Former Goldman Sachs board member jailed for two years

BBC News, 24 October 2012

Related Stories 

• Ex-Goldman figure guilty of fraud

Rajat Gupta described the guilty
verdict as "devastating"

A former Goldman Sachs board member who was found guilty of four criminal counts of insider trading has sentenced to two years in jail.

Rajat Gupta, 63, had leaked boardroom secrets to Raj Rajaratnam, a former hedge fund manager now serving 11 years in prison.

US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff also ordered Gupta to pay a $5m (£3m) fine.

Gupta said he regretted the impact of the case on his family and friends.

Reading from a statement, he said: "The last 18 months have been the most challenging period of my life since I lost my parents as a teenager."

He added: I've lost my reputation I built for a lifetime. The verdict was devastating."

During the court case, which resulted in Gupta being found guilty in June, the jury heard secret recordings of conversations between him and Rajaratnam.

The trial focused on a phone call made to Rajaratnam on 23 September 2008, minutes after Gupta had listened to a private conference call discussing a $5bn (£3.2bn) investment in Goldman Sachs by Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway. The deal was due to be made public after stock markets closed that day.

According to phone records, Rajaratnam bought $40m in Goldman Sachs stock moments after the phone call, earning nearly $1m.

Gupta, who was born in India and educated at Harvard, also served on the boards of Procter & Gamble, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

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Taxpayers Still Footing the Bill For Sidoarjo Mud

Jakarta Globe, Markus Junianto Sihaloho, October 24, 2012

A Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS) officer at the mudflow
in 2011. (AFP Photo)

               

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The 2013 State Budget passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday suggests that the government will continue to give money to victims of the 2006 mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java, despite claims that it was the responsibility of private company Lapindo Brantas.

It is uncertain what the final figure is but the government earlier proposed that Rp 2.26 trillion ($235 million) from state coffers be earmarked to the Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency (BPLS), an ad hoc agency created to contain the mudflow and handle the victims relocation scheme.

Some of the funds, the government proposal says, will be used to purchase land and buildings outside the areas immediately affected by the mudflow, located in the villages of Besuki, Kedungcangkring and Pejarakan, and nine communities spread around the wards of Siring, Jatirejo and Mindi.

The funds will also be used to relocate residents in 65 community units spread across nine wards and villages, which the government says are all outside of the affected zones.

Money is also earmarked to “rescue the economic and social life” of the community around the impacted area while some funds are directed at efforts to further contain the flow of mud.

The government has already spent Rp 3.26 trillion on the BPLS and this year earmarked another Rp 1.6 trillion.

While refusing to acknowledge that the mudflow was a direct result of its gas drilling activities, Lapindo has agreed to compensate and acquire the land immediately impacted by the disaster.

But Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto said in June that Lapindo, a resources company owned by the family of businessman and presidential hopeful Aburizal Bakrie, has only paid Rp 2.9 trillion in compensation out of the Rp 3.8 trillion it was ordered to pay.

House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Anis Matta, who led the plenary session at which the House approved next year’s state budget, refused to comment on why the state is earmarking more money to the disaster.

“Try asking related House commission leaders,” he said.

Opinions are split on the cause of the incident. Many say it was caused by the drilling activities of Lapindo. But the company blamed an earthquake in Yogyakarta, hundreds of kilometers to the east.

On Aug. 15, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) made three recommendations linked to the mud volcano.

Komnas HAM recommended the company complete the purchase of land and buildings now covered by the mudflow; the police find out where responsibility for the incident lies; and the government assist victims through revised regulations.

The incident destroyed hundreds of homes, swamped 720 hectares of land and displaced thousands of people.

Delays in compensation payments have damaged public support for Aburizal, who on July 1 announced his bid for presidency under the Golkar Party banner.

Lalu Mara Satriawangsa, a Bakrie family spokesman, said the Bakries had set aside a large sum of money for compensation. There is speculation that Aburizal will wait until just before the 2014 election to pay, in an effort to boost his electoral prospects.

Golkar Party chairman Aburizal
Bakrie. (Reuters Photo/File)

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Indonesia's mud volcano flows on

Satellite picture received from Ikonos Satellite Image on May 29, 2008 shows

the mud volcano and its surrounding area in Sidoarjo, East Java. (AFP/Ikonos

Satellite Image)

More pictures ....

Indonesia's new financial service watchdog gets operation budget

English.news.cn,   2012-10-18

              

JAKARTA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's newly-established financial services supervisory agency, OJK, said on Thursday that the parliament had approved an allocation of 1.69 trillion rupiah (about 175.1 million U.S. dollars) to finance its initial operation.

"So there has been approved at 1.69 trillion rupiah to finance our operation. Further details about the budget would be discussed in the following meetings," said OJK Chairman Muliaman Hadad.

Muliaman added that meetings to discuss about the budget would be resumed next month.

The allocation, he said, would be used to finance the system setting up works in the new agency and its initial operation.

The OJK would take over the central bank's jobs in supervising the operation of banks and financial services firms in the country.

In the future the central bank would particularly be assigned to control the country's fiscal and monetary policies.

Sworn in in July this year, the OJK board of directors is expected to commence work early next year.

Editor: Fang Yang

Muliaman D. Hadad, 52, the chief of the Financial Services
 Supervisory Authority (OJK), Indonesia's financial regulatory
body. (Antara Photo)

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Indonesia second-most fraud-prone country

The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network, Thursday, Oct 18, 2012

Indonesia, often cited as the fastest-growing market in Asia, remains chronically plagued by fraud according to a global survey that found that 65 percent of companies in the country have been affected by fraudulent practices in the past year.

The percentage is above the global average of 61 percent, throwing Indonesia, alongside China, the region's economic behemoth, into second place among countries where businesses are most impacted by fraud.

First place went to India, where 68 percent of companies surveyed admitted that they had been affected by fraud.

The study, conducted with more than 800 senior executives worldwide, was commissioned by Kroll Advisory Solutions with the Economist Intelligence Unit, and the findings published in Kroll's Annual Global Fraud Report.

"Our ground-level experience reveals that the major developing economies in the Asia-Pacific region are as corrupt and as fraud-prone as ever," said Tadashi Kageyama, Kroll Advisory Solutions's senior managing director for Asia.

The survey listed information theft as one of the most common forms of fraud in Indonesia, with 35 percent of respondents - the highest figure globally - claiming losses in this area.

"Fraud perpetrated against Indonesian companies also tends to originate from vendors; 27 percent of companies reported that a vendor played a leading role in fraud, compared to 17 percent worldwide," the Kroll report noted.

Information theft has also become the bane of companies worldwide, its prevalence declining slightly to 21 percent this year from 23 percent in the last survey. The US and Europe follow at Indonesia's heels in terms of information theft, with rates reaching 26 percent for both countries.

"Surprisingly, it is employees, rather than hackers, who are more to blame for the loss of information," the report mentioned.

Information technology (IT) analysts have previously pointed out that the growing trend of bring-your-own-device (BYOD), where employees utilize their personal devices such as smartphones and laptops for work, had unleashed issues concerning the security of company information.

Tom Hartley, Kroll Advisory Solutions president and CEO, said that companies, however, had taken action "in response to the myriad of external threats, leading to the overall decrease in the prevalence of fraud".

The study shows that globally, fraud concerns have eased. The number of respondents answering that they were moderately or highly vulnerable to information theft decreased to 30 percent from 50 percent, even though only 2 percent of companies reported having suffered from this type of fraud.

The findings, the report concludes, suggest that companies have grown overconfident regarding their vulnerability to fraud, which actually increases their risks.

Indonesia's Bakries slam Rothschild Bumi resignation

Yahoo, AFP, 16 October 2012

Indonesia's powerful Bakrie family hit out at British tycoon Nathaniel Rothschild Tuesday after he resigned from the board of Bumi Plc, saying he was a "threat to all shareholders" of the mining firm.

In the latest saga of a row analysts say has attracted the attention of possible foreign investors in Indonesia, the Bakries said Rothschild should have quit earlier to avoid Bumi Plc's stock price from plunging.

"Mr. Rothschild is a threat to all shareholders who are fighting for the best interests of the company, and ultimately for themselves and the investors they represent," Bakrie Group spokesman Chris Fong said.

"There are no winners in this deal anymore, it's pure damage control."

Rothschild's resignation on Monday from Bumi, which he co-founded with the Bakries, came as its board considers a proposal by the Indonesian family to sever their ties with the company and buy its most productive Indonesian mines.

The long-running power struggle has seen the London-listed firm's shares slump more than 70 percent this year.

At the heart of the dispute is a Rothschild-backed probe into alleged financial irregularities at the Bakrie-founded Bumi Resources, Indonesia's largest coal miner, which is part-owned by Bumi Plc.

Bumi Resources is among a string of companies owned by the family of Aburizal Bakrie, one of Indonesia's wealthiest men and a likely candidate in presidential elections in 2014.

The 65-year-old is one of Indonesia's richest men with businesses spanning coal, telecommunications to construction.

But he is a highly divisive figure in Indonesia after one of his companies was linked to the triggering of a mud volcano near a gas drilling site in 2006.

The Bakries have offered to give up their 23.8 percent stake in Bumi and pay about $1.2 billion for its mines, which would leave Bumi Plc with no assets other than the cash from the deal.

In the resignation letter quoted by Dow Jones Newswires, Rothschild stated his vehement opposition to the Bakries' proposal.

He also said chairman Samin Tan appeared "determined to drive through the Bakries' proposal", a move he decried as a "disgrace" without first completing a probe into alleged financial irregularities at Bumi Resources.

The 41-year-old scion of a European banking dynasty also expressed his determination to fight for the company's investors from outside the board and said he regretted helping the Bakrie family list in London.

The offer for the break-up from the Bakries followed an investigation order by the Bumi Plc board in September over "potential financial and other irregularities", including a $637 million writedown of development funds and assets in Bumi Resources.

Rothschild was ousted as co-chair of Bumi Plc in March after calling for a "radical clean-up" of the Indonesian firm.

Analysts say the ugly battle has been carefully watched by potential foreign investors already wary of corruption and a lack of corporate governance in Indonesia.

"It had been hoped that the listing of Bumi Plc in London would create a new ethos," said Keith Loveard of Jakarta based consultancy firm Concord Consulting.

"Regrettably the reverse has occurred," he added.

Nat Rothschild has resigned as a non-executive director

of mining group Bumi. Photograph: Nick Harvey/WireImage

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Norway to double carbon tax on oil industry

Extra funding for climate change mitigation and forestry programmes also part of oil-rich nation's radical programme

guardian.co.uk, Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent, Thursday 11 October 2012

Ekofisk oil platform in the North Sea, Norway. The Norwegian government has
 proposed increasing its carbon tax on offshore oil companies. Photograph:
Ulrich Baumgarten/Getty Images

Norway is to double carbon tax on its North Sea oil industry and set up a £1bn fund to help combat the damaging impacts of climate change in the developing world.

In one of the most radical climate programmes yet by an oil-producing nation, the Norwegian government has proposed increasing its carbon tax on offshore oil companies by £21 to £45 (Nkr410) per tonne of CO2 and a £5.50 (Nkr50) per tonne CO2 tax on its fishing industry.

Norway will also plough an extra £1bn (Nkr10bn) into its funds for climate change mitigation, renewable energy, food security in developing countries and conversion to low-carbon energy sources, Environmental Finance reported.

It will step up spending on new projects to combat deforestation in developing countries to £44m, taking up its spending overall on forestry programmes to £327m. Previous forestry projects have involved Brazil, Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The Oslo government is also to spend £69m on buying carbon credits in 2013, to help offset its emissions, force through new building regulations to make all new homes carbon-neutral by 2015 and increase efforts to heavily cut emissions from cars, switching to electric vehicles.

The scale of these initiatives will pose a significant political challenge to other oil-producing nations, who are also investing in low-carbon technologies and cutting their own emissions, but not yet investing heavily in tackling the impacts of climate change on developing countries.

The UK and Scottish governments estimate there are up to 24bn barrels of oil left to be exploited over the next 40 years from the UK's oil and gas fields in the North Sea, west of Shetland and smaller sites off western England.

But that would lead to total CO2 emissions of an extra 10bn tonnes – dwarfing the UK's annual 500m tonnes of CO2 emissions, at a time when many climate scientists urge cutbacks in oil, gas and coal use to avoid significant global warming and to meet climate targets.

Neither the UK or Scottish government has supported a carbon tax on the oil and gas industry.

The Scottish government, which often looks to Norway as a model for its independence plans, has greatly increased its funding and support for renewable energy investment. It announced a £103m investment fund for marine renewables and community power schemes on Wednesday and has a £4m "climate justice fund" to help developing countries.

But fields in Scottish waters account for about 80% of the UK's North Sea oil and gas fields, which produced 1m barrels of oil a day in August.

Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, said on Wednesday that oil economies have a"moral obligation" to increase low-carbon energy and tackle climate change, but says there is no contradiction in maximising oil, gas and coal production.

He told a conference on low-carbon investment: "As countries such as Denmark show, there's no contradiction between making use of substantial in their case gas reserves which will be needed by the rest of the world in the coming decades by the rest of the world, while leading the transition to a low-carbon economy."

After speaking at the same conference on Thursday, Ed Davey, the UK energy and climate secretary, told the Guardian he believed the UK's actions on climate change and green energy were also world-leading. The UK government was putting £3bn into the new green investment bank, and aims to cut CO2 emissions by 34% by 2020, he said.

Asked about Norway's new programme, Davey said: "I would say that the UK government has very ambitious climate change targets and carbon emission reduction targets.

"We were one of the first countries in the world to pass legally binding targets on ourselves, with the Climate Change Act 2008 which had cross party support. And the government has introduced on the back of that, the fourth carbon budget and the whole electricity market reform, the green deal, the green investment bank.

"These are all our tools to deliver on those targets; these are incredibly ambitious and maybe some countries are catching us up."

Ranking third among the world's oil exporters, with production peaking at 3m barrels of oil a day, Norway has 51 active oil and gas fields in the North Sea, and believes it has more than 7bn barrels of undiscovered reserves. Its oil and gas sector is the world's richest: its employees earn $180,000 on average a year.

With a population of 5 million - the same as Scotland - it is the third wealthiest country per capita in the world thanks to its oil and gas exports. Norway's plans to offset the impacts of its oil exports on the world's climate come as it also proposes to expand oil exploration into the Barents Sea to the far north.

Richard Dixon, director of WWF Scotland, said: "Norway is showing how you can use oil income to fund the transition out of oil, we should be doing the same with UK oil revenues. The Scottish National Party have always been keen on the Norwegian oil fund, and now it is setting an example really worth following."

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”

Foreign consumer brands see declining market share in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2012-10-07

Mutinationals like P&G are losing their market share steadily to domestic
 companies, who are expanding aggressively in first and second-tier
cities in China. (Photo/Xinhua)

Global companies selling consumer products, such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever, are experiencing a decline in their market shares in China as they face growing competition from local rivals that dominated markets in smaller Chinese cities, the Chinese-language Global Entrepreneur magazine reported.

According to a report by Euromonitor International, P&G's market share in China's toothpaste market, which is dominated by foreign brands, had dropped from 20.8% to 19.7%, while Unilever's share slipped from 12% to 9.9%.

Such a development, the magazine said, was a the result of foreign and Chinese companies going head-to-head in the competition, as foreign brands permeated smaller Chinese cities and Chinese brands expanded into first and second-tier markets.

Earlier, foreign brands had targeted the higher end of the market and focused on modern retail channels, while Chinese brands established strong sales networks in the smaller cities, the magazine pointed out.

The integration of sales channels will further intensify the competition between foreign and Chinese brands, said Bruno Lannes, from the consultancy firm Bain & Company.

Despite the prominent influence of foreign brands, the magazine said, Chinese companies have the upper hand owing to their flexible strategies at the retail end, which, according to a Bain and Kantar Worldpanel report, requires more investment than advertising does.

The report also found that as the consumer and personal care products market became saturated, consumers display lower brand loyalty and are more willing to try different brands, making last-minute changes in their purchase decisions.

However, contrary to the report's suggestion, P&G is conservative in its investments at the retail end, with several retailers complaining about the small profit margin for selling P&G products.

Additionally, salespersons play a more important role than the brand itself in retail channels in smaller Chinese cities, where foreign companies are trying to get a foothold, the magazine said.

Meanwhile, the magazine added that Chinese companies are catching up with their foreign rivals in their ability to quickly introduce new brands or products. A P&G product developer even called the change introduced by China's Liby Group in its products as too fast.

In its bid to achieve faster expansion in the Chinese market, Japan's Kao formed an alliance with China's Shanghai Jahwa United Co last year, and plans to expand its reach from 90 Chinese cities to 650.

On the other hand, employees at some foreign companies told the magazine that their firms had become over reliant on discounts. They pointed out that over 50% of the sales of P&G's shampoos and Unilever's washing powders came from products sold at a discounted price, which might lead to a major crisis for strong brands.

BRICS nations thrash out World Bank alternative

Want China Times, Xinhua 2012-10-02

The 2012 BRICS Think-Tanks Forum in Chongqing, Sept. 26. (Photo/Xinhua)

Experts from five emerging world economic powers have told how a two-day forum for thinktanks this week reached consensus on creating a BRICS development bank designed to complement existing global financial institutions such as the World Bank.

Liu Youfa, deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies, said, "At the previous forum before the BRICS summit meeting in March, we were still discussing whether to create this bank, but now we are talking about how to create this bank."

The 2012 BRICS Think-Tanks Forum, held in southwest China's Chongqing municipality on Wednesday and Thursday, was part of efforts by the five countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to create a BRICS development bank. Its establishment joined the official agenda when BRICS leaders agreed at the organization's summit in India's New Delhi in March to consider the possibility of creating a new development bank. They decided to convene expert meetings on the matter.

Being the first think-tank forum of its kind, briefed to advise governments of each BRICS country, experts at the event said in follow-up interviews that their agreement on the necessity and practicality of creating the bank would be presented to officials, who would advance the governments' decision making.

Ideas that carry weight

Liu Youfa said thinktanks are a preliminary step in government policy-making and the influence of their ideas in part depends on their feasibility and thoroughness.

According to Liu, the consensus from the forum has three main aspects: the need to build a legal framework, the need to establish a theoretical framework and the need to further discuss technical issues. The first of these concerns defining the legal status of the bank, the second was to explain its purpose, and the third was about how the bank should be run and capitalized and other specific matters.

Leonid Grigoriev, deputy director of the Russian Energy Agency and professor of the Higher School of Economics, said, "We generally agreed to create this bank. We scanned all the related issues to be further discussed and formed our opinions on them, issues such as the mode, the capitalization, the purpose of the bank.

"What we did is groundwork and solving technical issues. The rest is for political negotiations, but the governments need ideas in making decisions, especially those from other countries."

Such think-tank forums are usually held right before BRICS leader meetings, as they were before the summit in New Delhi this year and the one in Sanya, China, last year. Interviewed experts said much of the content of the reports formed at the two forums eventually appeared on the summit declarations.

According to HHS Viswanathan, a distinguished fellow of India's Observer Research Foundation, this week's event did not produce a report, but its discussion will surely be included in the report of the next forum, set to take place in South Africa before the next summit there in 2013.

Viswanathan told Xinhua that India expects to see the bank established as soon as possible. Although no timetable was set, a road map has become clear after this week's forum and all five sides are clear what to do next: figuring out the bank's form of organization, equity shares, head office and other issues.

At March's summit, the BRICS leaders also directed finance ministers to examine the feasibility and viability of the bank, set up a joint working group for further study, and report back to them before the next summit.

Experts at the forum clarified that the study by the working group was not as thorough as their discussion and that finance ministers usually focus on domestic issues.

The experts said in interviews that they believe a detailed plan that covers the issues mentioned above could be forwarded to the five governments in a year and that, if the plan is adopted, the governments will probably later set up a preparatory committee to kick off the bank's establishment.

Alternative to World Bank

The Delhi Declaration, issued after the BRICS summit, said the new development bank's aim was "mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies and developing countries, to supplement the existing efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and development."

When explaining why the BRICS countries need a development of their own, many experts found fault with the existing global financial institutions, in particular the World Bank, for not providing adequate capital for much-needed large infrastructure projects in BRICS and other developing countries.

Yaroslav Lisovolik, member of the Management Board of Deutsche Bank Russia, said the bulk of world savings and financial resources was concentrated in the developing world, but the pattern of the past decade had seen developing countries channelling a significant part of their reserves into the developed world.

For the BRICS, the creation of a development bank may support the institutional base of BRICS integration. For other developing nations, the bank could address one of the greatest reserves for growth in the world economy — the development of infrastructure, Lisovolik said.

Since the word BRIC was coined 10 years ago to group four leading emerging economies — later expanded to include South Africa — its member countries have consistently grown faster than developed nations. By the end of 2011, the BRICS account for 42% of the world's population, 20% of GDP, and 15% of international trade.

Despite that, experts at the meeting said BRICS countries did not have a corresponding role in global governance, particularly in a world financial system dominated by the United States and Europe.

BRICS and other developing countries have continuously called for reform of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Delhi Declaration said, "We welcome candidatures from the developing world for the position of the President of the World Bank. We reiterate that the Heads of the IMF and the World Bank be selected through an open and merit-based process."

"Furthermore, the new World Bank leadership must commit to transform the Bank into a multilateral institution that truly reflects the vision of all its members, including the governance structure that reflects current economic and political reality."

The developing world's reform efforts have not made much progress yet. Most noticeably, in 2011, developing countries failed to agree to a powerful alternative to Christine Lagarde, who eventually won the nomination to IMF chief.

Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations from Brazil, said at the forum that the United States and Europe remained reluctant to fully include emerging powers into existing financial structures, and a BRICS development bank could indeed become an effective tool to serve emerging powers' needs, while bypassing restrictions and political pressures from US- and Europe-funded banks.

Forum delegates generally agreed the BRICS banks should be a supplement to the World Bank and other multilateral or bilateral financial institutions, and its creation was not intended to subvert the current Bretton Woods system. However, they said the BRICS bank could put pressures on the current system and compete with the World Bank.

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