Interior secretary steps into Utah public lands tug-of-war

By SOPHIA EPPOLITO

April 8, 2021


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U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland tours near ancient dwellings along the Butler Wash trail during a visit to Bears Ears National Monument Thursday, April 8, 2021, near Blanding, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For decades, a public lands tug-of-war has played out over a vast expanse of southern Utah where red rocks reveal petroglyphs and cliff dwellings and distinctive twin buttes bulge from a grassy valley.

A string of U.S. officials has heard from those who advocate for broadening national monuments to protect the area’s many archaeological and cultural sites, considered sacred to surrounding tribes, and those who fiercely oppose what they see as federal overreach.

On Thursday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was the latest cabinet official to visit Bears Ears National Monument — and the first Indigenous one.

Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, met with tribes and elected officials at Bears Ears as she prepares to submit recommendations on whether to reverse President Donald Trump’s decision to downsize that site and Grand Staircase-Escalante, another Utah national monument.

“I know that decisions about public lands are incredibly impactful to the people who live nearby. But not just to us, not to just the folks who are here today, but people for generations to come,” Haaland told reporters during a news conference in the town of Blanding. “It’s our obligation to make sure that we protect lands for future generations so they can have the same experiences that the governor and I experienced today.”

Haaland listens during a news conference Thursday following her visit to Bears Ears National Monument. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

The visit underscores Haaland’s unique position as the first Native American to lead a department that has broad authority over tribal nations, as well as energy development and other uses for the country’s sprawling federal lands.

“She brings something that no other cabinet secretary has brought, which is that her Indigenous communities are coming with her in that room,” said Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College.

Miller said the outcome of the negotiations will shed light on how the Biden administration plans to respond to other public lands disputes and will likely impact subsequent conversations with other states on natural resources.

Haaland faces competing interests: Tribes across the U.S. hailed her confirmation as a chance to have their voices heard and their land and rights protected, while Republican leaders have labeled her a “radical” who could, along with President Joe Biden, stunt oil and gas development and destroy thousands of jobs.

Pat Gonzales-Rogers, executive director of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said he looked forward to Haaland seeking tribes’ input, which he called a “far cry” from her predecessors in the Trump administration.

He noted Haaland is familiar with the landscape — Bears Ears contains many sites of spiritual importance to New Mexico’s pueblos — but acknowledged she had a responsibility to hear from all sides.

“She is the interior secretary for all of us, and that also requires her to engage other groups.”

The coalition wants the monument restored to its original size, or even enlarged, but Gonzales-Rogers said he hoped Haaland’s visit would at least be a step toward a more certainty.

“All parties would like to see some permanence, and they don’t want it to vacillate between either administrations or political ideology,” he said.

Prominent Utah Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney and new Gov. Spencer Cox, have expressed concern with the review under Biden’s administration and demanded state leaders be involved. Haaland met with them, along with Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and U.S. Rep. Blake Moore during her visit.

Rep. Blake Moore, left, looks on as Sen. Mitt Romney speaks at a news conference Thursday in Blanding, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

The Utah delegation called on Biden to work with Congress and others toward a permanent legislative fix regarding the monuments’ borders and management, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

“Can we find the solutions? I think there is an opportunity for that, to provide the resources that are needed,” Cox told reporters Thursday. “But all of those things can only be done through legislation. It can’t be done through an executive order.”

Former President Barack Obama proclaimed Bears Ears a national monument in 2016. The site was the first to receive the designation at the specific request of tribes.

Its boundaries were downsized by 85% under the Trump administration, while Grand Staircase-Escalante was cut nearly in half. The reductions paved the way for potential coal mining, and oil and gas drilling on lands that were previously off-limits. Activity was limited because of market forces.

Since Trump downsized the monuments, more visitors have come to the sites and put natural and cultural resources at risk, said Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.

“Every day that goes by leaves the irreplaceable resources at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase vulnerable to damage or destruction from looting, vandalism or other threats as a result of lack of protective management,” Francis said ahead of Haaland’s visit.

A section of ancient dwellings is seen during Thursday's tour along the Butler Wash trail at Bears Ears. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)

Environmental, tribal, paleontological and outdoor recreation organizations are suing to restore the monuments’ original boundaries, arguing presidents don’t have legal authority to change monuments their predecessors created. On the flip side, Republicans have argued Democratic presidents misused the Antiquities Act signed by President Theodore Roosevelt to designate monuments beyond what’s necessary to protect archaeological and cultural resources.

Haaland will be a key player in deciding what comes next.

She has said she will follow Biden’s agenda, not her own, on oil and gas drilling, and told reporters at a briefing last week that her report to the president will reflect conversations with people who know and understand the area.

The administration has said the decision to review the monuments is part of an expansive plan to tackle climate change and reverse the Trump administration’s “harmful policies.”

But Mike Noel, a former state representative and vocal critic of expanding the monuments, said it would be a mistake for Biden’s administration to “go back and rub salt in the wounds” by reversing Trump’s action.

He said he fears that not allowing local and state officials to make these decisions will only further divide those involved.

“It’s never a good thing when decisions like this are made from Washington, D.C.,” Noel said. “I just think it’s being done wrong, and I hope that the new secretary recognizes that.”

___

Eppolito is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this story.

Honduran woman exits Utah church after 3 years in sanctuary

By SOPHIA EPPOLITO

4/15/2021

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Vicky Chavez poses for a photograph at the First Unitarian Church Thursday, April 15, 2021, in Salt Lake City. Chavez, a Honduran woman in the U.S. illegally who received sanctuary in a Salt Lake City church with her two young daughters for more than three years is now free to leave without risk of deportation. Chavez stepped outside First Unitarian Church for the first time in 1,168 days on Thursday as church congregants cheered. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — After over three years living in a Salt Lake City church to avoid being deported, Honduran immigrant Vicky Chavez stepped outside Thursday with tears in her eyes as church congregants and friends cheered, celebrating her newfound freedom.

Chavez and her two young daughters took sanctuary in First Unitarian Church in January 2018 after she said she fled an abusive boyfriend in Honduras and sought asylum in the United States but was denied.

Chavez entered the United States illegally in June 2014 and was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in December 2016. After exhausting her appeals in January 2018, Chavez had a plane ticket home to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She instead accepted an offer of sanctuary from the church.

Chavez said she received a notice from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday that she had been granted a so-called a stay of removal, which limits her risk of being deported for a year.

“Vicky’s life is no longer on hold,” Rev. Tom Goldsmith, the church’s minister, told reporters. “She leaves this church with a full grasp of the English language, a couple of hundred friends and the confidence to pursue her dreams.”

Chavez thanked her community in the church for helping keep her and her daughters safe over the past 1,168 days and said she plans to remain in Utah.

“I have no words to thank them for giving me a safe home for over three years,” Chavez said. “Today I can say that I’m full of love and happy to have arrived here.”

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson had tears in her eyes as she congratulated Chavez and called on citizens and elected leaders to have “more compassion” for members of their communities.

Chavez and her daughters were the first known immigrants to take sanctuary in Utah, according to local immigration advocates and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

She and her daughters slept in a converted Sunday school room and spent most of their time in another room with a TV, an easel and games.

Skylar Anderson, Chavez’s attorney, said he was overjoyed for his client and her family but urged elected officials in Congress to prioritize changes for the nation’s immigration system and to make the process easier for those seeking asylum.

“There are millions of Vickys in this country — I’ve represented many of them,” Anderson said. “There aren’t enough churches to give sanctuary to all the Vickys of this country. This country needs to be that sanctuary.”

Alethea Smock, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had no comment Thursday about Chavez’ case.

In his first weeks in office, President Joe Biden signed several executive orders on immigration issues that undo his predecessor’s policies, though several Republican members of Congress are pushing legal challenges.

Others who have emerged from sanctuary since Biden took office include Jose Chicas, a 55-year-old El Salvador native, who left a church-owned house in Durham, North Carolina, on Jan. 22.

Alex Garcia, a father of five from Honduras, left a Mapplewood, Missouri church in February. Edith Espinal, a native of Mexico, left an Ohio church after more than three years.

___

Eppolito is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Stone Mountain Park denies permit for Confederate event
April 13, 2021



FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2015, file photo, Confederate flag supporters climb Stone Mountain to protest what they believe is an attack on their Southern heritage during a rally at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Ga. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a gathering permit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who were looking to host their annual Confederate Memorial Day service at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta. The gathering was slated for Saturday, April 17, 2021, but a March 31 letter from memorial association CEO Bill Stephens denied the necessary permit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a gathering permit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who were looking to host their annual Confederate Memorial Day service at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta.

The gathering was slated for Saturday but a March 31 letter from memorial association CEO Bill Stephens denied the necessary permit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Stephens listed three reasons for the denial including safety concerns, specifically the pandemic and racial tensions.

“With the volatile nature of events of the immediate past and ongoing today, there is a clear and present danger to members of the (Sons of Confederate Veterans), potential counterprotesters, park employees and guests,” Stephens wrote.

Stephens also said Silver Dollar City, the group contracted to run the park’s attractions, would not allow the group to access the Memorial Plaza Lawn.

Stone Mountain Park has been a gathering spot for white supremacists and has centuries-old ties to the Ku Klux Klan. The park has the largest Confederate monument ever crafted, featuring sculptures of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson carved into the mountainside. The monument has special protection enshrined in Georgia law.

Martin O’Toole, a spokesman for the Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he understood the concern regarding COVID-19 but questioned the other safety issue.

“This is a memorial service that is part of the whole purpose for the park’s existence,” O’Toole said.

O’toole said the park has held the event for the Confederate Memorial Day at least 18 times without issue. Last year, it was canceled due to the pandemic.

Although the park has historically been a gathering spot for white supremacists, the adjoining city of Stone Mountain, a suburb of Atlanta has a majority-Black population today.

The park has previously closed its gates to white nationalists. In August, the park denied a permit sought by right-wing groups led by an Arkansas group called Confederate States III%, who had planned an event in response to a march by a Black militia group on July 4.

FILE - This June 23, 2015, file photo shows a carving depicting Confederate Civil War figures Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, in Stone Mountain, Ga. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a gathering permit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who were looking to host their annual Confederate Memorial Day service at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta. The gathering was slated for Saturday, April 17, 2021, but a March 31 letter from memorial association CEO Bill Stephens denied the necessary permit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Ohio court hears arguments over ancient earthworks access

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

April 13, 2021


FILE - This April 6, 2000 file photo shows a concrete walkway, foreground, that allows golfers access to the top of an ancient American Indian mound at Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark, Ohio. The Ohio Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday, April 13, 2021 in the debate over public access to the set of ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks. The case pits the state historical society against the country club where the earthworks are located. (Jeff Adkins/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, File)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A debate over public access to a set of ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks is before the Ohio Supreme Court in a case pitting the state historical society against a country club within whose grounds the earthworks are located.

At issue before the court are the 2,000-year-old Octagon Earthworks in Newark in central Ohio. The Ohio History Connection, which owns the earthworks, has proposed the site along with other ancient sites in Ohio for nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The historical society, which is a nonprofit that contracts with the state, argues it must control access to the earthworks for that nomination to proceed.

American Indians constructed the site nearly 2,000 years ago. The layout of the earthworks, including eight long earthen walls, corresponds to lunar movements and aligns with points at which the moon rises and sets over the course of the 18.6-year lunar cycle.

The Ohio History Connection calls them “part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory.”

The people who built the earthworks preceded later American Indians in Ohio sometimes by centuries, but numerous tribes, some with historical ties to Ohio, want the earthworks preserved as examples of indigenous peoples’ accomplishments. The National Congress of American Indians, the Inter-Tribal Council representing tribes living in Northeast Oklahoma and the Seneca Nation of New York State are among those endorsing the historical society’s application to the heritage list.

Designating the Ohio earthworks as World Heritage Sites “would protect the earthworks from further development and destruction and be places to honor indigenous achievement,” the National Congress of American Indians said in its letter of support.

Such a placement would be a first in Ohio and only the 25th nationally. Designation as a World Heritage site comes with with prestige and international recognition but no financial benefit.

UNESCO says it can help provide emergency assistance for sites in immediate danger and provide technical assistance and professional training to help safeguard designated places.

The organization describes its goals as encouraging “international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage.”

Two other examples of pre-Columbian earthwork construction on the heritage list are Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Missouri and Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point in Louisiana.

In 1892, voters in surrounding Licking County enacted a tax increase to preserve what was left of the earthworks. The area was developed as a golf course in 1911, and the state first leased the 134-acre property to Moundbuilders Country Club in the 1930s.

The historical society now wants to buy back the lease, convert the property to a park to improve public access to Octagon Earthworks and open a visitors center. The country club’s lease doesn’t expire until 2078.

A Licking County judge ruled in May 2019 that the historical society can reclaim the lease via eminent domain. That ruling was upheld last year by the Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals.

The club is challenging the attempt to take the property, saying the Ohio History Connection did not make a good faith offer to purchase the property as required by state law. The country club says it has provided proper upkeep of the mound and allowed public access over the years.

A 2003 agreement between the historical society and the country club allows full, unfettered access to the site four days a year. The agreement also allows public access during daylight hours from November through March and Monday mornings the rest of the year, as long as the club hasn’t scheduled golf activities those days.

The historical society argues that public access to the site has actually been restricted since the 2003 agreement, with individuals and groups finding it increasingly difficult to schedule visits around golfers’ playing times and course maintenance, including pesticide and herbicide spraying.

Attorneys for the country club — referred to as MCC in court documents — argue the historical society’s true intent for acquiring the country club’s property is in hopes of securing the World Heritage listing, which is a highly competitive process with low success rates, country club attorneys said in a September 2020 court filing.

“Is it in the public’s best interest to risk losing all the benefits MCC provides for the chance that the property will be inscribed to the World Heritage list?” the attorneys argued.

They also contend the historical society has neglected another nearby ancient earthwork known as the Great Circle, despite operating it as a park for nearly 80 years.

The historical society argues its proposal in 2020 to buy out the lease for $1.66 million was a good faith offer based on an independent appraisal, and its primary goal is public access. The historical society denies the country club’s allegations that its plans for the site are contingent on a World Heritage list placement.

Creating a park at the Octagon Earthworks would “enable the History Connection and others to conduct research on the site on their own schedule, which would, in turn, allow the History Connection to better educate Ohioans (and the world) about the Earthworks and their historical importance,” Benjamin Flowers, the state Solicitor General, said in an October court filing.

The state Supreme Court held oral arguments Tuesday. A decision isn’t expected for weeks.

Shell To Put Energy Transition Plan To Shareholder Vote

By Charles Kennedy - Apr 15, 2021

Oil supermajor Shell will put its Energy Transition Strategy to a non-binding shareholder vote at its annual general meeting next month, the first time an energy firm will be seeking an advisory approval of its plan to go to net zero.

Shell has pledged to become a net-zero energy company by 2050, and said earlier this year that its oil production peaked in 2019 and was set for a continual decline over the next three decades.

“As we transform our business, it is more important than ever for shareholders to understand and support our approach,” Shell’s chief executive officer Ben van Beurden said in the preface of the company’s Energy Transition Strategy.


“We are asking our shareholders to vote for an energy transition strategy that is designed to bring our energy products, our services, and our investments in line with the goal of the Paris Agreement and the global drive to combat climate change,” van Beurden added.

According to Shell’s strategy, the target for carbon intensity reduction is

6-8 percent by 2023 for the short term, 20 percent by 2030, and 45 percent by 2035, until reaching carbon intensity reduction of 100 percent by 2050.

“The vote is purely advisory and will not be binding. Shell’s Board and Executive Committee remain responsible and accountable for setting and approving Shell’s energy transition strategy,” Shell said in a statement today.

The supermajor will also seek every year, beginning in 2022, an advisory vote from shareholders on its progress in achieving its energy transition strategy.

The Church of England Pensions Board, a shareholder in Shell, will likely support the energy strategy, Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer, told The Wall Street Journal.

Shell is also set to tie the bonuses for its top executive directors more closely to the group’s performance in reaching its net-zero goals, if shareholders approve the plan at the annual general meeting in May. The weighting of the progress in the energy transition performance measures in the long-term incentive plans (LTIP) for executive directors is set to grow to 15 percent from 10 percent.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

“New Sanctions On Manafort Deputy Suggest Deeper Role Of Russian Intel In 2016”

Posted on April 15, 2021 7:34 am by Rick Hasen

TPM:

The Biden administration slapped Konstantin Kilimnik, an assistant of Paul Manafort and alleged Russian spy, with sanctions on Thursday as it escalated economic measures against Moscow.

In announcing the move, the Treasury Department suggested that Kilimnik gave internal Trump campaign polling data to Russian intelligence during the 2016 election.

“During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Kilimnik provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy,” the release reads.

That goes significantly further than any previous assessment of the fate of internal Trump campaign polling data that Paul Manafort notoriously shared with Kilimnik during the 2016 campaign. A report from the Senate Intelligence Committee released in August 2020 declined to draw a conclusion on what Kilimnik ultimately did with the polling data, but said that its own investigation was operating with limited information…

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Bitcoin thieves used Coinbase hype as a smokescreen to shift stolen crypto


By Mayank Sharma 

4/15/2021

The stolen Bitcoin are closely tracked and blacklisted by most exchanges

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Wit Olszewksi)

Update: Stuart Hoegner, General Counsel at Bitfinex, told us, “We continue to monitor the situation closely, along with global law enforcement agents. As and when we recover these funds, they will be allocated pursuant to our contractual commitments.”

Over $600 million worth of stolen Bitcoin was surreptitiously transferred as the cryptocurrency community reveled in the recent listing of Coinbase on the Nasdaq exchange.

The transferred Bitcoin were a small percentage of the 119,756 BTC stolen from Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex back in 2016.

"We believe that the BTC transfers started during the trading for Coinbase's direct listing," Nick Mancini, research analyst at real-time crypto data service Trade the Chain, told CoinDesk. 

Impossible trade

“The 2016 Bitfinex hack BTC are some of the most tracked & blacklisted funds in the world. No exchange will process them. They can basically never be cashed out,” tweeted Adam Cochran, a partner with Cinneamhain Venture.

However, Mancini believes the rise of decentralized exchanges offer the thieves an opportunity to obfuscate the addresses of the stolen Bitcoin through mechanisms such as initial DEX offering (IDO) enough to transfer small amounts.

He thinks the thieves saw an opportunity in Coinbase’ listing to offload some of their loot, which wouldn’t attract the same kind of scrutiny with everyone focused on the listing.

In all, Trade The Chain estimates that the thieves moved about 10% of their 119,756 stolen BTC.





In a historic move of sorts, Coinbase Global Inc. became the first cryptocurrency exchange to debut on Wall Street via a direct listing. In the runup to yesterday’s listing saw popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ether extend the bull run and touch historic all-time highs.

We've built a list of the best mining rigs out there

Via: CoinDesk

SPECULATE LIKE IT'S THE NINTEEN TWENTIES

Finance officials pour cold water on cryptocurrency amid Coinbase celebrations

Economic gatekeepers are rounding on cryptocurrency as media attention intensifies amid the Bitcoin boom and Coinbase listing.

Finance officials from both sides of the globe are taking the opportunity to criticize the value and utility of cryptocurrencies as media focus intensifies on the space following Coinbase’s direct listing on the Nasdaq.

Bank of Korea governor Lee Ju-yeol said cryptocurrencies had “considerable limitations” as a method of payment, following a monetary policy meeting on Thursday, reports local outlet KBS World.

While asserting that it was difficult to accurately value cryptocurrencies due to their volatile price fluctuations, Lee said the BOK had not shifted on its stance that they had no intrinsic value.

Lee also referenced United States Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, noting that the head of the Fed shared his sentiments on the crypto space.

Hours earlier, Powell stated in a virtual interview with The Economic Club of New York that cryptocurrencies were purely speculative, adding that they had not been readily adopted as a means of payment.

“They’re really vehicles for speculation. They’re not really being actively used as payments,” Powell said, according to CNBC.

Flying in the face of Powell and Lee’s comments is the recent adoption of cryptocurrency by major global payment processors. Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all began to implement crypto payment options in the past few months, while Tesla introduced Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment option for its electric car business.

That’s not to say Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a sure thing as far as payment methods go. Bitcoin’s average transaction fee is currently around $30 due to its limited block size and resultant network congestion. For this reason, payment processors are often forced to eat such transaction fees as a cost of doing business until they can no longer afford to, as was the case with gaming platform Steam in 2017.

One point of agreement shared by Powell and the crypto community is the suggestion that cryptocurrency could be compared to gold — but for completely different reasons. Cryptocurrency (particularly Bitcoin) proponents argue that the technology can be used as a long-term store of value in the same manner as a precious metal.

Powell, however, intended the comparison to be derisory. The Fed chairman’s opinion of gold seems to be no better than that of cryptocurrency.

“For thousands of years, human beings have given gold a special value that it doesn’t have,” said the chairman of the fiat-printing center of the United States.

Finance officials pour cold water on cryptocurrency amid Coinbase celebrations (cointelegraph.com)

CRICKET 

NOT JUST A SPORT BUT CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Cryptocurrency Presents Brand New Challenge For ICC's Anti-Corruption Unit

Former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak's shocking admission of cricket corruption has also shone a light on cryptocurrency finding a place in the bookies' list of enticements

• PTI
• Updated: April 15, 2021

Former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak’s shocking admission of cricket corruption has also shone a light on cryptocurrency finding a place in the bookies’ list of enticements — a brand new challenge for the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit, which claims to be ready for the battle.

Streak was on Wednesday banned by the ICC for eight years after admitting to disclose inside information to a suspected Indian bookie during his coaching stints in Zimbabwe, Bangladesh as well as the IPL, Afghanistan Premier League and the Bangladesh Premier League.

Till date cash has been the most preferred mode of payment for bookies, who also pay in kind with cars, jewellery and high-end phones.

However, Streak’s case has thrown up the use of bitcoin in corrupt payments. The ICC’s detailed judgement in the case has revealed that Streak once received two “bitcoins” from a corruptor in 2018, valued at $ 35,000 at that time.

“It is a new phenomenon for us, but we have staff capable of investigating it. Corrupters try to use all modes including cash and ‘hawala’, which are not easy to trace either. Bitcoins pose a similar challenge,” ICC ACU General Manager Alex Marshall said in an email reply to PTI’s query on Thursday.

So what is cryptocurrency?

In layman’s language, ‘Cryptocurrency’ is virtual money. It is the purchase of a digital asset based on an algorithm.

The bitcoins that are generated aren’t regulated by any central banking authority in any country (like the Reserve Bank of India) and in many countries like India, it is still an illegal tender.

In simpler words, it is a “Blockchain Industry” where a financial transaction between two people sitting in two different parts of the world will not have any intermediaries.

The valuation of one bitcoin is staggering. One bitcoin’s rupee value currently stands at Rs 46.83 lakh or $ 62,453.

However, the bigger challenge is that coding of “cryptocurrency” is believed to be watertight. There are elaborately programmed vaults (digital) and the tracking can be infinitely more difficult when compared to paper tenders like rupee, US dollar or pound.

Marshall said that ICC is up for the challenge in the coming days now that a new method of corruption has emerged.

“Tracking bitcoin transactions may not be easy but we have the right people with the right expertise, understanding and network needed to ensure we stay ahead of the corruptors,” Marshall said.

Even BCCI’s new head of Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) Shabbir Hussain Shekhadam Khandwawala said that he heard of payment through bitcoins for the first time.

“Yes, I was going through the details of the Heath Streak case. I have also heard about bitcoin transaction for the first time,” the former DGP of Gujarat Police told PTI.

However, Hussain feels that tracking of corrupt people is not always about the keeping a vigil on the mode of transactions.

“We always catch the people not by the amount or how the money is paid (bitcoins in this case). Our clues are different. We keep a watch on them and their activities and telephonic calls,” Hussain said.

“Some things happen underground also,” he said, adding “Everything has to be on the basis of the solid information received from sources.

“So if someone has accepted money or been involved in graft in any form, once you start investigation, you are able to reach that,” he said.

He, in fact, played down the prospect of cryptocurrency gaining ground in the world of cricket corruption.

“…well it’s fine for the person in question to keep his money safely. It is like safe parking of money where no one can see it. But does it come in the way of investigation of this case? Perhaps not.”

“I still don’t think it will become a trend and even those indulging in such activities will always leave a trail,” Hussain concluded.

 

ROARING TWENTIES REDUX

Financial Fictions: SPACs, NFTs, and Cryptocurrencies

Post on: April 14, 2021 

 Michael Roberts

In recent years, there has been a spate of new fictions in the casino world of financial speculation. Marxist economist Michael Roberts discusses these technological developments and how when the financial markets go belly up, the digital damage will be exposed.

Originally published in The Next Recession.

In my last article, I discussed recent financial engineering and swindles that are traditional to the accumulation of and speculation in what Marx called fictitious capital, ie financial assets like bonds, stocks, property, credit and so-called derivatives of these.

Finance capital is ever-ingenious in inventing new ways of speculation and swindles.  In the past we have had the dot.com boom when the stock prices of many internet start-ups exploded upwards, only to crash when the profits of these companies did not materialise and the cost of borrowing to speculate rose.  That was in 2000 and followed by a mild recession in 2001.

Then we had the huge credit boom in house prices, mortgages and the securitised mortgage packages and their derivatives that fuelled a huge property and stock market boom that collapsed into the Global Financial Crash of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession.  That was followed by a massive injection of central bank money with low to zero interest rates and ‘quantitative easing’ leading to a further rise in stock and bond markets up to record highs.  The COVID slump only led central banks to doubling-down on ‘quantitative easing’ to keep the prices of financial assets rising, while the ‘real economy’ based on the profitability and investment in productive assets stagnated.

In this 21st-century world of easy money borrowing, there have been a spate of new fictions in the casino world of financial speculation.

First, there are SPACS, Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicles.  These are so-called “blank cheque” companies e. banks and other hedge funds invest in a SPAC, which owns nothing, but promises investors that the SPAC will buy a privately-owned company, then take it to the stock market in what is called an Initial Public Offering (selling shares to the public). If the IPO leads to higher price than the investment in the SPAC, everybody makes a profit.

SPACs have taken Wall Street by storm and become a favourite investment among hedge fund managers. As one SPAC explained, we have an “inherently investor-friendly structure” with little downside. In the US, which accounts for the bulk of SPAC activity, 235 vehicles have raised $72bn so far this year, according to Refinitiv. But is there ‘little downside’?  Supposedly there is little risk of losing the original investment because cash is put into a trust that invests in US treasuries and shareholders can ask for their money back at any point. But there is a potential to make lofty returns come from a unique quirk in the SPAC, which splits into shares and ‘warrants’ (options to buy shares) shortly after the structure starts trading.  And here there is substantial risk that things will go wrong.

A warrant, typically worth only a fraction of a share, acts as a sweetener for early backers, who can redeem their investment while keeping hold of the warrant. When the SPAC finds a company to acquire, the warrants convert to relatively inexpensive stakes in the new company.  But those who who did not take warrants but opted for a stake in the merged company (mainly small investors), bear the risk of both a potentially bad deal and significant dilution compared to the free warrants handed out to early backers.

And quite often it is a bad deal.  While the hedge funds buy the ‘warrants’ at a fraction of the SPAC share price and get out before the SPAC acquisition is completed, small ‘retail’ investors stay on the for the full deal and find that the acquisition IPO price drops very quickly, leaving them with significant losses.  The result is that small investors provide the money for the rich wide boys to take.  Nevertheless, while money is cheap and the stock market booms, the small-time better will go on hoping to make a killing.

Then there are NFTs, or ‘non-fungible tokens’.  What the hell are these, you might say?  NFTs are digital financial assets stored on blockchains (digital codes).  You can convert anything into an NFT to try and sell it. Christies has already auctioned an NFT (digitally coded) artwork for $70m. An Oscar nominated movie has been released as an NFT (digital code) and so on.  But what is being sold is just one unique, blockchained (digital coded) representation of the artwork, not the actual thing itself. It’s the ultimate derivative: a digital code derived from an object or even a person, but with no rights of ownership.  So what’s the point?  None really – it’s just a fad and the buyer of the NFT hopes that it can be sold on to another idiot for a profit.

A particular negative of the NFT craze is that encoding artwork or an idea onto a blockchain involves complex computations that are highly energy intensive. In six months, a single NFT by one crypto artist consumed electricity equivalent to an EU citizen’s average energy consumption over 77 years. This naturally results in a significant carbon footprint.

And this is an issue that applies to blockchain technology more generally. For example, the original cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has an estimated annual energy consumption in the range equivalent to about 0.45 percent of the world’s entire electricity production.

And that brings me to the saga of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.  I wrote on blockchains and crypto craze over three years ago.  I argued then that Bitcoin aims at reducing transaction costs in internet payments and completely eliminating the need for financial intermediaries ie banks. But I doubted that such digital currencies could replace existing fiat currencies and become widely used in daily transactions.

Since then, the price of bitcoin in fiat currencies like the dollar has violently fluctuated but more recently has rocketed to stratospheric heights as cheap money and low inflation have pushed down the value of the main reserve and store of currency, the US dollar.  Whereas gold used to be the alternative store of value to the dollar, now it seems that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are taking over as the speculative money asset.  Why?  Well, most gold is the vaults of central banks and so the price is subject not only to the supply from gold mines but also the policy decisions of government-controlled banks.  Instead, Bitcoin has a clearly defined amount to digital supply and through blockchains, it can be mined and transacted without government controls.

In the current fantasy world of casino financial investment, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seem more attractive to currency speculators than even gold. And so the crypto boom continues.  For example, Coinbase Global Inc, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, is now valued at around $68 billion, compared to just $8 billion in October 2018. The company now has more than 43 million users in more than 100 countries.

But cryptocurrencies are no closer to achieving acceptance as a means of exchange.  Bitcoin’s value is not backed by any government guarantees, by definition.  It is backed just by ‘code’ and the consensus that exists among its key ‘miners’ and holders.  As with fiat currencies, where there is no physical commodity that has intrinsic value in the labour time to produce it, the crypto currency depends on trust of the users.  And actually that trust for cryptocurrencies varies with its price relative to the fiat currency, the dollar. Its price is measured in dollars or in what is called a ‘stable coin’ tied to the dollar.

Indeed, while the cryptocraze has exploded, the US dollar has entrenched itself ever more firmly as the world’s premier settlement currency (67% of all settlements, followed by the euro, the yen and yuan).

Bitcoin is no nearer universal acceptance than it was when it started. So while cryptocurrencies have increasingly become part of speculative digital finance, I still don’t think they will replace fiat currencies, where the supply is controlled by central banks and governments as the main means of exchange. They will remain on the micro-periphery of the spectrum of digital moneys, just as Esperanto has done as a universal global language against the might of imperialist English, Spanish and Chinese.

Moreover, there are already rivals to cryptocurrencies that carry the backing of governments: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).  CBDCs have been discussed for years as an alternative to cash as many economies have witnessed a slump in physical money being used in transactions. Cash accounted for only 20% of payments in China – the world’s second largest economy in 2018, according to research published by the Bundesbank in 2019. This week, China became the first major economy to create a blockchain-based digital version of its currency, the cyber yuan, to be used in transactions.   Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank revealed this week that its current pilot project will take at least one more year to be ready for the e-krona.

The US is more reluctant because American finance has the dollar as the world’s top currency. This week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said “that there’s no hurry to develop a central bank digital currency.”  Having trashed cryptocurrencies as “highly volatile and therefore not really useful stores of value and not backed by anything,” Powell went on “It’s more a speculative asset that’s essentially a substitute for gold rather than for the dollar.” Even so, the Boston Fed last year entered into a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a multiyear study into developing a central bank digital currency. But the work is expected to take two to three years.

These CBDCs in theory provide a seamless and trustworthy way of doing digital transactions more or less instantaneously and as they ar backed by government, they make them attractive compared to gold, fiat currencies and crypto coinage.  But they also reduce the freedom of individuals to control their own ‘cash’ and they open the doors of personal financial activities to governments, supposedly reducing corruption, but also putting people’s livelihoods even more in the grip of governments.

In the last 20 years, financial fictions have been increasingly digitalised.  High frequency financial transactions have been superseded by digital coding.  But these technological developments have mainly been used to increase speculation in the financial casino, leaving regulators behind in the wash.  When the financial markets go belly up, which they eventually will, the digital damage will be exposed