Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner returned to the court after an 18-month period, which included a 10-month detainment in Russia on drug-related charges. The WNBA star is recognised for her advocacy of LGBTQ+ and human rights. Griner's return to the court resulted in the Mercury's win in the pre-season game against the Los Angeles Sparks. She displayed considerable skill, registering a score of 10 and obtaining three rebounds. Griner was key in helping Mercury reach the WNBA Finals in 2021 and played an integral role in the team's success.
Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has failed in her last-minute bid to avoid beginning her 11-year jail sentence after an appellate court refused to let her remain free on bail. Holmes was also ordered to pay $452m in restitution to those affected by her crimes. The same order was handed down to Holmes's ex-boyfriend and former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, with the pair being "jointly and severally liable".
Elizabeth Holmes, founder of failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, has been ordered to pay $452m in restitution to the fraud’s victims, with $125m going to Rupert Murdoch, the embattled chairman of Fox Corporation, who invested in the company. Holmes has also had her stay of execution repealed and been ordered to begin her 11-year sentence. Holmes has sought to delay beginning her sentence and, in an interview with The New York Times this month, claimed she could not afford to pay her $30m legal fees. The other largest reimbursements will go to Walmart, which invested $40m, and Safeway, which is due to receive $14.5m.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, will go to prison after a court ruled that she could not stay out of jail, despite an appeal. Holmes was scheduled to report to prison on 27 April, but it has not yet been confirmed when she will now be incarcerated. Meanwhile, a leading Chinese comedy company has been fined CNY14.7m ($2.13m) by the Chinese government for a military joke. Finally, Tesla is to break with tradition and try advertising, according to CEO Elon Musk.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will begin serving her prison sentence on May 30 for defrauding investors in the failed blood-testing startup once valued at $9 billion. US District Judge Edward Davila set the date on Wednesday for Holmes, 39, to begin serving 11 years and three months in prison. Holmes rose to fame after claiming Theranos' small machines could run an array of diagnostic tests with just a few drops of blood.
Goldman Sachs’s General Counsel, Kathy Ruemmler, has stated that she told the company about her past dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before being hired by it in 2020. She explained that Epstein had offered the use of his network to help her drum up business while she was in private practice. She now claims to regret ever knowing Epstein. The revelations highlight the issue of Wall Street onlooking executives connecting with the disgraced financier. The Epstein scandal has put businesses like Citigroup, Bank of America, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan on an unenviable list of Wall Street names. An increasing number of court cases focus on people who worked with or through Epstein behind the scenes to benefit from his wealth and influence. Goldman Sachs has been heavily scrutinised over claims that various executives – including Ruemmler – continued to work with Epstein for many years.
Data analytics firm New Relic in talks to be sold - WSJ
Reuters
23-05-17 20:15
Private-equity firms Francisco Partners and TPG are collaborating on a $5bn bid for software firm New Relic, according to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal. The move follows reports in July that the firm, which develops cloud-based systems to help site and app owners track performance, was considering offers from private-equity players. Reports suggest a deal could be completed within weeks. Representatives from the companies declined to comment.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former COO Ramesh Balwani have been ordered to repay $125m to Rupert Murdoch as part of their court-ordered restitution of $452m following their conviction for investor fraud. Murdoch invested $100m in the biotech firm between 2014 and 2015 alongside supporters including Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger. Lawyers for the pair have suggested they do not have the funds to repay the $425m balance. Holmes has failed in an attempt to remain free while appealing her 11-year prison sentence for the fraud.
Charles Schwab Corp is seeking to raise $2.5bn in long-term debt, a filing with the SEC said. The company will issue $1.2bn in debt due in 2029 and $1.3bn due in 2034, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Charles Schwab said it will use the proceeds for "general corporate purposes". The banks managing the offering are BofA Securities, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs & Co, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo Securities.
The US State Department has agreed to let two leading members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee view a redacted version of a classified cable relating to the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan that had been sought by the committee’s Republican chairperson, Michael McCaul. The cable, sent via the State Department’s “dissent channel,” had warned of the potential collapse of Kabul following the withdrawal of US troops. McCaul had scheduled a committee meeting to consider a contempt charge against Secretary of State Antony Blinken for refusing to release the cable.
Private airline VistaJet has a $4.4bn debt pile, according to Dan McCrum's deep dive, which looks at the firm's unusual relationship with Bombardier and its founder's aircraft trading activity. Thomas Flohr has spent 19 years building VistaJet into an exclusive club for the wealthy traveller, selling "Jet Cards" that enable passengers to travel in one of its 18 silver Global 7500 business jets. This compares with market leader NetJets which sells fractional ownership. Despite being loss-making, VistaJet's strategy has been supported by leasing firms, bond markets, and the Canadian government as lenders. In addition, the firm was handed a payday by its owner, Flohr. In 2015, he acted as a middleman between Bombardier and VistaJet, ordering 18 Global 7500 jets from his own company, and effectively earning a fee for broker services. Bondholders' documents reveal the group paid $1.1bn to Bombardier and about $224m to Flohr. Despite being warned in EY's opinion on the 2022 accounts, that "there may exist a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the group's ability to continue as a going concern", Flohr told the FT that his stakeholders were happy with VistaJet's financial performance.
Deutsche Bank to pay $75 million to settle lawsuit by Epstein accusers
CNN
23-05-18 04:43
Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75m to settle a class action-related lawsuit brought by Epstein accusers, who claim the bank enabled his sex trafficking activities. Epstein died in jail in August 2019. The former Deutsche client, who had banked with the lender from 2013 to 2018, was also a client of JPMorgan Chase between 1998 and 2013. The bank, which has faced multiple suits regarding Epstein's activities, may yet face similar legal challenges from accusers; the settlement will not prevent future claims from being brought against Deutsche or JPMorgan. The banks have not commented on the settlement.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to officially announce his 2024 presidential bid next week. Two sources claim DeSantis has gathered top Republican fundraisers in Miami, Florida, for the event. DeSantis has spent time constructing his campaign, boasting of his re-election victory and the legislative agenda in Florida passed by GOP supermajorities. In competing with former president Donald Trump for GOP nominations, doubt has arisen, but a small group of fundraisers met with him in Tallahassee over recent weeks to garner support for a DeSantis campaign.
Artificial intelligence (AI) poses challenges for the future of journalism, said US reporter Carl Bernstein. The veteran journalist warned of the risks posed by AI in an interview with the BBC. He also noted that determining truth is critical. News outlets are the "essential element in a community of being able to attain that," said Bernstein. There are serious concerns around potential job losses, privacy and the dissemination of false information posed by widespread AI usage.
Deutsche Bank has settled a proposed class-action lawsuit for $75 million alleging it facilitated Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking ring. The lawsuit was filed in New York last year by an anonymous woman on behalf of herself and other accusers, alleging the bank did business with Epstein for five years knowing he was engaged in sex-trafficking activity. Deutsche Bank has not yet commented on the settlement.
Deutsche Bank will pay $75m to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging that the bank helped enable the sex trafficking of young women by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to lawyers representing the victims. If approved by a federal judge, the settlement will resolve the lawsuit filed in New York last year. Deutsche Bank denied comment on the proposed settlement but said that it had taken strides to amend past issues while investing in bolstering its internal controls. This is not the first time Deutsche Bank has been involved in legal action relating to Epstein. In 2020, the bank agreed to pay $150m to New York regulators after it was claimed it repeatedly overlooked suspicious transactions involving Epstein.
US federal officials have warned about continued cyber-threats in medical devices. HHS deputy director of the office of preparedness, Brain Mazanec, claimed that almost all hospitals hold support systems that are out of date, suggesting the need for stricter laws for medical device manufacturers. The omnibus package, signed by President Biden in 2023, requires manufacturers to provide key cybersecurity information to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, regulators are yet to enforce cybersecurity requirements for devices, with device sponsors given until October 1 to work out any discrepancies before applications are rejected. The FDA has identified that medical devices, from electronic thermometers to MRI machines, pose a unique area for cybersecurity. Medical devices are connected and interoperable in hospital settings, meaning one failure may cause others to fail, posing a wider secondary risk. The amended rules dictate that manufacturers are to provide a software bill of materials, send device patches, and disclose all vulnerability findings. The FDA has been working to future-proof as the lifecycle of devices is two decades long, with the industry required to design and implement these new systems for improved resilience.
A Russian court has extended the detention of former US Consulate employee Robert Shonov for three months on charges of cooperating with a foreign state. The specifics of the charges have not been revealed by Russian authorities. Shonov is a Russian national who worked at the US consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years and the consulate was closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but never reopened. While working at a company that held a US contract to support the embassy in Moscow, he was detained in Vladivostok and later brought to Moscow. The US State Department has condemned his arrest.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis plans to file formal paperwork for his presidential bid next week on 25 May, according to anonymous sources familiar with his plans. His filing date reportedly corresponds with a donor meeting in Miami. DeSantis has been coy about his potential campaign for the presidency, but he emerged as a possible front-runner after winning his 2022 reelection bid as governor of Florida by a nearly 20% margin. If he launches his bid, he will become the sixth person to run for the Republican presidential nomination.
The chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Representative Michael McCaul, has agreed to pause attempts to enforce a subpoena for a classified cable related to the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan after the State Department agreed to let both McCaul and committee Democrat Gregory Meeks view a redacted version of the cable to protect the identity of those using its "dissent channel". McCaul is investigating the withdrawal and had scheduled a committee meeting next week to consider a contempt of Congress charge against Secretary of State Antony Blinken over his refusal to release the cable despite the subpoena.
