Financial news

• Police arrest five in Patisserie Valerie investigation

  23-06-2019 15:45 via theguardian.com
  Serious Fraud Office says those held have been questioned over alleged fraud at cafe chainFive people have been arrested and questioned over alleged accounting fraud at Patisserie Valerie, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has said.The arrests took place last Tuesday after a joint operation with the Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Metropolitan police services. Continue reading...
  
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• Aston Martin chief executive faces vote against £1.2m salary

  23-06-2019 13:37 via theguardian.com
  Andy Palmer’s pay package has drawn criticism amid falling share pricesThe chief executive of Aston Martin faces the prospect of a vote against his pay package as he faces shareholders for the luxury carmaker’s first annual meeting as a listed company.Andy Palmer has led the company since 2014, but investor scrutiny of his £1.2m salary – before a potential bonus five times larger – has increased as shares have slumped from the price at the carmaker’s much-anti
  
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• The struggling economy presents the new PM with an electoral teaser

  23-06-2019 13:01 via theguardian.com
  Amid talk of a snap election, could Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt do what John Major did in 1992?The new prime minister could hardly have chosen a worse moment to enter Downing Street. Growth had stalled, there was serious trouble in the Middle East, the government’s flagship policy had made it deeply unpopular. Yet at the next general election, the Conservative party won an overall majority against all the odds.That was how things panned out for John Major after he took over from Margaret
  
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• Airbus shuts down subsidiary at centre of bribery investigation

  23-06-2019 12:26 via theguardian.com
  Inquiry into claims GPT paid multimillion pound bribes to win Saudi military contractAirbus is shutting down a subsidiary that has been at the centre of a long-running bribery investigation.The UK-based subsidiary of the European aerospace group, GPT Special Project Management, has been under investigation for seven years over allegations it paid multimillion pound bribes to secure a military contract with the Saudi Arabian government. Continue reading...
  
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• Private sector must be forced to invest in ‘green revolution’, says Labour

  23-06-2019 09:59 via theguardian.com
  John McDonnell aims to enhance party’s environmental credentialsLabour will back measures deterring investment in fossil fuels as part of a new drive to stop the financial sector from funding global heating, John McDonnell will reveal this week.In the latest attempt by Labour to display its green credentials, the shadow chancellor will use a speech in the City on Monday to commit to using the “full might of the Treasury” to tackle the issue. He will commit the party to forcing
  
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• ‘They’re gentrifying it’: big money muscles in on the cannabis market

  23-06-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  At the Cannabis Europa conference this week, business interests will be well represented – to the dismay of veteran campaignersLater this week at London’s Southbank Centre, hundreds of people – mainly men, mainly suited – will gather in a lecture hall and in conference rooms to debate the medicinal merits of cannabis, with other events in the following days focusing on recreational weed.Missing from the gathering will be many of those who smoke the drug, take it as an oil
  
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• Call for action to stop purchasers paying price for new-build delays

  23-06-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  A family can face a bill of thousands when developers don’t complete on timeLiam Taylor exchanged on his off-plan home last August on the understanding it would be completed by April. On the day contracts were exchanged he was told the date had been pushed back to October. “Dates were vital for us because we were applying for schools for my daughter and had to be in residence by April for her to be accepted,” says Taylor, who paid £369,950 for a four-bedroom Persimmon hom
  
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• Stagecoach gets back on the bus to a smaller future

  23-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  When Brian Souter’s group reveals results this week, its prospects as a railway operatorwill be fading fastA smaller, humbler Stagecoach Group is set to unveil annual results on Wednesday. Its American dream has ended, and it faces a final departure from the UK railway network it once dominated.The City may not be entirely distraught to see the transport group’s forced exit from rail – even if that means saying goodbye to Virgin Trains on the west coast, which has showered the
  
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• Libra cryptocurrency: dare you trust Facebook with your money? | John Naughton

  23-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The social media giant’s foray into bitcoin territory – with some financial big hitters on board – should prompt suspicionWe’ve known for ages that somewhere in the bowels of Facebook people were beavering away designing a cryptocurrency. Various names were bandied about, including GlobalCoin and Facebook Coin. The latter led some people to conclude that it must be a joke. I mean to say, who would trust Facebook, of Cambridge Analytica fame, with their money?Now it turns
  
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• Just like the 1930s, this trade war has the potential to turn nasty

  23-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Echoes of that decade are getting uncomfortably loud as Trump imposes tariffs and the eurozone devalues its currencyA trade war followed by a currency war. Tariffs used as a protectionist weapon followed by attempts to secure a competitive advantage by exchange rate manipulation. That was the story of the 1930s and, the way things are shaping up, it could easily be the story of the 2020s as well.Consider the historical parallels. In 1930, the US Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Act, which raised
  
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• Johnson & Johnson faces multibillion opioids lawsuit that could upend big pharma

  23-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Oklahoma is holding the drug giant with the family-friendly image responsible for its addiction epidemicDay after day, the memos flashing across screens in an Oklahoma courtroom have jarred with the family-friendly public image of Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant best known for baby powder and Band-Aid.In one missive, a sales representative dismissed a doctor’s fears that patients might become addicted to the company’s opioid painkillers by telling him those who didn&r
  
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• Promises of a green energy jobs boom in Scotland are proving to be so much hot air | Kevin McKenna

  23-06-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The government stands accused of failing to protect workers as it sold off projects to EDF and other foreign firmsIn the renewables sector, the Scottish government has been perfecting a form of political alchemy over the last decade. In this, Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers have succeeded in spinning mere optimism into hard political currency.The title of its manifesto for the 2011 Holyrood election asked voters to “Re-elect a Scottish Government Working For Scotland” and claimed t
  
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• Forget China – it's America's own economic system that's broken | Robert Reich

  23-06-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  US weakness is inbuilt – the big 500 companies owe loyalty only to themselves and the public is shut out from prosperityXi Jinping might possibly agree next weekend on further steps to bring down China’s trade imbalance with the US, giving Donald Trump a face-saving way of ending his trade war. Related: Elizabeth Warren’s economic nationalism vision shows there's a better way | Robert ReichContinue reading...
  
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• Theatre stars take a bow ... on a coffee table near you

  23-06-2019 06:59 via theguardian.com
  Avatars of actors may soon perform in 3D dramas in our living rooms, thanks to new technology fromBritish company ImaginariumTheatre is set to be revolutionised by new technology that can recreate an entire production in the comfort of your own home. Avatars of actors can be reproduced and shrunk to just a few inches high so that they can act, dance or sing on your coffee table. Or they can perform lifesize, turning your entire living room into a stage. The 3D performers are so real, you can wal
  
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