to forgive student loan debt. [Center for American Progress / CEPR]

Trump made the largest cuts to national monuments in the nation's history, slashing Grand Staircase-Escalante by half and Bears Ears by a staggering 85%. [The Center for Biological Diversity]

Trump rolled back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards under a so-called SAFE Vehicles Rule that his own EPA warned would be detrimental to safety. [Reuters / Public Citizen]

Trump repeatedly cut the budget for the IRS, targeted low-income people for audits and may be facing his own $100 million tax bill following an audit. [CBPP / Americans for Tax Fairness / ProPublica]

Trump, famously anti-offshore wind, has vowed to immediately end offshore wind if elected. [Washington Post / The Guardian]

Trump eliminated the DACA program, a move the Supreme Court (without all three of his eventual appointments) thankfully overturned. [National Immigration Law Center]

Trump signed a child welfare executive order – largely a repackaging of existing programs – that authorized faith-based organizations to turn away qualified prospective parents based on their sexuality, gender identity or religion. [Lambda Legal]

Trump appointed more than 200 federal judges, including such gems as his three SCOTUS appointments and Matthew Kacsmaryk [Pew Research / The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights]

The parties are not the same – and neither are Trump and Biden.

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #16

April 26-May 3 2024

President Biden announced $3 billion to help replace lead pipes in the drinking water system. Millions of Americans get their drinking water through lead pipes, which are toxic, no level of lead exposure is safe. This problem disproportionately affects people of color and low income communities. This first investment of a planned $15 billion will replace 1.7 million lead pipe lines. The Biden Administration plans to replace all lead pipes in the country by the end of the decade.

President Biden canceled the student debt of 317,000 former students of a fraudulent for-profit college system. The Art Institutes was a for-profit system of dozens of schools offering degrees in video-game design and other arts. After years of legal troubles around misleading students and falsifying data the last AI schools closed abruptly without warning in September last year. This adds to the $29 billion in debt for 1.7 borrowers who wee mislead and defrauded by their schools which the Biden Administration has done, and a total debt relief for 4.6 million borrowers so far under Biden.

President Biden expanded two California national monuments protecting thousands of acres of land. The two national monuments are the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which are being expanded by 120,000 acres. The new protections cover lands of cultural and religious importance to a number of California based native communities. This expansion was first proposed by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2018 as part of a wide ranging plan to expand and protect public land in California. This expansion is part of the Administration's goals to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

The Department of Transportation announced new rules that will require car manufacturers to install automatic braking systems in new cars. Starting in 2029 all new cars will be required to have systems to detect pedestrians and automatically apply the breaks in an emergency. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projects this new rule will save 360 lives every year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries annually.

The IRS announced plans to ramp up audits on the wealthiest Americans. The IRS plans on increasing its audit rate on taxpayers who make over $10 million a year. After decades of Republicans in Congress cutting IRS funding to protect wealthy tax cheats the Biden Administration passed $80 billion for tougher enforcement on the wealthy. The IRS has been able to collect just in one year $500 Million in undisputed but unpaid back taxes from wealthy households, and shows a rise of $31 billion from audits in the 2023 tax year. The IRS also announced its free direct file pilot program was a smashing success. The program allowed tax payers across 12 states to file directly for free with the IRS over the internet. The IRS announced that 140,000 tax payers were able to use it over their target of 100,000, they estimated it saved $5.6 million in tax prep fees, over 90% of users were happy with the webpage and reported it quicker and easier than companies like H&R Block. the IRS plans to bring direct file nationwide next year.

The Department of Interior announced plans for new off shore wind power. The two new sites, off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine, would together generate 18 gigawatts of totally clean energy, enough to power 6 million homes.

The Biden Administration announced new rules to finally allow DACA recipients to be covered by Obamacare. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an Obama era policy that allows people brought to the United States as children without legal status to remain and to legally work. However for years DACA recipients have not been able to get health coverage through the Obamacare Health Care Marketplace. This rule change will bring health coverage to at least 100,000 uninsured people.

The Department of Health and Human Services finalized rules that require LGBTQ+ and Intersex minors in the foster care system be placed in supportive and affirming homes.

The Senate confirmed Georgia Alexakis to a life time federal judgeship in Illinois. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 194. For the first time in history the majority of a President's nominees to the federal bench have not been white men.

[boyletimes]

Widow loses life savings after ‘firetrap’ developer fails to repay €150k loan

A controversial developer who asked to borrow the life savings of an 81-year-old widow has failed to repay the money after half a decade of broken promises.

In 2017, the widow gave €160,000 in cash to developer Paddy Byrne, who built the Millfield Manor estate in Co. Kildare where six houses burnt to the ground in under 30 minutes in 2015.

The cash was for a penthouse apartment in Dublin she planned to move into.

The development was built by Victoria Homes, a company that was established by Mr Byrne’s sister Joan just before Mr Byrne was precluded from acting as a company director in Ireland for five years.

After viewing plans for the €630,000 property, in a development called Greygates in Mount Merrion, the pensioner withdrew the cash from her bank and gave it to Mr Byrne.

Some €10,000 of this was a deposit, with the remaining €150,000 provided on the advice of a third party who was known to Mr Byrne and the widow, who said the cash would secure a good price.

But in November 2017 the widow, a retired primary school teacher, found a more suitable home and asked for her  money back.

Mr Byrne agreed to this, saying he would have no problem selling the penthouse and promptly refunded the €10,000 deposit.

However, he asked that the remaining €150,000 be treated as a 14-month loan and promised to pay a 10% annual interest rate.

This effectively turned the widow into an unwitting creditor of Victoria Homes.

According to a handwritten agreement, signed by Mr Byrne, the loan was to be ‘paid back from the sales proceeds’ of the penthouse at his Greygates development.

More than half a decade later, the loan remains unpaid – even after the widow made a criminal complaint to gardaí and took legal action to secure a judgement.

As it is a civil matter, the Garda investigation faltered. And because various other unpaid creditors had previously secured judgements against Victoria Homes, the widow is now unlikely to get her savings back. During the Celtic Tiger years, Paddy Byrne was renowned for his €2.4m Sikorsky helicopter and sponsorship of the Irish National Hunt festival.

But in 2011 his then-firm, Barrack Homes, went bust and Mr Byrne declared bankruptcy in Britain with debts of €100m.

He was banned from acting as a UK director for 10 years in 2012.

This ban was scheduled to end in 2022 – and ran the full course – but it only applied in the UK and Wales.

According to the UK insolvency register today, Mr Byrne’s discharge from UK bankruptcy is ‘suspended indefinitely’ until the fulfilment of conditions made in a 2012 court order.

Separately, in Ireland, he was also restricted from acting as a director for a period of five years – which ended in January 2018.

Mr Byrne is also known for building the Millfield Manor estate in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, where half a dozen houses were razed to the ground within 30 minutes in 2015.

A report into the blaze found ‘major and life-threatening serious shortfalls and discrepancies and deviations from the minimum requirements of the national mandatory building regulations’ at Mr Byrne’s development.

Today, having exited bankruptcy, Mr Byrne is best known as the figurehead behind Victoria Homes and associated businesses, which was set up by his sister and her husband in December 2012, while he was bankrupt.

Mr Byrne was not a director or owner of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy. But, in 2017, Mr Byrne’s sister and her husband stepped back from Victoria Homes, transferring their shares to an offshore entity in Belize city called Victoria Holdings.

In November 2022, the main lenders to Victoria Homes – the Lotus Development Group – forced the firm into receivership for the second time.

In 2020, Lotus had forced a previous short-lived receivership before agreeing a deal that saw Victoria Homes begin trading normally once more.

Today, Mr Byrne appears to have left Victoria Homes behind and seems to be focusing on a new firm instead.

Set up in the summer of 2020, Branach Developments is entirely owned by Mr Byrne and is not encumbered by any bank debt or mortgages as Victoria Homes was.

According to the latest filed accounts, for the year ended 2021, Branach Developments held ‘tangible assets’ of €210,000 and ‘stocks’ of €600,000.

The accounts also show that, in 2021, Mr Byrne provided the company with an interest-free loan of €1,024,438.

Just last week Mr Byrne’s new firm was one of the winners at the National Property Awards sponsored by the Business Post and Deloitte, among others.

At the award ceremony, Branach Developments took home the prize for best sustainability initiative of the year.

However, Mr Byrne, who shuns publicity and is rarely photographed, does not appear to have attended the ceremony and the award was accepted by a colleague.

This week the Irish Mail on Sunday sent queries to Mr Byrne via his mobile phone, his email at Victoria Homes and his email at Branach Developments, without response.

Queries to his solicitor and the separate accountancy firms representing Victoria Homes and Branach Developments also went unanswered as did calls to the numbers on the websites of these firms.

Mr Byrne also previously declined to respond to questions from the MoS relating to the establishment of Victoria Homes during the period of his bankruptcy.

At the time, Mr Byrne appeared to be living at Ballinrahin House, close to Rathangan on the border of Offaly and Kildare.

The home is a luxury build on 26 acres of stud-railed paddocks with six stables and a 1.3km tree-lined avenue behind electric gates.

The property was on sale for €2.8m in 2009, but land registry records confirm that, in November 2014, it was sold to Victoria Homes for a knockdown price of €484,000.

Ownership of Ballinrahin House was transferred offshore to Victoria Holdings in Belize on April 10, 2018, just weeks before Mr Byrne was due to repay the €150,000 back to the widow.

Gisela Boulware

[dubaicompanys]

Starting a Manufacturing Business in Dubai: A Comprehensive Guide

Why Start a Manufacturing Business in Dubai?

Dubai's business-friendly environment, coupled with the UAE's robust economic growth, makes it an ideal location for starting a manufacturing business. Here are a few reasons why:

• Strategic Location: Dubai’s location at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa makes it a hub for international trade. This strategic advantage enables easy access to markets around the world.

• World-Class Infrastructure: Dubai is known for its modern infrastructure, including state-of-the-art facilities, industrial parks, and connectivity via air, sea, and road. This infrastructure makes it easy to set up and run a manufacturing business.

• Government Support: The UAE government provides numerous incentives for manufacturing businesses, including tax exemptions, subsidies, and free trade zones that offer reduced regulatory requirements.

• Business-Friendly Regulations: Dubai has streamlined business regulations, allowing for easier company setup, business ownership, and operations. The government has also introduced initiatives to encourage foreign investment.

• Skilled Workforce: With a large, diverse talent pool and access to global expertise, Dubai provides an opportunity to hire skilled workers for your manufacturing business.

Steps to Start a Manufacturing Business 

1. Choose Your Industry

The first step in starting a manufacturing business is selecting the type of manufacturing you want to engage in. Dubai’s manufacturing sector is diverse, with industries ranging from electronics, textiles, and chemicals to machinery and food products. Ensure that your business idea is aligned with market demand and that you have the necessary skills, equipment, and technology.

2. Decide on a Business Structure

The next step is to decide on the type of business structure for your manufacturing business. You can either establish a company in a Free Zone, a Mainland company, or an Offshore company.

Free Zones: Free zones offer tax exemptions, 100% foreign ownership, and simplified procedures for starting a business. They are ideal for manufacturing businesses focusing on export markets.

Mainland: Setting up on the mainland gives you access to the local market and the option to bid for government contracts. However, it requires a local sponsor, who holds a minority stake in the business.

Offshore: Offshore companies can be set up for manufacturing operations that are not directly involved in the local market.

3. Register Your Business

Once you've chosen a business structure, you need to register your manufacturing business. The Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) is responsible for issuing licenses for mainland businesses. For businesses in Free Zones, the relevant free zone authority handles the registration. The registration process typically involves choosing a business name, applying for a trade license, and completing the necessary paperwork.

4. Secure Funding

Starting a manufacturing business requires capital investment, whether it’s for machinery, factory space, raw materials, or labor costs. You can secure funding through personal savings, bank loans, or external investors. Dubai has several financial institutions offering business loans with competitive interest rates. Consider seeking advice from a local consultant to explore all available funding options.

5. Find a Location

Choosing the right location for your manufacturing business is crucial for success. If you're setting up a mainland business, you’ll need to find a location within Dubai that aligns with your business requirements. For Free Zone businesses, you’ll have access to dedicated industrial parks designed specifically for manufacturing companies. These zones offer facilities and infrastructure suited to various industries, making it easier to scale your operations.

6. Obtain Necessary Licenses and Permits

Before beginning operations, you need to obtain all the necessary licenses and permits for your manufacturing business. This includes a trade license, labor card, and industry-specific permits (if applicable). Be sure to follow local regulations to avoid delays or fines during your setup process.

7. Hire Employees

Your manufacturing business will require skilled workers to manage production, machinery, quality control, and administration. Dubai offers a large pool of qualified workers, and you can hire local talent or recruit from international markets. Ensure that you comply with labor laws and obtain the necessary work permits for foreign employees.

8. Establish Supply ChainsA successful manufacturing business depends on efficient supply chains. You’ll need to establish reliable suppliers for raw materials, packaging, and other essential products. Dubai’s proximity to global shipping hubs makes it easier to import and export goods. Additionally, maintaining good relationships with suppliers ensures consistent quality and cost-effective operations.