Grand jury under investigation

- A + A LONDON (June 27): Money transfer company Wise plc said on Monday that Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched an investigation into its chief executive officer (CEO) Kristo Käärmann after he was named on a list of tax defaulters. In September last year, the British tax authority, the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), included Käärmann in a list of people penalised for tax defaults. A spokesperson for Wise said that Käärmann was late paying his taxes in 2018 and had been fined. Käärmann's £365,651 (US$449,677) penalty relates to a tax bill of £720,495, according to the information published by the government. HMRC regularly publishes a list of people who deliberately default on their taxes, such as by filling in erroneous tax returns. Following the publication, Wise started an investigation with support from an external law firm. That concluded at the end of 2021 and its findings were passed onto the FCA, the company said. The FCA has now … [Read more...] about FCA launches investigation into Wise CEO after tax default

You know the place, even if you haven’t been there. advertisement advertisement From the outside, it has a spare, severe look. But inside, past the flower stall and barbershop, the vibe is serene and hushed. Long tables and worn leather chairs invite people to cluster; the scent of locally roasted coffee mixes with the sound of the nearby photo booth, whirring in the background. There are vintage records on the shelves and slinky indie pop on the speakers, and the late afternoon sunlight makes puddles on the century-old wood floor. The feeling is both of the moment and timeless. To a remarkable extent, this place, the Ace Hotel, is the brainchild of a single man, a lean, mop-haired native of the Pacific Northwest named Alexander Calderwood. A kind of hipster polymath, he was able to look around the corners of culture and see what was coming years, if not decades, before everyone else. In his 20-year career, Calderwood cofounded a barbershop, a … [Read more...] about Behind Ace Hotel Founder Alex Calderwood’s Creative Life And Untimely Death

Pianist Lim Dong-hyek showcases a part of Schubert's "Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major D. 959," which is included in his sixth album during a press conference held in Seoul to mark the 20th anniversary of his debut. [YONHAP] Koreans went gaga over pianist Cho Seong-jin when he became Korea’s first-ever Chopin Piano Competition winner in 2015, even those with little interest in classical music. Because of Cho’s large fan base, he is regarded as the pianist who sparked a craze for classical music among the Korean public. But more than a decade before Cho, there was Lim Dong-hyek, who pulled large crowds of young female fans whenever he gave concerts. They staked out the back door of concert venues to catch the glimpse of their heartthrob — or take pictures with him if they got lucky. In October 2005, Lim participates in the 15th International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He shared third place with no second place winner with his older brother Lim Dong-min. … [Read more...] about Ex-heartthrob Lim Dong-hyek matures as a pianist

Scene from “Flower of Evil” Piolo Pascual and Lovi Poe, stars of the local adaptation of the South Korean series “Flower of Evil,” see nothing wrong with remaking old concepts as opposed to creating original ones. “I completely understand why some people say we should focus on creating our own stuff, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong or I don’t think it’s bad to acknowledge other people’s works, especially if it’s something this beautiful,” Lovi told Inquirer Entertainment in a recent media junket. “A lot of countries are doing it, and so have we, for many years now. Of course, you always want to do something original, but the bottom line here is that if we would be able to give the old concept a new and different take, then I think it’s still worth doing,” added Piolo, who swore that the series will be appreciated even by non-KDrama fans. “We Filipinized it, so it’s not KDrama at all. It’s made in such a way that even people who prefer stuff other than KDrama will fall … [Read more...] about How Piolo Pascual and Lovi Poe ‘Filipinized’ K-drama series ‘Flower of Evil’

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin A House panel revealed for the first time internal documents from Juul Labs that Democrats said detailed the e-cigarette company’s plan to directly reach teenagers. The hearing, which featured Juul cofounder James Monsees and chief administration officer Ashley Gould, comes as part of a House Oversight Committee investigation into the company’s role in what the Food and Drug Administration has dubbed a youth vaping epidemic. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the amount of high schoolers who used e-cigarettes jumped to 20.8% in 2018 from 11.7% the previous year. The panel requested last month that Juul turn over a wide-ranging set of internal communications related to its marketing and social media strategies. Panel members used some of those documents to question executives about the San Francisco company’s efforts to recruit social media influencers and to talk to teenagers face-to-face. … [Read more...] about Juul Funded High Schools, Recruited Social Media Influencers To Reach Youth, House Panel Charges

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin A print Juul advertisement that ran in Vice Magazine in 2015 as part of the e-cigarette company'’s ... [+] launch campaign, “Vaporized.” Juul 'Vaporized' ad in 2015 via Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising Juul Labs, the maker of the most popular U.S. e-cigarette, is growing meteorically—on track to generate an estimated $1 billion in sales this year, up more than 300% from a year ago. However, its products haven’t only gained traction among smokers trying to wean themselves off cigarettes. They are also a hit with teenagers. What medical experts are calling a Juul-driven “youth nicotine epidemic” is gaining heightened attention from regulators like the Food and Drug Administration, which on Thursday said it is seeking a nationwide ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars and will sharply restrict the sales of fruity-flavored nicotine vaping cartridges. Juul, likely aware of the … [Read more...] about The Disturbing Focus Of Juul’s Early Marketing Campaigns

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The U.S. Department of Defense is a huge consumer of technology, and as a result America is home to many of the world’s biggest makers of military hardware. If you were to infer from this that Americans have a love affair with defense companies, you’d be wrong. It is a longstanding tradition in the domestic political culture to view military contractors with suspicion. That tradition is not confined to one party. During the 1920s, Republicans led the charge in labeling military suppliers like Dupont as “merchants of death.” Fifty years later, during the Vietnam War, it was Democrats who took the lead in condemning the “military-industrial complex.” The latest wrinkle in this longstanding bipartisan bias is the charge that traditional defense companies are not innovative, and that if the Pentagon wants cutting-edge technology it needs to turn to commercial companies in Austin, Boston and Silicon Valley. The … [Read more...] about U.S. Defense Companies Are World-Class Innovators. Why Doesn’t Washington Know That?

MANILA, Philippines — With the uncovering of alleged corrupt practices within the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Senator Panfilo Lacson believes Senate is investigating a “bottomless pit” of corruption. “Inamin na rin naman ng mga ibang BuCor officials na ganoon ang kalakaran. So bottomless pit nga itong investigation kaya rin hindi matapos-tapos dahil nanganganak ng mga issue, nanganganak ng kontrobersya, nanganganak ng korapsyon,” Lacson said in an interview with GMA’s Unang Hirit on Friday. The Senate justice committee is currently probing the alleged irregularities in the BuCor. Starting the probe was the aborted release of rape and murder convict former Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez through the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law. This then led to claims that good conduct credits were being sold to inmates inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), which is under the BuCor’s supervision. The “hospital-pass-for-sale” racket also surfaced in the wake of the hearings wherein … [Read more...] about Probe into alleged BuCor corruption a ‘bottomless pit,’ says Lacson

THREE MEN AND A HEADACHE For allegedly evading questions and lying to senators during a Senate inquiry into corruption at the state penitentiary, Bureau of Corrections legal division chief Fredric Santos (left), New Bilibid Prison medical officer Ursicio Cenas and documents section chief Ramoncito Roque are cited for contempt and ordered to be detained on Thursday. —PHOTOS BY LYN RILLON AND RICHARD A. REYES MANILA, Philippines–There are other money-making ventures for corrupt officers at New Bilibid Prison aside from the payoffs for hospital passes and good conduct time allowances, according to a former official of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). The other schemes include allowing prisoners to bring in women, run a 24-hour gambling operation and let in contraband under the cover of a construction project, said Rafael Ragos who served as Bilibid officer in charge from November 2012 to March 2013. What started as a Senate inquiry into the good conduct law, Republic Act No. … [Read more...] about Bilibid flesh trade, 24-hour gambling bared

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson wants doctors from the New Bilibid Prison hospital to appear in the Senate inquiry into irregularities at the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) amid allegations that inmates pay up to P2 million for passes so they can stay in the infirmary and do business there. Among those inmates are convicted drug traffickers still running their narcotics trade, according to Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go. Lacson said on Tuesday that he would request Sen. Richard Gordon, who heads the inquiry, to summon the doctors. He said his office had received reports that the payment for hospital passes ranged from P200,000 to P2 million. The amount was supposedly on top of the P30,000 per day “board and lodging” fee, he said. Communication flow “These won’t happen if no doctor would certify [the inmate]. So we need to find out what is the flow of communication once an inmate . . . request[s] confinement in the [Bilibid] hospital,” Lacson told reporters. … [Read more...] about Bilibid docs face grilling on hospital-passes-for-sale scheme