Activist Gilbert Goh charged after allegedly staging protest near ICA building
SINGAPORE - Local activist Goh Keow Wah, better known as Gilbert Goh, was charged in a district court on Wednesday (Dec 15) with an offence under the Public Order Act after he allegedly staged an unlawful protest near the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building in Kallang Road on May 1. The Singaporean is said to have held up a placard stating: "Please ban all flights from India we are not racist! Just being cautious." Police said in a statement on Tuesday that he did not have a permit to carry out the public assembly. Goh, now 60, had posted a picture of himself with the placard on Facebook on May 1, a week after Singapore barred all long-term pass holders and short-term visitors who had travelled to India in the past 14 days from entering or transiting through the country. The move was announced by the multi-ministry task force on Covid-19, following a surge in cases in India. He was also charged on Wednesday with refusing to sign his statement to the police at the Bedok Police Division Headquarters at around 4pm on May 11. Details about the statement were not disclosed in court documents. Separately, police said in their statement that he had allowed a foreigner to partic...
US regulator awards whistle-blower record $269m payout over benchmark rigging case
WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - A US regulator on Thursday (Oct 21) doled out a record reward of nearly US$200 million (S$269.4 million) to a whistle-blower who had provided information for a case involving the rigging of crucial financial benchmarks, according to the agency and a law firm involved in the award. The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the award in a statement on Thursday, but did not identify the recipient or disclose details about the case or the precise amount. Law firm Kirby McInerney said in a statement that its client scored the record bounty after providing extensive information and documents in 2012 that "catalysed" investigations by the CFTC and a foreign regulator into benchmark manipulation. An attorney for the law firm did not respond to requests for further comment or provide further details. Over the past decade, the authorities globally have levied multibillion-dollar fines and pursued criminal charges against banks and traders for banding together to rig global benchmarks, most notoriously the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor). US lawmakers recently passed legislation to keep the CFTC's whistle-blower programme afloat. The ...
Phony Walmart news release on Litecoin tie-up likely crypto pump-and-dump scheme
NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - The news release went out at 9.30am Eastern time on Monday (Sept 13), just as the US stock market opened. It claimed to be from Walmart and had some big news for the cryptocurrency industry: The nation's largest retailer would soon begin accepting payment in Litecoin, a digital currency. The announcement appeared real enough that several media outlets wrote it up. Even the Twitter account for the Litecoin Foundation, which promotes the use of the currency, touted the release in a post. The value of Litecoin jumped more than 30 per cent before Walmart put out a statement saying the news was false. The newest thing in finance had apparently fallen prey to one of the oldest investor hoaxes around - a classic pump-and-dump scheme. Someone issued a false news release, likely taking advantage of the general hoopla around cryptocurrency to stoke enthusiasm for Litecoin, which is far less popular than Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Litecoin's price jumped to about US$230 from around US$175 right after the news, then fell back and traded around US$180 after Walmart refuted the release. The perpetrators of the hoax most likely made money in that time. Securities l...
British PM Johnson condemns ‘shameful racism’ against Jews
LONDON (REUTERS) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday (May 16) there was no place for anti-Semitism in society and that British Jews should not have to endure "shameful racism", after a video online appeared to show people shouting anti-Semitic abuse from a car in London. Mr Johnson was responding in part to the video, posted earlier on Sunday, showing a convoy of cars bearing Palestinian flags driving through a Jewish community in north London and broadcasting anti-Semitic messages from a megaphone. Police investigating the incident later said they had made four arrests. "There is no place for anti-Semitism in our society," Mr Johnson said on Twitter. "Ahead of Shavuot, I stand with Britain's Jews who should not have to endure the type of shameful racism we have seen today." His comments also referred to other incidents of anti-Semitism over the weekend, an aide said. Israeli-Palestinian violence has reached its worst level in years over the last week. "Whatever your view of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, there is no justification for inciting anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim hatred," communities minister Robert Jenrick said in a statement. Britain's Metropolitan police said ...