Mexico's Pemex Plans Bond Sale With Billions in Payments Due




Michael O'Boyle and Amy Stillman
Tue, January 24, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos plans to issue bonds in the coming weeks as the indebted Mexican state oil company looks to pay off maturities coming due in the first quarter, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The company will issue bonds in order to help pay off billions of dollars worth of debt amortizations due before the end of March, the people said, asking not to be identified commenting on private plans. Pemex, as the company is known, is likely to seek at least $2 billion in new issuance and needs to go to the market before a blackout period starting Feb. 12, one of the people said.

The issuance comes as Pemex faces almost $10 billion in bond amortization payments due this year — a sum that neither the company nor the government included in their annual budgets. Of that amount, between $5.5 billion and $6 billion is due in the first quarter alone, according to Pemex Chief Executive Officer Octavio Romero Oropeza.

A Pemex representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mexico’s Presidency and the Finance Ministry also didn’t immediately comment when contacted on Tuesday.

The company’s bonds fell on Tuesday, extending declines after Bloomberg reported the plan to sell new debt. Notes due in 2050 fell a cent to 74.9 cents on the dollar, according to Trace bond-trading data.

“We are getting to the point where the indebtedness of the company is getting outrageous,” Luis Maizel, co-founder of LM Capital Management in San Diego. “They said there would be no new issuance. But when you have no option, you have to get the money somewhere.”

The Mexican government stopped covering Pemex’s debt amortizations in the second half of 2022 as oil prices surged. Yet President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said that the government could provide additional financial aid if Pemex can’t meet its debt obligations. In addition to the issuance, the oil producer could receive a capital injection from the government or delay paying its profit-sharing duty, known as DUC, to free up cash, one of the people said.

The government-owned oil giant has seen its oil production decline almost every year for the past decade and a half, while its debt has soared to $105 billion, the highest of any oil company. Lopez Obrador’s nationalist energy policies have added to its woes as the company is pressured to focus on refining more crude domestically instead of exporting it.

The decline in oil prices since the second half of last year also worked against Pemex. Still, as volatility in global markets has abated in the new year, so issuers in Mexico should take advantage, Maizel said. The government already sold $4 billion in bonds.

“Mexico is now the darling for many,” Maizel said. “It is the right time to take advantage of this.”

Still, the company’s bonds have handed investors returns of 6.9% so far this year, outperforming a Bloomberg index of dollar-denominated debt from corporations and countries in Latin America, which has returned 4.4% during that time.

--With assistance from Max de Haldevang, Maria Elena Vizcaino and Sydney Maki.

Two energy giants, two green projects: 

one double-booking in North Sea



Mon, January 23, 2023 
By Rowena Edwards and Shadia Nasralla

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil major BP plans to build a vast carbon capture project beneath the North Sea that would be crucial to Britain hitting its emissions targets. Power giant Orsted aims to build a huge offshore windfarm to help the country meet renewable goals.

The problem is, the seabed's double-booked, and something has to give.

Britain granted preliminary licences for both proposed projects more than a decade ago, when an overlap of about 110 sq km on the sea floor wasn't seen as posing an insurmountable obstacle to either technology, according to planning documents reviewed by Reuters, the companies involved and UK authorities.

Now, though, a dispute is unfolding between BP and Orsted over primacy in this "Overlap Zone" shared by the Hornsea Four windfarm and Endurance carbon capture and storage (CCS) sites off the English county of Yorkshire.

The standoff has been fuelled by studies that highlighted the risk of boats used to monitor carbon leaks colliding with wind turbines fixed to the sea floor. Last year the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which regulates offshore energy activity, concluded that large crossovers between such ventures were unfeasible with current technology.

"At the time these rights were granted, it was unclear how the emergent technologies would develop," England's Crown Estate licensing agency told Reuters, referring to the windfarm and CCS licences the government awarded in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

BP is unwilling to switch to a costlier boat-free monitoring system and Orsted to cede territory, with both saying such concessions would hit their commercial prospects.

This largely unreported clash risks undermining Britain's drive to meet its climate goals, according to the companies involved and a North Sea green transition expert. Endurance's capacity alone could account for at least half of the 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 the nation aims to capture a year by 2030.

"Resolution of the conflict between the renewable technologies, and having a due process that determines whether a windfarm, carbon store or other source of energy has primacy in an area of overlap, is crucial if the UK is going to achieve its net-zero targets," said John Underhill, geoscientist and director for Aberdeen University's Centre of Energy Transition.

The BP-Orsted showdown could also presage similar disputes elsewhere in an increasingly crowded North Sea, the experts told Reuters.

Britain's eastern seaboard, which boasts the favourable geological formations for carbon storage and the shallow waters for fixed-bottom offshore windfarms, is shaping up to be a key battleground for the competing green technologies in coming years, they said.

"Offshore wind has obviously come forward quite quickly since 2015, this has resulted in an increased pressure for sea floor space," said Chris Gent, policy manager at the European carbon capture trade association CCSA, adding that this presented a real challenge for licensing authorities.

Britain's BP and Danish renewables company Orsted say they are committed to finding a solution to their dispute, which is coming to a head in the coming months; British authorities are due to decide whether to give Hornsea Four the final go-ahead on Feb. 22, while BP and its partners plan to make a final investment decision on Endurance this year.

It's not just climate targets that are at stake, there's also a lot of money riding on the projects, which would together cover about 500 sq km of the seabed. BP didn't give a cost estimate for Endurance, while Orsted pegged its windfarm at up to 8 billion pounds ($9.9 billion).

BATTLE FOR THE OVERLAP ZONE

The British government acknowledged the problem.

When asked about how two such projects can end up in the same area, the Department for Business, Energy and Industry told Reuters the government had set ambitious targets for deploying offshore CCS and windfarms, which were both key to its efforts to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

"We are aware that in some cases there may be technical challenges to the coexistence," it added.

In an effort to resolve conflicts and avoid future ones, UK authorities set up an offshore wind and CCS forum of regulators and industry figures in 2021 to develop better coordination.

BP, Orsted and Crown Estate told Reuters they had been discussing solutions to coexistence for several years, though they didn't comment on how their views had evolved over the past decade on the overlap risks associated with the technologies.

An Orsted planning document published by UK authorities on Jan. 17 included a report by a group representing BP and its Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) project partners, in which the CCS scheme ruled out sharing the territory.

"It was originally anticipated that it could be possible for Hornsea Project Four and the NEP Project to co-exist in the Overlap Zone," said the report by Net Zero Teesside, dated July 2022. "However, after extensive analysis, BP and its NEP partners have concluded that coexistence across the entirety of the Overlap Zone is not feasible."

BP has expressed scepticism a compromise can be found in time, saying it needs certainty about the fate of the zone ahead of its final investment decision to enable CO2 injection to start at the project in 2026 as planned.

"It is not realistic for any new robust and reliable solution to come forward within this or a comparative timescale," it said in a March 2022 submission to UK authorities. "NEP will be unable to attract debt financing if the risks attached to the project's financial viability are high," it added in another March 2022 submission.

Orsted said in its planning documents, published the same month, that a sparser turbine layout that could mitigate boat access issues would reduce Hornsea Four's annual energy production by 2.5%.

"This would have the impact of making the project far less commercially competitive," it added.

The windfarm's planned capacity of 2.6 gigawatts (GW) would help Britain move towards its goal of increasing offshore wind capacity from 11 GW in 2021 to 50 GW by 2030, a drive requiring huge investment in new offshore infrastructure in the North Sea.

PRICEY OCEAN BOTTOM NODES

Despite the obstacles, talks continue.

BP said it was committed to a mutually acceptable outcome through ongoing commercial discussions, while Orsted said it was confident an agreement could be reached to allow both projects to move forward.

There is hope on the horizon for wind and CCS projects that share ground, say regulators and industry experts.

Even when the NSTA regulator poured cold water on big shared areas, it stressed that technical advances could change the calculus. It added that alternative methods of CO2 monitoring were still in development stages or more expensive, increasing costs in a CCS sector where profits are already elusive.

The leading contender, ocean bottom nodes (OBN) fixed to the seabed, could do much of the work of the seismic data boats. However Ronnie Parr, senior geophysicist at the NSTA, said that while OBN costs were expected to fall, they would probably still cost three or four times more than using boats.

The regulator was clear.

"Based on current technologies, large physical overlaps between carbon storage sites and windfarms are presently considered not to be feasible," it said in its August 2022 report.

NEIGHBOURS IN NORTH SEA

A key moment looms next month when government planners are due to decide whether to grant the final green light to Hornsea Four.

While Endurance and its umbrella project, the East Coast Cluster, also face regulatory hurdles, the cluster was earmarked by the government in 2021 for a speedier development process.

With no breakthrough in sight between the companies, the same problem might rear its head elsewhere, according to Underhill at Aberdeen University, who highlighted the need for further CCS sites if Britain is to hit carbon-capture targets.

Other similar co-location sites include the planned Acorn carbon project off Scotland, which has an overlap with the MarramWind offshore windfarm, according to the NSTA and Underhill.

Shell and ScottishPowerRenewables, which secured initial rights to develop MarramWind a year ago, said discussions with Acorn were ongoing. Shell, also a developer on Acorn, added both projects were at a very early stage and that the overlap was not of a significant scale.

Underhill also pointed to decommissioned gas field Pickerill as a potential CCS site in the future but said existing plans to construct the Outer Dowsing windfarm could create problems.

David Few, Outer Dowsing's project director, said the windfarm was on track to power 1.6 million homes by the decade's end.

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla and Rowena Edwards in London; Editing by Pravin Char)

Mexico's top cop was being paid by El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel, feds say at New York trial


John Annese, New York Daily News
Mon, January 23, 2023 

NEW YORK — Mexico’s one-time top cop played the part of a drug-fighting hero, adding more than 30,000 officers to the country’s federal police force, but it was all a front, federal prosecutors say — Genaro Garcia Luna was really taking money from Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman's feared Sinaloa cartel to keep drugs flowing to the United States.

”He also had a second job, a dirtier job, a more profitable job,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Pilmar said in his opening argument Monday at Garcia Luna’s trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Garcia Luna, 54, Mexico’s ex-secretary of public security, is accused of taking briefcases full of cash from the Sinaloa cartel while it was run by the notorious drug lord Guzman.

From 2006 to 2012, under then-President Felipe Calderón, he ran Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI, consolidating his power by swelling the ranks of the federal police, Pilmar said.


The cartel kept its billion-dollar drug operation humming by paying “to buy off the federal police, to put them on the payroll, to make them them part of the organization,” Pilmar said. “The defendant took their cash and betrayed his oath to his country.”

Guzman was convicted at the end of his 2018 trial and sentenced to life plus 30 years in 2019.

At Guzman’s trial, cartel turncoat Jesus Zambada Garcia testified to personally delivering briefcases with millions in cash to Garcia Luna in a Mexican restaurant.

In exchange, Pilmar said, Garcia Luna leaked sensitive law enforcement information on pending arrests, let cocaine pass through checkpoints and turned his federal police officers into bodyguards, drug couriers and “armed mercenaries” for the cartel.

“Members of the jury, the evidence will show that the defendant, the person who was supposed to be in charge of fighting the Sinaloa cartel, was actually its most valuable asset,” Pilmar said Monday.

But defense lawyer Cesar de Castro said Garcia Luna actually did his crime-fighting job too well — and that the government’s case is based on the word of ruthless criminals seeking revenge for being locked up by his client.

“What better revenge than to bury the man who led the war against the cartels?” de Castro said. “These murderers, torturers, kidnappers literally get to kill two birds with one stone.”

De Castro said that the cartel members who will testify are hoping for lighter sentences and the possibility of a new life in the U.S. Prosecutors will show the jury “no money, no photos, no videos, no email, no texts, no recordings, no documents” to back up their allegations of bribery, he said.

Over his career, Garcia Luna met with top American law enforcement officials in the FBI, DEA and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as members of Congress, Sen. John McCain, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama, de Castro said.

He also helped bring in technology and equipment from the U.S. and helped implement a “huge database” called Plataforma Mexico to fight the cartels.

“This will be a very public and angry display by your government abandoning a strategic partner for years,” de Castro said. “The government will help the cartels exact the ultimate revenge on those responsible for their capture.”

———

MUSK'S WAR ON ESG

Elon Musk Accuses Two Influential Firms 

of Controlling the Stock Market

Tesla CEO says investor-advisory firms ISS 

and Glass Lewis have enormous power.

• LUC OLING STREETWATCH JAN 24, 2023

Elon Musk likes to attack circles of power. It's as if he's on a mission.

Nothing seems to motivate him more than slapping a revered institution or icon. He seems to be committed to challenging all forms of representations of power.

During the past few weeks, the Techno King, as he's known at Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report, has lashed out at Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who was the face of America's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This despite the risks that such an attack could backfire on Musk, and more specifically on some of his companies, like Tesla. The electric-vehicle leader's customer base is made up largely of progressives, who in turn are often ardent defenders of Fauci.

But none of that has stopped Musk, who has said he wants Dr. Fauci prosecuted.

Via his Twitter microblogging platform, he even promised covid files that would denounce what he considers the totalitarianism of the health authorities as they responded to the pandemic. These covid files were also supposed to expose Dr. Fauci.

Musk then attacked the World Economic Forum, the last convention of which has just concluded in Davos, Switzerland. The billionaire accused the forum of acting like an unpopular world government. He has thus taken up the discourse of the anti-elite and anti-globalists of all political stripes. 

"WEF is increasingly becoming an unelected world government that the people never asked for and don’t want," the tech tycoon blasted out on Jan. 18.

ISS, Glass Lewis Have 'Far Too Much Power': Musk

His charge against Davos has amped up criticism of the gathering of global economic and political elites and civil-society figures. 

If Musk, the second richest man in the world, strongly criticizes a circle made up of people just as rich as he is, forum critics say, his remarks serve to prove that Davos is not fulfilling the mission it set for itself.

"The World Economic Forum meeting in Davos has become largely irrelevant, little more than an exercise in self-congratulation for the world’s elites to convince themselves that they’re making a difference," blasted Patriotic Millionaires, an association of rich individuals fighting for "equal political representation, a livable minimum wage and a fair tax system."

If the billionaire does not expect his targets to immediately fall from their pedestals under his blows, he hopes to have at least permanently weaken them.

But while his attacks on Davos are still hot, the global CEO is targeting two other entities that also symbolize power. 

These are the two largest proxy-advisory firms: Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass-Lewis. For Musk, ISS and Glass Lewis are the real masters of the stock market. In his eyes, their power is disproportionate. 

The two firms provide advice to shareholders on executive compensation and the voting for board members. Their advice is both considered and ignored.

"Far too much power is concentrated in the hands of 'shareholder services' companies like ISS and Glass Lewis, because so much of the market is passive/index funds, which outsource shareholder voting decisions to them," Musk criticized on Jan. 24. 

As a result, "ISS and Glass Lewis effectively control the stock market."

As often with Musk, the first attack aims to set the stage and take the ambient temperature. In coming days or weeks he can be expected to multiply his attacks against the two firms, which encourage the implementation of ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) norms. Musk has made ESG his No. 1 enemy.

ISS and Glass and Lewis did not respond to separate requests for comment.

'What Does ISS Think About That?'

Musk's charge against them, on the other hand, was welcomed by Twitter users.

"These 'governance solution' companies are very disconcerting," commented a Twitter user. "The words 'recommends vote against/for' is a thinly disguised threat that they are in control and you better go along with them. I would never delegate my vote to them. 97% market share voting advice = complete control."

"Ouch!" quipped another user.

"It is so important to vote as an individual investor rather than leave it up to these 'shareholder services' companies that manipulate the stock market," said one Twitter user.

There is bad blood between Musk and the two firms. ISS and Glass Lewis had, for example, recommended that shareholders vote against the generous compensation package Tesla granted to its charismatic CEO in 2018. 

A trial on Musk's pay was held last November. A Tesla holder had filed a complaint to protest his compensation, estimated at more than $50 billion but conditioned on the company’s financial and stock-market performance. The trial ended in mid-November. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery has not yet issued a ruling from the bench.

According to Jim Woodrum, clinical professor of executive education at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, muted criticism of ISS and Glass Lewis can be heard in the boardrooms.

"If you ask experienced directors about their biggest complaint about the changes in the boardroom over the last 20 years, I think many would grumble and then say something about Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis," Woodrum said. 

"To some, these entities have taken the fun out of being a director, as creativity has been replaced by an increased focus on compliance."

Woodrum then explained how the two consulting firms operate and how they gain power.

"Both firms have created models of what they think good governance looks like. And both use various algorithms to determine whether a given company is deserving of a 'yes' vote on Say on Pay, and whether individual board members should be supported," he continued.

"Many institutions follow their recommendations, while others subscribe to the services yet also employ their own staff to determine how they should vote their shares. 

"The most interesting thing about these firms is that their business model requires them to change their guidelines on a regular basis. After all, if they had a straightforward set of rules and all companies adopted them, there would then be no need for ISS or Glass Lewis to exist."

But boardrooms have become dependent on ISS and Glass Lewis, Woodrum warned.

The most popular boardroom conversation is, he says, "'What does ISS think about that?'

"This has also led to a homogenization of boardroom practices, as more and more companies come into compliance with the latest edict from ISS and/or Glass Lewis," the professor said.

The professor believes that there is a way for the boards of directors and the two consulting firms to coexist.

Answer Man: As Duke builds renewable energy, how long do solar panels, wind turbines last?

Andrew Jones, Asheville Citizen Times
Tue, January 24, 2023 

ASHEVILLE - Power is infinite, right? Electricity doesn’t run out unless you stop paying the bill, right?

Not right. Today’s question probes something we often forget about: How long does power-providing equipment last? Moreover, with state and nationwide moves toward renewable energy, how long do emerging energy tools last?

Got a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Interim Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your question could appear in an upcoming column.

Question: Duke Energy in our area is increasing the amount of solar energy that they are producing. Duke also has indicated that it plans to produce wind turbine energy offshore on the North Carolina coastline. What is the life expectancy of solar panels and wind generators before they need to be replaced? What types of routine maintenance is required to maximize the amount of energy generated?

Let’s hone in specifically on Duke Energy’s answers to these questions, starting with solar power.

The company has a helpful crash course on renewable energy maintenance titled, fittingly, “Sustainable Life-Cycle Management for Renewables.”

DESS eBook Sustainable Life... by Andrew Jones

“The typical lifespan of solar PV panels is approximately 20-30 years,” Duke’s e-book explains. “The life span for solar power inverters is upwards of 10 years.”

To be clear, “PV” stands for photovoltaic and a panel is what you picture in your head when you think of solar power.

You may not be familiar with “power inverters,” so allow the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy to explain:

“An inverter is one of the most important pieces of equipment in a solar energy system. It’s a device that converts direct current (DC) electricity, which is what a solar panel generates, to alternating current (AC) electricity, which the electrical grid uses.”

Related:Buncombe votes for expansion of NC's largest public solar cluster, zero-emission vehicles

So, inverters need to be replaced more often than panels and solar power owners are looking at a few decades before the equipment may need complete replacement.

However, that’s not the only option.

According to Duke’s e-book, there is “decommissioning,” which means removing and entirely replacing a system in some cases and there is “recommissioning” or “repowering” which is essentially maintenance.

“Recommissioning or repowering is the process of finding and replacing underperforming – and potentially non-working – components of existing solar PV and/or battery energy storage systems,” the e-book explains. “If the system is failing systemically, a full system replacement is probably the right way to go. However, most systems are in better condition than their performance might suggest.”

Duke extols the “value” of “great maintenance schedules” that include cleaning solar panels and taking advantage of equipment warranties.

Then there’s the wind turbine, a monster of a tool for generating clean energy and the star of some of Duke’s sustainability marketing.

Again, to narrow the scope here, let’s focus on Duke and one of its latest endeavors, an offshore wind energy lease in the Carolina Long Bay, just southeast of Wilmington. A Duke subsidiary in May 2022 was named a provisional winner of a $155 bid to lease turbines there.

According to a news release, the company could begin “site assessment” there in 2023 and “could support up to 1.6 gigawatts of potential offshore wind energy, enough to power nearly 375,000 homes.”

Fully assembled wind turbines undergoing tests and adjustments before being towed out to the site of the Hywind Tampen wind farm, about 85 miles off the Norwegian coast.

Construction will take at least 10 years, Duke estimates.

The turbines at this site could have roughly 15-megawatt output. It’s not immediately clear what brand of turbine this project will use, but turbines have a roughly 20-30-year lifecycle.

Page 19 of a report titled “Building North Carolina's Offshore Wind Supply Chain” references a 30-year lifespan.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management concurs.

In a helpful overview of offshore wind farms titled “Navigational, design, and decommissioning concerns for offshore wind facilities: Fact Sheet,” the BOEM addresses the lifespan question.

“A typical offshore wind lease is valid for approximately 30 years,” the fact sheet states. “Before facilities may be installed under an approved Construction and Operations Plan, a lessee must provide financial assurance that covers the decommissioning of all structures, cables, and obstructions.”

Andrew Jones is an investigative reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: As Duke Energy grows, how long do solar systems, wind farms last?

Los Angeles Times Letters to the Editor: 

When will Americans admit, 'It's the guns, stupid'?

Wed, January 25, 2023 

A police officer stands in the street at the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park on Jan. 22. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: Thank you for one of the best editorials I've read concerning gun violence. Your point about killers having one thing in common — they have guns — reminds me of an exchange I heard years ago: In reply to "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," someone said, "People with guns kill people."

I read some initial reporting about the Monterey Park suspect having some anger issues. Whether or not that turns out to be true, it reminds me of Homer Simpson being told he had to wait for a background check before purchasing a gun. Frustrated, he replied, "But I'm mad now!"

Reducing gun violence requires we continue to consider many issues. In the meantime, how many deaths will it take, how many years will it take, until we and the people we elect admit, "It’s the guns, stupid"?

John Saville, Corona

.
To the editor: In addition to guns, mass killers have more important things in common — desires for notoriety, and to inflict as much misery on society as they have suffered in their lives.

The Times' front-page stories on the Monterey Park shooting and your coverage of the suspect and the terror he allegedly inflicted surely fulfill these desires. Furthermore, The Times' coverage (and that of countless other newspapers and broadcasters) will assure other monsters that their future acts of horror will achieve similar outcomes.

More than 70 million Americans are gun owners, and 99.9% of them never use a firearm to take a life. Yes, America needs to stop the carnage of the 0.01% of gun owners who commit these atrocities.

Editorials would be more useful if they focused on outlawing removable magazines holding more than six shots, red-flag laws that operate quickly and cheaply, and laws creating consequences for people failing to report an atrocity they know is being planned.

David A. Walsh, Manhattan Beach

..
To the editor: This is sick. We are sick as a society to tolerate this all so folks can have their guns. Guns have become the golden calves that are worshiped and defended against any sensible laws.

Oh, we have to obey the 2nd Amendment and make sure we have guns for "2nd Amendment remedies." That part of the Constitution was written when we had muskets that had one shot and took a few moments to reload.

Our forefathers could not have imagined today's assault weapons, and the purpose of the 2nd Amendment certainly wasn't to give citizens the means to overthrow the government if they thought it was out of control.

When will this insanity stop and we say enough is enough? I would give up my right to own a gun because the safety of our communities is more important.

Anne Earhart, Corona del Mar

Newsom renews call for federal action on gun safety after 2 mass shootings in California


Lara Korte
Tue, January 24, 2023

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom angrily denounced Republicans for refusing to adopt gun safety measures as he renewed calls for federal action after two mass shootings in California left 19 people dead.

Newsom also called out fellow Californian, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for not making a public statement after the shootings in Monterey Park and in Half Moon Bay.

“Where’s he been on gun safety reform? Where’s the Republican Party been on gun safety reform?” the governor said, appearing visibly shaken after meeting with families of victims of the second shooting. “Shame on them. Shame on those that allow and perpetuate that to be rewarded politically.”

California has some of the most stringent gun policies in the nation, which the governor says helps explain why the state has a gun death rate 37 percent below the national average. Some of those restrictions, however, are in jeopardy following a Supreme Court decision in June on a concealed carry law in New York that invited challenges on a wide range of firearm laws.

Even with California's laws, people can just bring weapons into the state from elsewhere — which is why Congress should take actions such as restricting the size of magazines and banning assault weapons, Newsom said.

“We can’t do this alone,” Newsom said. “And with all due respect, we feel like we are.”

The governor made the trip to Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, after the killing of seven farmworkers Monday, apparently by another worker. It came less than 48 hours after the attack by a gunman at a dance hall during a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, a small city east of downtown Los Angeles.

Newsom had harsh words for McCarthy, who represents the Bakersfield area, for not making any public statements addressing either shooting.

“I’m still waiting for Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the House of Representatives, who purports to represent the people of the state of California,” he said. “We haven’t heard one damn word from him, not since Monterey Park, not what happened here, not one expression of prayers, condolences, nothing, and it should surprise nobody.”

The Speaker addressed the shootings at a press gaggle on Tuesday in the Capitol, around the same time Newsom was speaking in Half Moon Bay.

"Let me begin by expressing my condolences to the families in California with the recent violence over the last couple days," McCarthy told reporters.

Newsom said he was in the hospital in Southern California visiting victims and family members when he was pulled aside and informed of the second shooting in Half Moon Bay.

The governor, like others in his party, has doubled down on the need for gun restrictions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision. Last year the Democrat-dominated legislature passed a dozen more restrictions, and new bills are in the works for this year.

While the state does have a lower rate of gun death than the national average, it’s been impossible to insulate it from tragedies like the ones seen this week. Increasingly, California Democrats have been looking to Washington to place protections in areas that state policies simply can’t cover.

“We can figure this out — we can,” Newsom said. “We know what to do. It’s not complicated. We do. And we don’t have to do this again and again and again.”

China Formally Arrests Nine Over Covid Protests, Group Says


Bloomberg News
Tue, January 24, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- China formally arrested nine people in connection with a wave of Covid protests that swept the country in November, a human rights group said, even as Beijing unwinds the virus curbs that prompted the demonstrations.

Municipal prosecutors in Beijing have approved the arrests of nine people suspected of participating in demonstrations in the capital, according to Weiquanwang, a website that tracks human rights cases in China. They’re accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the site said Friday, without disclosing where it got the information.

The catch-all charge, often used against dissidents in China, carries a possible sentence of as long as five years in prison. The arrested people named by Weiquanwang include Cao Zhixin, a book editor in her mid-20s, who questioned the detentions of her friends in a video widely circulated on the internet earlier this month.

Neither the Ministry of Public Security nor the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau immediately responded to requests for comment Wednesday, a public holiday in China. Weiquanwang also didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The arrests are the latest sign that China is quietly pursuing people associated with the demonstrations now that international attention has faded. The historic street gatherings and vigils began at the end of November, with some participants calling for freedom of speech or even for Chinese President Xi Jinping to step down.

The government took steps in the immediate aftermath of the demonstrations to roll back most of the measures to enforce Xi’s signature policy of isolating and quashing Covid outbreaks. Still, Chinese authorities have said little about the protests, although Xi made a rare acknowledgment of divergent views in his New Year’s address to the nation.

More than 100 demonstrators may have been detained, Weiquanwang said earlier, citing “various avenues” and other civil-society groups. At least 12 people were in custody, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 15, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Read more: Xi Faces Dilemma as China Quietly Detains Young Covid Protesters

Despite the tight censorship, news about the detentions still seep through the cracks. One internet user said on the Twitter-like Weibo that he was glad about the arrests, which received 27,000 likes, while another post said her wish for the Lunar New Year holiday was for the detainees to be released and reunited with their families.

Chinese police normally have two months after they make an arrest to investigate and refer a case back to prosecutors, who must then decide whether to pursue trial.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M 

Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi accidentally reveals it had over $1.2 billion in assets tied up with FTX

Zahra Tayeb
Wed, January 25, 2023 

BlockFi filed for bankruptcy last November, citing heavy exposure to FTX.

Chukrut Budrul/ SOPA Images/ LightRocket/ Getty Images

Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi's secret financials revealed linkages of over $1.2 billion to FTX.


The disclosure was accidentally revealed in unredacted financial documents, per CNBC.

BlockFi filed for bankruptcy last November, citing heavy exposure to Sam Bankman-Fried's collapsed exchange.

Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi accidentally revealed it had over $1.2 billion in assets tied to FTX and its sister trading arm Alameda Research, according to CNBC.

The redacted sections include "trade secret[s] or confidential research, development, or commercial information," one of the filings show.

The findings show BlockFi's exposure to Sam Bankman-Fried's collapsed crypto empire was greater than previous disclosures had indicated.

As of January 14, unredacted filings show BlockFi had $415.9 million worth of assets linked to FTX and $831.3 million tied to Alameda. However, lawyers representing BlockFi previously said the firm had $355 million in digital assets stuck on FTX, and loaned $671 million to Alameda.

BlockFi did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The company has been on a rocky road in the past year. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last November, citing significant exposure to FTX and the now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. The crypto lender has over 100,000 creditors, with liabilities and assets ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion.

It's entanglement with FTX began last July, when the company inked a deal with Bankman-Fried's exchange to receive a $400 million revolving credit line as part of a rescue deal. But that deal crumbled after FTX suffered its own liquidity crisis and went bust.

As BlockFi undergoes bankruptcy proceedings, it has sought court approval to pay bonuses to employees. It told the court last November that holding onto key members of staff was critical to its efforts to reorganize the company.

Binance Mistakenly Mixed Crypto Exchange's Customer Funds With B-Token Collateral: Bloomberg



Lyllah Ledesma
Tue, January 24, 2023 at 5:58 AM MST·2 min read

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, mistakenly kept collateral for some of the crypto assets it issues in the same wallet as funds belonging to its customers, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified Binance spokesperson.

The exchange issued 94 so-called Binance-peg tokens (B-Tokens), and reserves for almost half of those are stored in a cold wallet called Binance 8, Bloomberg said. The wallet contains more tokens than required for the number of B-Tokens issued. Since the tokens are supposed to be backed 1:1, the excess indicates the collateral is being mixed with customers’ tokens, according to Bloomberg.

“Collateral assets have previously been moved into this wallet in error and referenced accordingly on the B-Token Proof of Collateral page,” the spokesperson told Bloomberg. “Binance is aware of this mistake and is in the process of transferring these assets to dedicated collateral wallets.” Assets held with the exchange “have been and continue to be backed 1:1,” the spokesperson said.

When collateral is pooled together and used for trading, it’s locked up, and clients or holders of assets may not be able to withdraw if the pool is reduced, Laurent Kssis, a crypto trading adviser at CEC Capital, said in a note to CoinDesk.

“In essence this means that there is no segregation of assets between clients' funds and any collateral used,” Kssis said. “This could lead to the owner(s) not being able to withdraw due to lack of funds or liquidity by the exchange.

“This could resonate like what FTX and Alameda did on a daily basis. An audit would generally highlight such shortcomings and ask to remedy it immediately,” he said. “If Binance was regulated, this would be an essential part of their internal controls.”

Binance has faced scrutiny since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and FTX's affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research. As a result, Binance sought to boost confidence in its platform by issuing a “proof-of-reserves” report from accounting firm Mazars in December. The report showed that Binance's customer bitcoin (BTC) reserves were overcollateralized.

"To be clear, Binance holds all of its clients’ assets in segregated accounts, which are identified separately from any accounts used to hold assets belonging to Binance," a Binance spokesperson said in an email. "Binance does not invest or otherwise deploy user assets without consent under the terms of specific products."

UPDATE (Jan. 24, 16:22 UTC): Adds Binance comment in last paragraph.

‘Cryptoqueen’ scammed $4 billion from investors by touting bogus Bitcoin rival—she’s still on the run from the FBI after five years


FBI Ruja Ignatova  Bulgarian fraudster

Eleanor Pringle
Mon, January 23, 2023 

In 2017 Ruja Ignatova - the self-proclaimed 'Cryptoqueen' - boarded a plane in Bulgaria bound for Athens. The fugitive, who is wanted by the FBI, hasn't been seen since.

Ignatova is on the bureau's 'Ten Most Wanted Fugitives' list for "alleged leadership of a massive fraud scheme that affected millions of investors worldwide". A co-founder of Bulgarian-based cryptocurrency company OneCoin Ltd, she is said to have defrauded investors out of more than $4 billion.

It comes after her co-founder, Karl Sebastian Greenwood, plead guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges in Manhattan federal court last month.

As well as Greenwood, Ignatova brought in her younger brother Konstantin Ignatov to help lead the "international pyramid scheme that involved the marketing of a fraudulent cryptocurrency".

The net began closing in when Konstantin was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport following an investigation by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney in 2019.

Konstantin plead guilty to a range of charges including money laundering and fraud in 2019, according to the BBC.

'Cryptoqueen' still on the run

However, his older sister is still at large, with a federal warrant for Ignatova's arrest issued on October 12, 2017. It was later superseded by a charge in February of 2018 with counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud.

Court and public documents allege that Ignatova and her sibling held various positions at the top of the company which was founded in 2014.

As of his arrest, Konstantin Ignatov was described as the "top leader" of the company, having taken over from his sister who had occupied the position until she disappeared in October 2017.

In the course of authorities' investigations into OneCoin, records showed that between the fourth quarter of 2014 and the third quarter of 2016, OneCoin generated €3.353 billion in sales revenue and earned “profits” of €2.232 billion.
How did she do it?

A video shown on the FBI's website gives some insight into how Ignatova swindled investors into putting their hands in their pockets.

At a OneCoin event in London, speaking "one and a half years after launching [their] cryptocurrency" Ignatova said: "I strongly believe [OneCoin] will be the number one cryptocurrency worldwide."

Accepting applause from the crowd, she continues: "In the last two years I've been called a lot of things. The best thing the press called me was: 'OneCoin, who is supposed to be the BitCoin killer'. I must say I like it. You all know since we mined our first coin our growth exploded." She then claims her company had two million active users which "no other cryptocurrency has".

Speaking after Konstantin Ignatov's arrest, the FBI's assistant director-in-charge at the time, William Sweeney Jr., said: “As we allege, OneCoin was a cryptocurrency existing only in the minds of its creators and their co-conspirators. Unlike authentic cryptocurrencies, which maintain records of their investors’ transaction history, OneCoin had no real value.

"It offered investors no method of tracing their money, and it could not be used to purchase anything. In fact, the only ones who stood to benefit from its existence were its founders and co-conspirators. Whether you’re dealing with virtual currency or cold, hard cash, we urge the public to exercise due diligence with any investment.”

According to a release from the Office of the United States Attorneys, Ignatova had listed an exit strategy out of OneCoin as "take the money and run and blame someone else for this".

In emails also sent in 2014, Greenwood apparently refers to OneCoin investors as "idiots" with Ignatov replying: "As you told me, the network would not work with intelligent people."

Where is she now?

And so began an international game of cat and mouse with IRS special agent in charge, John R. Tafur, pledging to "bring cryptocurrency crooks to justice".

The FBI is offering $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the fugitive.

Her profile on the FBI website adds that she is "believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates" and may have had plastic surgery to alter her appearance.

Able to speak German, English and Bulgarian, it is believed Ignatova may have used a German passport to fly to the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria, Germany, Russia, Greece and/or Eastern Europe.

When approached by CNN, the bureau declined to provide additional details beyond court documents from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The FBI poster adds that Ignatova has various aliases, including Dr. Ruja Ignatova, Ruja Plamenova Ignatova, Ruja P. Ignatova and "CryptoQueen".

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Iranian women take center stage at Sundance film festival

Andrew MARSZAL
Sun, January 22, 2023 


Movies by and about Iranian women took center stage at the Sundance film festival this weekend, as diaspora filmmakers reflected on female-led protests and the deadly challenges of censorship and resistance in their ancestral home.

"Joonam," a documentary about a three-generation family of Iranian women now living in Vermont, and "The Persian Version," a colorful but candid dramedy which hops between Iran and New York over several decades, received world premieres on Saturday.

"Shayda," a drama directed by Noora Niasari about a Persian woman who flees her abusive husband in Australia, debuted earlier at the high-profile independent film festival in Utah.

Their inclusion in Sundance's line-up follows four months of mass demonstrations in Iran, triggered by anger over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest for violating the Islamic republic's strict dress rules.

At least 481 people have been killed in the crackdown and at least 109 others are facing execution in protest-related cases, in addition to the four already put to death, according to NGO Iran Human Rights.

The protesters "are literally putting themselves on the line... I stand in support with them 100 percent," said "Joonam" director Sierra Urich.

"You can't speak freely in Iran, they're imprisoning filmmakers and imprisoning artists," Urich told AFP.

"I can speak freely outside of Iran -- to an extent."

Iran has arrested a number of celebrities from the country's film industry in connection with the protest movement. Renowned director Jafar Panahi has been in prison six months following an earlier conviction for "propaganda against the system."

While US-born Urich cannot visit Iran for security reasons, her film chronicles her efforts to connect with and better understand the country by learning Farsi and interviewing her mother and grandmother.

She learns about the murder of an ancestor, and the story of how her grandmother was married at 14 to a man she met before reaching puberty.

While her grandmother is happy to reflect, her mother worries it is "very dangerous" to delve into the family's past on camera, at one point warning her daughter that in Iran, "the filmmaker will be the one hanged."

"Coming into Sundance, the film is on the world stage. I think Iranians are always weighing how truthful they will be, versus what they will say causing consequences for people that are back home," said Urich.

"It wasn't until my grandmother shared the story of her grandfather's martyrdom that I really understood this wall of fear that had been built by this authoritarian regime, to so many people in Iran, outside of Iran.

"My mom was trying to protect me from that reality."

- 'Resilience' -

In "The Persian Version," rebellious young Iranian-American Leila (played by Layla Mohammadi) has a fractured relationship with her immigrant mother, caused by Leila's sexuality and their seemingly different views on the role of women.

But as she uncovers the truth about her parents' experiences in Iran and their departure from the country, both generations of women gain perspective on their complicated heritage.

"I'm proud to have an Iranian film here at this moment about women," said director Maryam Keshavarz at the film's premiere, where cast members wore badges in Iranian flag colors with the protest movement's slogan "Woman Life Freedom."

"I think it speaks to the resilience through the decades, not just now. It's been forever in the making," she said.

"Even before this regime, women have always pushed against society for what they've wanted.

"They've upended the norms and they've learned to find their way of being free."

Keshavarz has not been able to return to Iran since the release of her debut film "Circumstance," about two teenage Persian girls who fall in love.

Urich still hopes to visit one day, but is watching the protests from afar, and for now hopes that her film can be "a small part of that struggle for freedom."

"I think part of why it's so moving to see what's happening in Iran right now, and to be here with these other filmmakers," she said, "is it's a real sense of community, and being able to tell our stories openly."

amz/bbk