Bankers smuggled 6bn out of lebanon says ex finance chief

The Trump Organization and its former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, are headed toward a criminal trial for tax fraud in October, as a New York state judge refused to dismiss the indictment on Friday morning. New York Justice Juan Merchan shot down nearly every request by Trump’s family company and his finance man to dismiss the case. Merchan was unconvinced that prosecutors mishandled the grand jury indictment—and he tossed aside the claim that the case was politically motivated. “This trial's gonna take a long time,” prosecutor Joshua Adam Steinglass said in court. The judge scheduled a hearing next month to determine if prosecutors can use potentially incriminating statements that Weisselberg told law enforcement when he was detained briefly last year. It’s been nearly a year since Weisselberg has appeared in court for this case. The last time, his defense lawyers revealed that prosecutors had discovered a ton of new evidence in some unnamed person’s … [Read more...] about Trial Set for Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s Ex-Money Man

Leader of the YSRCP legislative party in Parliament Vijay Sai Reddy speaks to Nistula Hebbar on the "Revri" issue..... Prime Minister Modi has repeatedly spoken about "freebies" and its perilous effect on public finance, and now even the Supreme Court has asked that committee be set up to go into the issue. What is your party's view? We need to understand the definition of freebies or what is being termed as "revri." Freebies are different from welfare schemes. Suppose a television or refrigerator is given, these are freebies as the improvement of health or education in the long term is not there, there will probably be something in the short term in terms of conveniences for the particular household but not long term,. Whereas welfare schemes as introduced by the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy, are those aimed at improving human capital, living standards and State gross domestic product and per capita income. For example, Andhra Pradesh is an … [Read more...] about ‘Revri’ debate | There is a difference between freebies and welfare, says YSR Congress MP Vijay Sai Reddy

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. decided it was too risky to indict former President Donald Trump and was hung up on the idea he might lose the case, according to the special prosecutor who quit the team earlier this year. “He and the new team were focused on the risk that we could lose the case,” said Mark Pomerantz, who quit in protest in February and finally spoke openly about the case on The Cutting Edge, a podcast hosted by Columbia Law School professor John C. Coffee Jr. and U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff. Pomerantz, a former New York prosecutor who came out of retirement to join the case at the request of previous Manhattan district attorney, Cy Vance. But he and the other top prosecutor on the team, Carey Dunne, both resigned when Bragg wouldn’t finish what his predecessor started. The DA’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast. On the podcast , Pomerantz wondered aloud if the new DA just wasn’t ready to be … [Read more...] about Ex-Prosecutor: Manhattan DA Thought Indicting Trump Was Too Risky

With the road to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters blocked and heavy police outside party president Sonia Gandhi and former chief Rahul Gandhi’s house on Wednesday evening, the Congress alleged that the principal Opposition party was “under siege”. The scaling up of the security cordon and placing of multiple barricades happened soon after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) temporarily sealed the premises of Young Indian (YI) in the Congress-owned National Herald office in Delhi as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation. A senior officer of the Delhi Police, however, said that they received input from the Special Branch about the possibility of protesters gathering outside the Congress headquarters and that was why the road was blocked as a precautionary measure. Vendetta politics, says Jairam Ramesh “The Congress is under siege. Delhi police have surrounded our HQs, and homes of INC President and ex-President. This is the worst form of vendetta … [Read more...] about We are under siege, says Congress

The Centre will notify a new elephant reserve at Agasthyamalai in Tamil Nadu, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav has said. An area of 1,197 sq km will come under the proposed protected area, he added. Addressing the World Elephant Day celebrations at the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Thekkady on Friday, Mr. Yadav said the Agasthyamalai elephant reserve will add to the existing 31 such protected areas in the country. Among these, three elephant reserves – Dandeli in Karnataka, Singphan in Nagaland and Lemru in Chhattisgarh – were notified in the last three years. Elephant reserves were currently spread over 76,508 sq m across 14 States in the country. India, which is home to over 60% of the wild Asian elephant population, has a recorded elephant population of 29,964 (according to the last elephant census of 2017). “We have some of the best laws to protect elephants and their habitats. We have the most amazing people who love and worship elephants,” … [Read more...] about New elephant reserve to come up at Agasthyamalai, says Union Minister Bhupender Yadav

All’s not well for the world’s most-valued edtech company. Byju’s, currently valued at $22 billion, has laid off over 2,500 employees across its group companies as the Byju Raveendran-led unicorn is looking to aggressively cut costs with demand for edtech services moderating after two consecutive years of hypergrowth. Byju’s has laid off full-time and contractual employees from Toppr, WhiteHat Jr, and its core team across sales and marketing, operations, content and design teams, sources told Moneycontrol. While on June 27 and June 28, Byju’s laid off over 1,500 employees from Toppr and WhiteHat Jr, the two companies it acquired over the last two years, on June 29, it sent out e-mails to nearly 1,000 employees from its core operations teams, the sources said. “Employees from content and design team were the most affected ones,” said a source requesting anonymity. “They have reduced content, solution-writing and design teams drastically across group companies. Some of these … [Read more...] about Moneycontrol Exclusive: Deep Cuts At Byju’s: Over 2,500 Employees Laid Off Across Byju’s, WhiteHat Junior and Toppr