Tausi Insider

The Liberal government’s proposed tax on stock buybacks is going to be expensive for a number of Canadian companies. Unfortunately, investors can’t be sure of which ones, and by how much. The reason – and I know this will shock you – is that Canadian disclosure requirements for companies’ buyback activity have lagged U.S. rules for nearly 20 years. And the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would like to expand what companies there reveal, which threatens to widen the information gap with Canada. To review, the government said earlier last month it plans to introduce a 2-per-cent tax on share buybacks starting in 2024. The idea is ripped off from the United States, which in August brought in a 1-per-cent tax on stock buybacks, starting in 2023. A lot of the discussion of the proposal is black-and-white: The Liberal government clearly sees buybacks as a diversion of capital from job-creating investment; business groups have said the buybacks are a legitimate capital-management t...

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday accused Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of crypto currency exchange FTX, of fraud and violating campaign finance laws by misappropriating his customers' funds, saying the investigation is ongoing and "moving very quickly." Zachary Goelman produced this report. Reuters https://www.tausiinsider.com/video-u-s-charges-ftx-founder-with-massive-fraud/?feed_id=328676&_unique_id=642737722ab78

U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday said they have charged eight individuals in a securities fraud scheme, alleging they reaped about $114-million by using Twitter and Discord to manipulate stocks. The eight men allegedly purported to be successful traders on the social media platforms and then engaged in a so-called “pump and dump” scheme by hyping particular stocks to their followers with the intent to dump them once prices had risen, according to prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it has filed related civil charges against the defendants in the scheme, claiming that seven of the defendants used Twitter and Discord to boost stocks. It said the eighth was charged with aiding and abetting the scheme with his podcast. “Securities fraud victimizes innocent investors and undermines the integrity of our public markets,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. The individuals...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried left the Bahamas on Dec. 21 on a U.S.-bound flight to face fraud charges as federal prosecutors announced that two of his former associates had pleaded guilty to similar charges and were now cooperating with the government. Reuters Federal prosecutors on Wednesday said they have charged Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Zixiao (Gary) Wang, the former Chief Technology Officer of FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX) with defrauding investors in the crypto trading platform. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a video statement that both Wang and Ellison have pleaded guilty to the charges and have agreed to co-operate with prosecutors. He said that Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, is now in FBI custody and is on his way to the United States. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a separate statement that it has also charged Ellison and Gary Wang for their roles in a multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors of FTX. Elliso...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of crypto currency exchange FTX, is escorted out of the Magistrate Court building in Nassau, Bahamas, Dec. 21, 2022. DANTE CARRER/Reuters Crypto exchange FTX invented a currency, repeatedly propped up its price, then used the inflated value to orchestrate wide-scale fraud, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In charges laid late Wednesday against Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, two former top officials in the FTX ecosystem, the SEC painted the clearest picture yet of how exactly FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried orchestrated what the regulator alleges was “a massive, years-long fraud.” The scheme, according to the SEC , involved “diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for [Mr. Bankman-Fried’s] own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.” FTT, a cryptocurrency that FTX invented, was central to the alleged fraud, according to the SEC. In the crypto world, FTT is known as an e...

Andy DeFrancesco, seen here in a handout photo, has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Andy DeFrancesco U.S. regulators have sued long-time Bay Street financier Andrew DeFrancesco, alleging he orchestrated a fraudulent “pump-and-dump” scheme in 2018 with the shares of a small Nasdaq-listed tech company called Cool Holdings Inc. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil suit also names Mr. DeFrancesco’s ex-wife Catherine, two former company executives, and Mr. DeFrancesco’s personal assistant at the time as defendants. The SEC, which alleges Mr. DeFrancesco sold US$8-million worth of Cool Holdings stock, is seeking a return of profits, monetary penalties, and a permanent ban on Mr. DeFrancesco serving as the director or officer of a company registered with the SEC. The evidence, contained in a lawsuit filed Friday, has not been tested in court. Attempts to reach Mr. DeFrancesco Friday afternoon were unsuccessful. Miami-based Cool Holdings, now known as Simply In...

Then-McDonald's CEO Stephen Easterbrook speaks during a grand opening ceremony in Chicago, Ill., on June 4, 2018. Scott Olson/Getty Images The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday charged former McDonald’s Corp Chief Executive Stephen Easterbrook with making false and misleading statements to investors about the circumstances of his 2019 termination. The SEC hit Easterbrook with a five-year officer and director bar and a $400,000 civil penalty. McDonald’s fired Easterbrook in November 2019 for exercising “poor judgment” by engaging in a relationship with a McDonald’s employee, the SEC said. But Easterbrook failed to disclose other additional violations of company policy he committed by engaging in undisclosed relationships with other employees of the fast-food giant, it said. The agency also charged McDonald’s MCD-N with “shortcomings” in its public disclosures related to Easterbrook’s ouster, but did not impose any fines on McDonald’s due to the firm’s “substa...

A glitch at the New York Stock Exchange prevented the opening auctions for a slew of stocks on Tuesday, prompting widespread trading halts, confusion over whether orders were being filled at correct prices, and trades in more than 250 securities being busted. The NYSE, which is owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc, said a “system issue” prevented the opening auctions in a subset of its listed securities. The stocks began trading without an opening print, causing erroneous prices that the exchange said will be declared null and void. A spreadsheet released by the exchange showed 251 affected securities. The glitch – the most recent in a series since the “flash crash” of 2010 – impacted stocks of major companies including ExxonMobil, 3M, Verizon, McDonald’s Corp, Wells Fargo and WalMart. The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “What appears to have happened is a technical glitch where all of my opening orders on the NYSE autocancelled even though some of t...

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday accused Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of crypto currency exchange FTX, of fraud and violating campaign finance laws by misappropriating his customers' funds, saying the investigation is ongoing and "moving very quickly." Zachary Goelman produced this report. Reuters https://news.winestle.com/video-u-s-charges-ftx-founder-with-massive-fraud/?feed_id=328977&_unique_id=63b75240b115e