SINGAPORE (July 1): “Presidential Harassment!” – US President Donald Trump’s tweet, following news that former special counsel Robert Mueller will be testifying in public on his investigations into Trump’s alleged dealings with Russia.
SIA and MAS to expand cooperation
Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, which already have a code-sharing agreement for flights between both countries, have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand areas of cooperation. It includes code-sharing for flights outside Singapore and Malaysia, cargo, maintenance, repair and over-haul services. A formal agreement is expected to be formalised in the coming months. The plan would require regulatory approvals as well. In May, Maybank Kim Eng analyst Mohshin Aziz said both airlines should consider a merger if they wanted to improve their earnings. “A merger between them will see a lot of improvements in terms of scheduling. Besides, relocation of assets can also be optimised,” he said. However, the brokerage quickly disavowed his comments, claiming that the merger suggestion was not the house view and was merely Mohshin’s opinion. Both flag carriers can trace their roots to the same entity half a century ago.
Government to spend $40 million to test 5G
The government will be spending $40 million to test the roll-out of fifth generation, or 5G, mobile networks. The funds will be used for early trials in different industries and for R&D in 5G cyber security, said Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran on June 27. Among the areas are the maritime, real estate, consumer and government sectors. Specific uses include running drones, autonomous vessels and remote operations of port equipment in the maritime industry.
Property cooling measures to stay for now, says MAS
The government will maintain existing property cooling measures for now. While the economy is slowing, there are no signs that the property market is facing a significant drop.
“We’ve not seen any impending risk of a sharp selloff,” says Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. “At this point, I don’t see why there is a need to shift gears significantly in any way.” Nevertheless, MAS is keeping tabs on the market “very closely”. In the wake of the most recent round of property cooling measures introduced in July 2018, overall home prices have stopped rising. “We have learnt from experience that preventing a bubble from forming is less painful than deflating one that has fully formed,” says Menon.
Multinational crackdown on insider trading
US prosecutors are investigating an international network of traders suspected of infiltrating banks and companies to glean confidential information on megadeals, according to Bloomberg News, citing unnamed sources. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is looking into a group of stock pickers in Europe and the Middle East who have made tens of millions of dollars trading ahead of media reports about takeover talks or merger announcements by companies. The probe is part of a years-long international effort involving UK and French prosecutors as well.
Last November, Serbian authorities arrested a Geneva-based trader on a US warrant that alleged he had committed securities fraud. He was extradited to the US in May this year.
According to Bloomberg, the suspects in the recent case belong to a loose ring of more than a dozen traders spread out across London, Paris, Geneva, Dubai and other cities. They are suspected of cultivating advisers, executives, lawyers and government officials with cash and gifts.
Investigators believe the traders covered their tracks with the help of shell companies and complex financial instruments. They communicated on encrypted apps such as Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp with burner phones changed frequently.
Ex-Keppel agent Skornicki pleads guilty
Zwi Skornicki, a former agent of a US unit of Keppel Offshore & Marine, has pleaded guilty to being part of a scheme bribing Brazilian officials tied to the Petrobras scandal. Skornicki, 69, admitted on June 25 that from 2001 to 2014, he participated in a plot to bribe Brazilian authorities and officials with Petroleo Brasileiro, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, to win business for Keppel. “I agreed to pay bribes to Petrobras,” Skornicki told US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in New York. “In exchange for those bribes, we expected contracts would be awarded.” Prosecutors alleged that Skornicki agreed with others to pay as much as US$55 million in bribes tied to 13 Petrobras projects. In December 2017, Keppel agreed to pay US$422 million under a deferred prosecution agreement to end a US bribery probe into illegal payments to Petrobras officials and the then-governing political party. Skornicki’s guilty plea to conspiracy to violate the act carries a prison term of up to five years. He will be sentenced on Sept 23. He has already paid US$25 million in fines in Brazil.
New risk on Boeing’s 737 Max
US regulators have discovered a new safety risk involving Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft. This new risk is not related to the two fatal crashes that led to the grounding of the aircraft. The US Federal Aviation Administration discovered that data processing by a flight computer could cause the plane to dive in a way that pilots had difficulty recovering from in simulator tests. The 737 Max has been grounded worldwide since March 13, days after the second fatal crash in Kenya, following an earlier one in Indonesia. The FAA is ordering the company to make additional design changes. Despite the grounding, on June 18, International Consolidated Airlines Group, which is the parent company of British Airways, signed a letter of intent to buy 200 Boeing 737 Max planes. The planes carry a list price of US$24 billion ($32.5 billion).
Huawei personnel worked with PLA
Several Huawei Technologies employees have collaborated in the past decade on research projects with the People’s Liberation Army personnel, indicating closer ties to China’s military than previously acknowledged. According to a search of an online academic paper database, Huawei employees jointly published papers with PLA on at least 10 research fields ranging from artificial intelligence to radio communications. According to Bloomberg News, the authors identified themselves as Huawei employees in the papers. “Huawei is not aware of its employees publishing research papers in their individual capacity,” says its spokesperson Glenn Schloss. “Huawei does not have any R&D collaboration or partnerships with the PLA-affiliated institutions.” Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei was a former PLA officer.
