Twitter boss Jack Dorsey is selling his first tweet at auction, with bidding Saturday reaching $2 million in a sign of the appetite for virtual objects authenticated through blockchain technology.
“just setting up my twttr,” Dorsey tweeted on March 21, 2006.
On Friday he posted a link to “Valuables @Cent,” an online marketplace for tweets where, the site says, investors or collectors can “buy and sell tweets autographed by their creators.”
The top bid Saturday for Dorsey’s tweet — $2 million — came from Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, a platform for blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies. He also heads the BitTorrent streaming platform.
“The creator of a tweet decides if they would like to mint it on the blockchain, creating a 1-of-1 autographed version,” Valuables explains.
Buying a tweet means purchasing “a digital certificate of the tweet, unique because it has been signed and verified by the creator,” according to Valuables.
In Dorsey’s case, the tweet itself remains visible to all, so long as he and Twitter leave it online.
The approach is much like the online sales of dramatic digital “moments” from National Basketball Association games; the short video sequences remain visible for free on the internet but a blockchain-backed “Non-Fungible Token” (NFT) is generated to guarantee the identity, authenticity and traceability of the video, confirming its value.
Thus, a 10-second clip showing a spectacular sequence by basketball superstar LeBron James fetched $208,000 on the NBA Top Shot site late last month.
Top Shot has generated more than $200 million in transactions this year, according to Dapper Labs, which partnered with the NBA to create Top Shot.
In 2019, Sun paid $4.6 million in a winning bid to lunch with iconic billionaire Warren Buffett. Sun reportedly tried but failed to convince the elderly investor of the value of bitcoins.
NFTs have soared in popularity, to the point that prestigious auction house Christie’s last month sold an entirely digital artwork.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved a sweeping pandemic relief package over Republican opposition on Saturday, moving President Joe Biden closer to a milestone political victory that would provide $1,400 checks for most American and direct billions of dollars to schools, state and local governments, and businesses.
The bill cleared by a party-line vote of 50-49 after a marathon overnight voting session and now heads back to the House for final passage, which could come early next week.
Democrats said their “American Rescue Plan” would help the country defeat the virus and nurse the economy back to health. Republicans criticized the $1.9 trillion package as more expensive than necessary. The measure follows five earlier virus bills totaling about $4 trillion that Congress has enacted since last spring.
A look at some highlights of the legislation:
AID TO THE UNEMPLOYED
Expanded unemployment benefits from the federal government would be extended through Sept. 6 at $300 a week. That’s on top of what beneficiaries are getting through their state unemployment insurance program. The first $10,200 of jobless benefits would be non-taxable for households with incomes under $150,000.
Additionally, the measures provides a 100% subsidy of COBRA health insurance premiums to ensure that the laid-off workers can remain on their employer health plans at no cost through the end of September.
MORE CHECKS
The legislation provides a direct payment of $1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $2,800 for a married couple that files jointly, plus $1,400 per dependent. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full amount, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000.
The size of the check would shrink for those making slightly more, with a hard cut-off at $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.
Most Americans will be getting the full amount. The median household income was $68,703 in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
MONEY FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
The legislation would send $350 billion to state and local governments and tribal governments for costs incurred up until the end of 2024. The bill also requires that small states get at least the amount they received under virus legislation that Congress passed last March.
Many communities have taken hits to their tax base during the pandemic, but the impact varies from state to state and from town to town. Critics say the funding is not appropriately targeted and is far more than necessary with billions of dollars allocated last spring to states and communities still unspent.
AID TO SCHOOLS
The bill calls for about $130 billion in additional help to schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The money would be used to reduce class sizes and modify classrooms to enhance social distancing, install ventilation systems and purchase personal protective equipment. The money could also be used to increase the hiring of nurses and counselors and to provide summer school.
Spending for colleges and universities would be boosted by about $40 billion, with the money used to defray an institution’s pandemic-related expenses and to provide emergency aid to students to cover expenses such as food and housing and computer equipment.
AID TO BUSINESSES
A new program for restaurants and bars hurt by the pandemic would receive $25 billion. The grants provide up to $10 million per company with a limit of $5 million per physical location. The grants can be used to cover payroll, rent, utilities and other operational expenses.
The bill also provides $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, a tiny fraction of what was allocated in previous legislation. The bill also allows more non-profits to apply for loans that are designed to help borrowers meet their payroll and operating costs and can potentially be forgiven.
TESTING AND VACCINES
The bill provides $46 billion to expand federal, state and local testing for COVID-19 and to enhance contract tracing capabilities with new investments to expand laboratory capacity and set up mobile testing units. It also contains about $14 billion to speed up the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.
HEALTH CARE
Parts of the legislation advance longstanding Democratic priorities like increasing coverage under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Financial assistance for ACA premiums would become considerably more generous and a greater number of solid middle-class households would qualify. Though the sweetened subsidies last only through the end of 2022, they will lower the cost of coverage and are expected to boost the number of people enrolled.
The measure also dangles more money in front of a dozen states, mainly in the South, that have not yet taken up the Medicaid expansion that is available under the ACA to cover more low-income adults. Whether such a sweetener would be enough to start wearing down longstanding Republican opposition to Medicaid expansion is uncertain.
BIGGER TAX BREAKS FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH AND WITHOUT KIDS
Under current law, most taxpayers can reduce their federal income tax bill by up to $2,000 per child. In a significant change, the bill would increase the tax break to $3,000 for every child age 6 to 17 and $3,600 for every child under the age of 6.
The legislation also calls for the payments to be delivered monthly instead of in a lump sum. If the secretary of the Treasury determines that isn’t feasible, then the payments are to be made as frequently as possible.
Families would get the full credit regardless of how little they make in a year, leading to criticism that the changes would serve as a disincentive to work. Add in the $1,400 checks and other items in the proposal, and the legislation would reduce the number of children living in poverty by more than half, according to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.
The bill also significantly expands the Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021 by making it available to people without children. The credit for low and moderate-income adults would be worth $543 to $1,502, depending on income and filing status.
RENTAL AND HOMEOWNER ASSISTANCE
The bill provides about $30 billion to help low-income households and the unemployed afford rent and utilities, and to assist the homeless with vouchers and other support. States and tribes would receive an additional $10 billion for homeowners who are struggling with mortgage payments because of the pandemic.
Malta is reportedly demanding payment of more than $275,000 total in taxes and fines from a telecom consultancy firm owned by Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos after rejecting its call for a tax clawback.
According to MaltaToday, the tax probe was launched after Luanda Leaks, a 2020 investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, exposed dos Santos’ business empire and decades of insider deals that helped her become Africa’s richest woman.
The Maltese tax agency hit Kento Holding Ltd., one of 14 Malta-based companies controlled by the eldest daughter of Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos, with a fresh tax bill after finding it was not entitled to a $119,000 tax refund.
It is “highly unlikely that the company has real intentions of conducting an economic activity despite being registered since 1 September 2018, as no turnover was reported,” the Commissioner for Revenue said, according to the Maltese news outlet.
The firm is now fighting the tax bill, the outlet reported.
A lawyer representing dos Santos did not respond to ICIJ’s request for comment.
Kento is one of dos Santos’s 94 entities incorporated in low or zero-tax rate jurisdictions, according to an ICIJ analysis of confidential and public corporate records.
The Maltese entity is also a shareholder of MStar, a Mozambique cell phone operator, and Upstar Comunicações de Portugal, a satellite company.
In 2018, it reported $19.3 million in profit before taxes, according to its latest financial statements available.
Through Kento, dos Santos also had joint control of Portuguese telecom giant NOS thanks to a joint venture with Sonaecom, a conglomerate. But in April 2020, a Lisbon court seized her NOS stake and, a few months later, her business ally announced it would drop the partnership with dos Santos.
A 2016 chart of Isabel dos Santos’ shareholding, recorded by Fidequity, her defunct company-management firm. Image: Luanda Leaks
The most recent records in the Maltese corporate registry show that Kento’s representative is Mário Leite da Silva, one of dos Santos’ lieutenants and the former head of Fidequity, her Lisbon-based company management firm. Last June, dos Santos closed Fidequity after Portugal’s highest court ordered the seizure of her properties and stakes in several companies.
ICIJ couldn’t reach Silva for comment.
Angolan officials have charged dos Santos, her late husband Sindika Dokolo and Silva of embezzlement of public funds alleging they have caused a $1 billion loss for the country. They have all denied wrongdoing.
Africa’s booming economies and population have created lucrative opportunities for international players, making the continent a hotbed of geopolitical competition over the past decade. The International Monetary Fund found in 2019 that Africa had become the world’s fastest-growing region, with the World Economic Forum predicting its population would double to around 2.2 billion by 2050.
China is Africa’s biggest bilateral trading partner, having surpassed the US in 2009. Before the coronavirus crisis hit the world economy, the value of Sino-African trade reached €161 billion ($192 bn) in 2019.
“Right now you could say that any big project in African cities that is higher than three floors or roads that are longer than three kilometres are most likely being built and engineered by the Chinese,” Dave Roggeveen, the founder of specialist publication MORE Architecture, told Forbes in 2018.
As well as infrastructure, China has invested massively in media in Africa – with state-run Xinhua News Agency developing the continent’s biggest network of correspondents. Nairobi is at the centre of China’s African media presence, with Xinhua moving one of its headquarters from Paris to the Kenyan capital in 2006.
France is now also seeking to make new inroads on the African continent by tweaking its strategy towards developing nations. Paris has managed to increase its global aid budget even amid the coronavirus crisis, with development spending rising from €10.9 billion in 2019 to €12.8 billion in 2020.
On March 2, French MPs approved a bill increasing France’s aid budget to 0.55 percent of GDP by 2022. President Macron’s government is also stepping up efforts to ensure the aid money is effective. The draft law enshrines five key objectives – “to fight against poverty, to counter climate change, to bolster public health, to expand education services and to achieve gender equality” – focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and also Haiti.
“International solidarity has never been more necessary than it is now,” said Louis-Nicolas Jandeaux, a spokesman for Oxfam France. “The Covid-19 pandemic shows us how so many major challenges – like fighting poverty and protecting public health – are connected. Given that France is a leader on these multilateral issues, and given that French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken so much about boosting international co-operation, France really has to set a good example on issues like aid spending.”
The bill also seeks to give France more bang for its aid buck by merging its two development agencies. The French Development Agency – which bestows loans and grants – will be merged with France Expertise – which focuses on the nitty-gritty of development project logistics. This merger will allow French aid workers to “respond better and more directly to the needs of the countries we’re working in”, said Jérémie Pellet, director of France Expertise.
The law includes a plan to repatriate “ill-gotten” assets the French justice system has confiscated from foreign leaders. France has made efforts to go after corrupt politicians who have stashed millions on French soil. In 2020 a Paris court sentenced Teodorin Obiang, vice president of Equatorial Guinea, to three years in prison and a €30 million fine for laundering money through French properties.
Redirecting illicit money back to the people is also part of a diplomatic strategy to boost France’s image in Africa.
“This aspect seems so morally sound that it’s almost impossible to be against it,” said Magali Chelpi-den Hamer, the head of the humanitarian and development programme at Paris-based think-tank IRIS (the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs). “However, the volume of money concerned will be relatively low.”
Avoiding the debt trap
France has had a long and complicated relationship with Africa. It gained control of vast swaths of the continent – mainly by seizing most of western Africa – in the competitive conquest of the continent launched by European powers from the 17th century.
After a wave of successful independence movements in the 1950s and 1960s, France maintained close relations with many Francophone ex-colonies in a policy that came to be known as Françafrique. Advocates of this approach saw France as a guarantor of stability on the continent, but critics saw France as loath to give up its colonial-era influence and continuing to play a clientelist role.
The French state’s focus on Africa waned in the 1990s as it turned its attention toward European integration. But France has once again set its sights on the continent to counter China’s rising influence.
And this time France seeks to ensure that its activities on the continent do not carry any reminiscence of neo-colonialism, with a new aid policy favouring grants over loans.
Analysts have become increasingly concerned about China creating debt traps with its hefty loans to African countries, for which it is the biggest bilateral lender. Chinese loans to underdeveloped countries are even bigger than indicated by the official figures: around half of them are not reported to the International Monetary Fund or World Bank, a report for German think-tank the Kiel Institute for the World Economy found in 2019.
Until now, France has not had a stellar record on loans either: in 2018, half of its development aid was in loans instead of grants, according to Oxfam. Nevertheless, while “Western countries also use debt to gain influence in African countries, unlike China they’re very keen to avoid setting debt traps,” said IRIS’s Chelpi-den Hamer.
“We’re fighting China in a battle for influence – and a battle over what system of government countries should see as their model,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Inter radio last month.
China’s increasing involvement in Africa threatens to “end up being negative over the medium to long term”, Macron warned at a press conference in Djibouti on his 2019 African tour.
“I wouldn’t want a new generation of international investments to encroach on our historical partners’ sovereignty or weaken their economies,” he added.
France’s aid reform bill now goes to the Senate and is expected to become law this summer.
Jambo Biscuits Limited will now pay Britannia Sacco Sh 37.7 million, monies deducted from employees of biscuit manufacturer but which were not remitted to the Sacco.
“The plaintiff has proved its claim. I enter judgement for the Sh37,707,107.40 as prayed,” ruled Tuiyot.
However, the judge said the plaintiff did not specify the rate of interest it seeks on the amount, it shall attract interest at court rates from the date of filing of the suit.
The basis of Britannia’s claim is that Jambo made deductions from its employee’s salaries for the months of July 2007 to December 2007, but failed to forward the amount to the Sacco as required.
It was added that towards part of settlement of the claim, Jambo made eight payments amounting to Sh. 904,000 during the months of November 2007, December 2007 and January 2008reducing the principal debt from Sh. 2,312,518 million to Sh. 1,408,518 million. The amount claimed was substantially more being Sh. 37,707,107.40 million.
Testifying in court, Daniel Kaliku had asked the court to compel the employer to pay the amount plus interest of 5 percent per month.
Britannia Sacco, a co-operative society, filed a case in court seeking a claim of Sh37.7 million
In defence filed on November 21, 2013, Jambo denied that its employees are members of Britannia Sacco or that it made deductions from its employees on an account of that membership.
The biscuit maker argued that any deductions made were duly remitted to Britannia and denied owing the Sacco the amount. The judge, however, ruled that the Sacco had proved the claim.
Over the past two weeks, the rapper struck deals to sell his boutique music streaming service and half of his champagne brand Armand de Brignac, adding an enormous pile of cash to his already massive fortune.
“Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational,” Jay-Z said in 2010 when Forbes got a ringside seat to the rapper’s first meeting in Omaha with billionaire investor Warren Buffett. “It always broke that notion that an artist can’t think about money as well.”
More than a decade later, the rapper-turned-billionaire is showing exactly what he means: In his second major deal in as many weeks, Jay-Z inked a deal to sell a majority stake in music streaming company Tidal to Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment company Square for $297 million. The transaction valued the company at about $450 million—$150 million more than Forbes’ 2019 estimate. Forbes figures he netted out $149 million in cash and stock—and got a board seat—after buying back 33% of Tidal from T-Mobile earlier this week and then selling that and the third he already owned. Tidal’s “artist shareholders” will continue to have a stake in the company, and Jay-Z will own a small percentage, as well.
This comes a week after he sold half of his Armand de Brignac champagne to LVMH in a deal that valued the luxury liquor company at about $640 million.
It’s just the start. His diverse and growing business includes the remaining 50% stake in the $300-per-bottle Armand de Brignac, as well as D’Usse cognac and a collection of less-sexy startups including insurance startup Ethos and salad chain Sweetgreen. He also owns a chunk of his own music, shares multiple multi-million dollar mansions with his wife Beyoncé and has a growing art collection.
In 2005 he laid down the now prophetic lyric, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.”
Here’s how it breaks down:
Cash and Investments: $425 million
Jay-Z has been singing about the importance of spending money wisely for years—and he’s done just that, pouring a good portion of his $760 million estimated earnings (pretax) into investments. His holdings include stakes in Uber and now Square, as well as in private companies like salad chain Sweetgreen, insurance startup Ethos and SpaceX. His next likely big win: Oatmilk company Oatly is expected to IPO this year and is reportedly seeking a $10 billion valuation. He invested an undisclosed amount in July 2020.
Armand de Brignac: $320 million
Last week, Jay-Z announced he was selling half of his champagne company, also known as Ace of Spades, to luxury house LVMH’s Moët Hennessy. Forbes estimates that the deal valued the gold-bottled bubbly brand at $640 million—or more than double its estimated value in 2019 and even more than the “half a B” Jay-Z himself rapped about on Meek Mill’s 2018 song “What’s Free.”
Roc Nation: $140 million
Jay-Z’s joint-venture with Live Nation was founded in 2008 and is a full-service entertainment company serving some of the biggest names in the biz, from musicians Rihanna and Alicia Keys to athletes Kyrie Irving and CC Sabathia. The company is responsible for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Made in America music festival and even has a publishing deal with Random House. While the pandemic has slowed the company’s live-touring business, it was growing steadily prior to Covid-19.
D’Usse: $120 million
A partnership with liquor giant Bacardi, Jay-Z’s cognac launched in 2012. While it typically retails for a reasonable $30 per bottle, fifty rare bottles—including a diamond-shaped crystal decanter—are currently at auction at Sotheby’s for an estimated price tag of $24,000 to $75,000 each.
Music Catalog: $95 million
With multiples for music catalogs on the rise, Jay-Z’s library of nearly 300 songs is worth $20 million more now than it was two years ago, and thanks to a series of smart negotiations, he owns both the publishing rights and master recordings to his music.
Art Collection: $70 million
A fan of Jean-Michel Basquiat—he raps about having one in his kitchen on his song “Picasso Baby” and reportedly spent $4.5 million on one in 2013—Jay-Z’s impressive art collection also features works by Damian Hirst, David Hammons and Richard Prince. He sees the collection as an investment. As he sang on “The Story of O.J.”: “I bought some artwork for one million, Two years later, that shit worth two million, Few years later, that shit worth eight million, I can’t wait to give this shit to my children.”
Real Estate: $50 million
Jay-Z and Beyoncé picked up two homes in 2017 after giving birth to their twins: an $88 million Bel Air mansion and $26 million East Hamptons spread. The Los Angeles home is already worth $5 million more than the purchase price. Proving that the couple is, in fact, human, they still have a mortgage on the home. He also still owns his Tribeca penthouse bachelor pad that he bought in 2004 for $6.85 million.
A Democratic congressman filed a lawsuit on Friday against former president Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a Republican lawmaker for allegedly inciting the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Trump, 74, and the other defendants waged a “campaign of lies and incendiary rhetoric” which led to the assault on Congress, Representative Eric Swalwell of California charged in the civil suit lodged in a US District Court in Washington.
Another Democratic congressman, Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, filed a similar suit against Trump last month.
Both cite a little used law, the Ku Klux Klan Act, to make the case against the former president.
The 1871 Act was designed to prevent the white supremacist KKK from intimidating elected officials.
Trump, Donald Jr, Giuliani and Rep. Mo Brooks, a congressman from Alabama, all spoke at a rally which preceded the January 6 attack on Congress by Trump supporters seeking to block the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
“Unable to accept defeat, Donald Trump waged an all out war on a peaceful transition of power,” Swalwell said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
“He lied to his followers again and again claiming the election was stolen,” the congressman said, “and finally called upon his supporters to descend on Washington DC to ‘stop the steal.’”
“The defendants assembled, inflamed and incited the mob, and as such are wholly responsible for the injury and destruction that followed,” Swalwell said.
The suit demanded unspecified monetary and punitive damages to be determined at a jury trial.
Swalwell was one of the impeachment managers for Trump’s trial in the Senate on the charge of inciting insurrection.
Trump was impeached by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives for his role in inciting the attack on the Capitol but acquitted by the Senate.
Thompson and the NAACP, a civil rights organization, filed suit against Trump, Giuliani and two right-wing groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, last month.
Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, responded to the latest lawsuit in a statement to The Washington Post. “Eric Swalwell is a low-life with no credibility,” Miller said.
– Trump State Dept appointee arrested –
More than 300 people have been arrested so far for their role in the storming of the Capitol, which left at least five people dead.
Among the latest arrests was Federico Guillermo Klein, 42, a Trump appointee to a low-level State Department job.
Klein, who resigned from the State Department on January 19, a day before Trump left office, was arrested by the FBI on Thursday after a review of video of the Capitol attack.
In a criminal complaint obtained by The New York Times, an FBI special agent said Klein, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, is seen assaulting police officers with a riot shield.
According to the complaint, Klein worked at the State Department since 2017 on Brazilian and other Latin American affairs and had a Top Secret clearance.
He is believed to be the first member of the former Trump administration to directly charged in connection with the ransacking of the Capitol.
Klein faces multiple charges including assaulting police officers, obstructing an official proceeding and disorderly conduct.
Jumia Online store is currently embroiled in a self instigated war with a section of Kenyan influencers that the company has been using to market their products online mostly on Twitter.
It all started with a complaint on Twitter raised by a user Osama Otero who accused the firm of withholding his payment of Sh70,000. While using informal conversations, the fed up influencer used the best language he thought could get the attention of the management that he claim has been taking him rounds for too long.
What followed was a demand letter from a law firm. It has become a norm in Kenya for ambulance lawyers to prey on bloggers as an intimidation tactic.
Osama was given 12 hours to delete the ‘defamatory’ sentiments he had made about the marketing official Ms. Christine Mutugi whom he accused of blocking his payments.
He deleted the tweets in compliance with the the demand letter but the onslaught didn’t end.
He went ahead to cut links with the firm.
I have declared war on @JumiaKenya as a brand an anything on a personal level. Christine and Co. i need my 70k
Then it went further with others joining in to claim mismanagement in the accounting.
. @SamChappatte@JumiaKenya do you know that your marketing team led by Christine do inflate invoices then later compensate themselves with the overpayments? #JumiaExposed
.@JumiaKenya have a 30 day policy on payments for work done. When the rotten marketing team make you write an inflated invoice, you will miraculously receive your payment in less than 30 days. They make it quick because they have their share. #JumiaExposed Cc @SamChappattehttps://t.co/OIYHw79SBr
Influencer marketing has been a fret source of income of youths in Kenya where the unemployment rate is close to 60%. It has also become a norm for big corporates who spend millions in mainstream advertising to exploit the emerging marketing force. Some pay very low and some take them in circles to the bitter end of non payment. Osama’s case is not isolated but a one of many who don’t speak out openly for the fear of losing out on other gigs.
It also opened a box of pandora of complaints from others including shoppers in the platform.
They sent me a counterfeit iPhone 8plus which cost me 47k…I returned it to them but they say ati my return reason is invalid😤😤they now indicatedelivered when I have not received the product yet #JumiaExposedpic.twitter.com/UyYkvKrq8t
Jumia is a leading e-retailer in Kenya and subsidiary of Jumia Grouo and the first Africa-focused tech start-up to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
Twitter is once again working on updates that no one wants, and ignoring basic functions prevalent on other social media platforms that its users have been begging to see roll out, with the news of an ‘undo send’ feature for Tweets.
Currently, the only way to deal with a typo, factual error, or other niggle that is ruining your carefully curated timeline is to delete your Tweet, but of course, any traction it gained and engagement it fostered are scrapped alongside it. And so it remains; a blemish for all the world to see, and you’d better just lump it.
Twitter is reportedly working on the ‘undo send’ feature, which you can see in action below courtesy of app researcher Jane Manchun Wong. Essentially it gives you a very brief window of time after you hit send to ‘undo’ your action, and is likely geared towards making users think twice about what they’ve posted, rather than being of any use to anyone who’s unknowingly used the wrong ‘there’ and won’t discover it for several minutes. And by then, it’s too late.
The thread is full of Twitter users complaining about the lack of an edit button, or suggestions that this new functionality should at least providing a preview of the tweet you’ve just sent so that you can cast your eye over it once more before allowing the timer to run down.
Gmail has a similar feature, but why Twitter is aping email features rather than a commonplace aspect of fellow platforms like Instagram and Facebook, that its users have been requesting for years, is mystifying. What’s more, ‘undo send’ could actually be implemented as part of a paid subscription model that we heard about last year , which seems like an odd bonus to throw in, given that it’s not resonating with users.
Twitter seems to be embracing its role as an archive of content showcasing people’s mistakes, with the ‘undo send’ acting as one last ‘are you really sure you want to post this?‘ prompt, before releasing your hot takes into the world.
From a point of view of the average user who just wants to avoid spelling and grammatical errors, which can quickly derail conversations, the ‘undo send’ button is useless.
It was on 16 September 2020 when Dr. Chol D.T Abel was relieved from his duties as Managing Director of Nile Petroleum Corporation known as (NilePet) and his successor Engineer, Bol Ring Mourwel was appointed as the new MD.
There was jubilation from mainly the employees of NilePet and other beneficiaries of NilePet anticipating rapid developments in NilePet, because they were not contended with the manner of the affairs in the corporation during Dr Chol tenure as Managing Director of Nile Petroleum Corporation.
Many people believed that Dr. Chol was running the institution as his personal entity using iron fist to oppress his competitors and opponents respectively. Many of the employees were arbitrarily ignored, silenced or dismissed during Dr. Chol.
With all the odds that surrounded Chol administration, he has managed to be the longest serving MD, with four years sipping on abundant NilePet fortunes indispensably.
Good number of employees who have been questioning his methodology were either given deadly ultimatum to cease from doing asking or get sacked from the Company. People were under untold oppression and segregation.
The company was in disguised turmoil and unrest due to divides and rule philosophy where good boys flamboyant love was in their favour, meanwhile, the group dubbed as enemies of the MD were coercively cornered.
Alas, Dr. Chol is an angel compared to the current Managing Director in terms of nepotism, corruption and lack of vision.
Within his four months as Managing Director, he has employed not less than 50 people from his relatives, in-laws and clandestine services are mainly linked to Padhieu ( small clan within Adiang area of the current MD). Other category of the people who have had chances of an employment are those recommended by their spiritual leader in their village known as ( Ajiingdit) plus few individuals through elites recommendations.
Nile petroleum has become an enrichment facility where everyone comes to implement his own agenda and Bol Ring Mourwel can’t be an exceptional about this situation. To make matter worse, Bol is being drive by his good boys instead of him driving them. Ring Charles Mayen is a pseudo MD, who is responsible for employing people, sacking people, promoting people , deploying people and donations pushing.
Newly-appointed Managing Director of Nile Petroleum Corporation (Nilepet) Eng. Bol Ring Mourwel has officially re-launching fuel retailing all stations in Juba [Photo by Nilepet
This is just an introduction to the detailed articles that will follow in couples of days. Stay tune about the next article that will display the nasty things being played by the three criminals around MD (Ring Charles Mayen, Deng Alfonse Anei and Mariak Martin Manyiel).
Bol Ring and his loyalists have emptied the bank account of Nilepet. There is neither a single pound nor a single dollar in the Nilepet’s account at the time of writing article. Bol Ring transferred all the cash to his personal account and used some money for purchasing personal assets such as a Villa in Kampala, an estate in Gurei, Juba, a furnished house or apartment in Juba etc.
He recently bought four new brand V8s at 120, 000 dollars each, which he cashed out from the company account. He cashed out 120,000 dollars and order another V8 from Dubai. The vehicle is on the way from Dubai. Bol Ring took 12 million dollars in advance from DPOC, SPOC, and GPOC in case he is removed from the position of Managing Director.
He also took fuel from suppliers at the amount of 35 million dollars and sold it in the black market without paying the suppliers. The country is currently facing shortage of fuel because Bol Ring has sold the fuel meant for public use, in the black market. All the fuel depots are empty. The government institutions have fun shortage of fuel and sometimes they buy fuel from the black market.
In addition to the above, Bol Ring Muorwel is a naturally born sectionalist, tribalist and clanist. Bol Ring has hijacked the duties of Director General, human resource manager, finance manager, procurement manager etc. In less than six months in the office, Bol succeeded in recruiting over one hundred relatives.
The worse thing is that majority of Bol’s relatives whom he recruited into Nilepet are mere illiterate who never stepped their feet near any school compound. Bol Ring transported many of them from cattle camps in village to Juba and contracted them in high grades as well as assigning them in sensitive departments in Nilepet. I have compiled their names and I will soon publish them in the media.
Lastly, Bol Ring is a potential criminal who should be sentenced to life imprisonment. I don’t know the kind of culture which Bol Ring and his good boys have adopted. None of the 64 cultures of South Sudan condone corruption or any malpractices. Neither the Bible nor Quran tolerate corruption.
This means Bol Ring is a naturally born thief and that’s why he will die as a corrupt man. Bol Ring should be tried in the court of law and sentenced to life imprisonment in order to be an exemplary to the rest of corrupt individuals in South Sudan. Leaving Bol Ring and his relatives to corrupt the public resources in broad daylight, serves as an encouragement of the corruption in the country.
In yet another episode of a familiar story, a parliamentary committee has threatened to push for the withdrawal of the operations license for London Distillers Kenya Limited after it failed to install a proper sewerage system.
The National Assembly Select Committee on Implementation chaired by Moitalel Ole Kenta also put the National Environment Management Authority on the spot for giving the alcohol brewer a permit despite it causing extensive pollution in Machakos County.
The Committee is now raising concerns on the issuance of clearance certificates by NEMA.
NEMA Director Dr Mamo Boru Mamo appearing before the National Assembly Select Committee on implementation was asked to explain how London Distillers Kenya was given the go-ahead to continue with its operations.
The National Assembly Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources chaired by Maara MP Kareke Mbiuki had initially established poor disposal of sewerage waste by London distillers which exposes residents in Machakos County to health risks.
The Moitalel Ole Kenta led a select committee on implementation is now demanding proper control of pollution by the alcohol brewer.
NEMA is expected to produce a report in the next seven days lest its operation licence is withdrawn.
London Distillers has been embroiled in a dispute with residents of Great Wall Gardens, owned by Erdermann Property Ltd, over claims of emptying toxic waste into Athi River. Residents accused the firm of failing to put in place appropriate technology for waste management.
NEMA is said to have received numerous complaints from the residents of Great Wall Gardens owned by Edermann Property Limited where London Distillers has been blamed for emptying toxic wastewater into the surroundings leading to discomfort and diseases.
NEMA
NEMA and London Alcohol LTD have however been taking parliament in rounds or both the three could be accomplices in the same, this is not the first time the parliament has threatened to close the plant, the case keep coming and disappearing.
In 2018, the Parliament’s Environment and National Resources committee had directed Nema, London Distillers, the Machakos government and the Environment Ministry to intervene and stop pollution. It gave London Distillers six months to put in place technology for waste management or stop operations. The period elapsed in March 2019.
London Distillers appears to have coined their ways of survival and continue to operate despite numerous orders from state agencies given they’ve never complied to the recommendations against population.
These are just some of the a few many ignored orders. While residents around Athi River continue to getting exposed to the toxicity emitted to the river, parliament and relevant bodies continue to feign ignorance and buying time.
Report says parliament is amongst the corrupt known to take bribes from companies and bodies petitioned.
It won’t be surprising if this latest threat would be one of the many we’ve heard against the environmental hazard company or as usual the owners will figure out the Kenyan way to silence the matter. It appears whenever the public asserts press the case, it resurrects, goes under the same ritual of dying and waiting for the next resurrection. There’s no use of having watchdog bodies if they don’t have balls enough to sort out such matters for once instead prefer to be bossed around by those with big pockets. Could this be the time parliament heed to Uhuru’s words that no one is untouchable or it’s another chance that corruption will once again have a final say?
Asian tycoon and founder of London Distillers, Mohan Galot when he appeared in a magistrate’s court in Nairobi in 2018 where he was charged with nine counts of forgery in a viscous battle regarding the shareholding and directorship of the family’s multi-billion shilling group of companies.
London Distillers are the makers of Napoleone Brand Whisky, Meakins Orange Vodka, Meakins Tripple Distilled Vodka, Kahawa Africa Gold, Napoleone Gold Brandy, Kenya King, White Pearl, Safari Cane, Safari Whisky and Safari Dry Gin, among others.
Seven farm workers from Kenya are suing one of the world’s biggest tea producers for damages in a personal injury court in Scotland.
The tea pickers allege they have suffered severe health problems because of working conditions on farms run by James Finlay Kenya Ltd.
It is part of a multi-national company which can trace its roots back to Glasgow in the 18th Century.
The firm is opposing the action and has defended its health and safety record.
Finlays began as a cotton trader in Scotland in 1750 and now has operations on five continents, with Starbucks among its customers.
Kenyan lawyer Isaac Okero says some of his clients have suffered spinal damage
The scale of the business is such that it makes enough tea to fuel the annual demand from the whole of the UK.
The company moved its headquarters from Glasgow to London 15 years ago but its registered office address is in Aberdeen, leaving it open to legal action in Scotland’s courts.
The seven men and women are suing for damages of £15,000 each in the All Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court in Edinburgh.
‘Long-term injuries’
Their advocate in Kenya, Isaac Okero, says they have suffered injuries including spinal damage.
He told BBC Scotland: “The tea workers are saying that on account of the years of service that they have provided to James Finlays Kenya Ltd, and the circumstances and conditions under which they were compelled to work, they have suffered severe degenerative injuries which have severely impacted on their lives.
“These injuries are both physical and mental.”
Mr Okero said a number were still working when the legal action was launched in a city 4,000 miles away but only one is now still in employment.
The others have either been forced into retirement or unable to continue working.
He believes the case will have wider significance.
He said: “It will hopefully compel the company to radically change the conditions under which the workers are working, so these proceedings should result in substantial improvements in the terms and conditions of the employees still picking tea and hopefully bring to an end the prospect of more Kenyan workers suffering severe and long-term injuries in the way that these seven workers have.”
Edinburgh-based personal injury lawyer David Short is acting for the workers
Personal injury specialist David Short, from Edinburgh firm Balfour and Manson, is representing the tea pickers.
He said: “In any court action one of the first things you have to look at is, where do we have jurisdiction, which court will allow you to raise an action.
“Here, we have a Scottish-registered company and therefore the appropriate place for action is a Scottish court.
“We’re suing for what would be appropriate for an award in Kenya. It reflects their conditions and their economy.”
‘Dreadful conditions’
Two years after the case began in 2017, a sheriff ordered Finlays to give the tea pickers’ legal team access to the farms in Kenya, allowing them to inspect their working conditions.
Finlays mounted a challenge in the courts in Nairobi, arguing successfully that the Scottish order could not be implemented unless it had been endorsed by a Kenyan court.
The tea pickers appealed against that decision and a judgement is expected in May.
Mr Short said: “They’re arguing that it’s unconstitutional.
“But even if it is, why won’t they let us go in? I suspect it’s because they don’t want us to see the dreadful conditions that these people work in.”
Last February, the tea pickers staged a demonstration of how they work at another tea farm in Kenya, watched by members of their UK legal team.
Gwen Morgan-Evans, from law firm Hugh James, said: “We’ve travelled to Kenya with two leading UK experts so they can observe the process of tea picking and advise the Scottish court on how these working practices are detrimental to health.
“There’s a wider context to these cases. If the case is successful, the claimants are hoping that this will bring about a wider improvement for tea workers in Kenya.”
The latest issue of Finlays’ company magazine 1750 focused on its Kenya operations.
Group managing director Guy Chambers told the publication: “We accept we are not perfect and there are always areas where we need to improve.
“But our critics often overlook the scale of the efforts that we take to contribute to the community.”
In a statement, a spokesman said: “James Finlay (Kenya) Ltd intends to fully defend all related claims brought in either the Nairobi High Court or the All Scotland Sheriff Personal Injury Court.”
The firm said its tea growing and processing business in the Kericho and Bomet counties employed about 8,000 people directly and further workers indirectly, delivering “significant economic benefit to the region”.
The statement continues: “We aim to achieve the highest standards of health and safety and welfare for everybody connected with our business.
“We have a well-established health and safety programme for all of our global business units, including our Kenyan business.”
It concludes by noting that its Kenyan business is certified by the Rainforest Alliance, which requires regular standards audits, and has adopted the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) Base Code.
In the 1980s, demonstrations were held outside Finlays’ annual general meetings in Glasgow over working conditions on its tea farms in India.
‘Risky business’
One of the protestors in 1984 was Roger Jeffery, now a professor at Edinburgh University’s School of Social and Political Science.
He said: “The chairman at the time said we’re merchant adventurers, we go wherever we can to raise a profit for our shareholders and they claimed without any justification that they were good employers and people benefited from their activities.”
Reflecting on the current case, Prof Jeffery said: “If you’re looking at this in the round, you have to accept that growing tea is a bit of a risky business and they can’t just start paying European salaries to their workforce, but I think they can still do more than they are.”
Today the first Kenyan will take the jab at Kenyatta National Hospital as the country gears up for a massive roll out of the Covid-19 vaccine, meanwhile, the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association remain cautious over its efficacy.
In a statement, the Catholic Doctors Association says while the vaccine is welcome news in efforts to contain the spread of the contagion, other alternatives that have been proven to be effective should be considered.
“We know for a fact that there are drugs that have been re-purposed and used effectively to treat Covid-19,” the statement read.
Instead, the Association called on clinicians to initiate treatment of all patients proven or suspected to have Covid-19 at the onset of symptoms.
They also advised Kenyans to report to hospital at the onset of symptoms to allow early intervention so as to prevent severe morbidity and mortality.
Although the Catholic Doctors Association says that their advice is contrary to that of the World Health Organization (WHO), they noted that it was their solemn duty as clinicians to give patients the best chance of survival in the worst case scenario.
“The doctor-patient relationship is sacrosanct and must be respected by all regulators so long as the clinician does not break the law and the patient undergoing treatment has given informed consent,” the statement added.
The Association also pointed out that WHO advisory on not treating Covid-19 patients’ early as erroneous and outdated saying it was the largest contributor to morbidity and mortality adding that it was more deadly than the disease itself.
President Kenyatta during the flag off of the vaccine warned people against spreading fake news on the vaccine.
The directors of Mahesh and Tirth construction company have been acquired of tax fraud related offences by a Nairobi court.
Maheshkumar Batukraijani, Valani Keshra Karsani and their company, Mahesh and Tirth construction company limited were charged with fraud in relation to tax of close to 30 million shillings.
While delivering the judgement, Senior Principal Magistrate David Ndugi ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove all counts beyond reasonable doubt thereby acquitted them.
“I give the accused persons the of benefit of doubt. I acquit the three of all counts beyond reasonable doubt,” ruled the magistrate.
The magistrate ruled that the documents produced by defense destroyed the prosecution’s as they indicated the accused persons have been paying taxes to KRA.
The investigating officer in the matter had testified that the company claimed tax from two fictitious companies.
He added that two companies, Daruan wholesalers and Fahari wholesalers which were flagged as fictitious were registered on paper as genuine traders by the registrar of companies but in actual party they were not trading nor did they have physical address for trading.
The prosecution had argued that the two companies are missing traders and were non existent. The court heard that the the investigator had visited the premises where the company had claimed to be located but did not find the said offices.
The magiatrated stated that Hussein Mohammed, who is in charge of Lunga Lunga business centre and the person who told investigators that the two companies did not have offices there did not to testify nor record a statement.
He also noted that the police went there after charging the accused and that the issue was not properly investigated.
The magistrate ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove that the two companies were missing traders and did not supply goods to Mahesh and Tirth construction company.
In addition the magistrate ruled that there no basis of how Kenya Revenue Authority arrived at the said figures of money since the figures on the charge sheet contradict the one on demand letters sent to the accused persons previously.
The court heard that the money claimed in the KRA demand letter is Sh 75 million which is way more than that on the charges sheet which is Sh 29 million. He said the the prosecution did not state why there is a difference in the amounts of money involved.
According to the magistrate, the accused persons produced tax compliance certificates which showed they were tax free even on the dates they are alleged to have committed the offences.
The director of the two wholesalers testified for the defense and told the court that aim the companies are not missing traders but genuine suppliers of building material.
Director of the other two companies testified as a defense witness and said his companies supplied goods to the third accused.
“He said his companies were in existence and pay taxes to KRA, the magistrate ruled.
He added, “I find the prosecution has not proved the two companies are missing traders or did not supply goods to to the third accused.”
According to the magistrate, he found it unlikely that a missing trader can issue an ETR receipt and pay taxes.
“The missing traders fraud had not been proved. Therefore it can not be said they failed to pay taxes.
The accused persons had been charged with fraud in relation to tax by unlawfully making incorrect statements in the value added tax return thereby reducing it’s liability to VAT by Sh17,483,602.
They are alleged to have committed the offence on diverse dates between 20 February 2016 and 20th September 2017 jointly as directors.
They had also been charged with jointly making unlawful incorrect statements in the VAT return for the period 6th March 2016 to 1st January 2017 thereby reducing his liability to VAT by Sh 7,055,595 and another and another Sh 1.7 million payable to the commissioner of Domestic tax.
The court further heard that the three also failed to remit corporation tax amounting to Sh 3,259,544 payable to the commissioner of domestic taxes for the year 2015 among others.
Billionaire businessman Ngugi Kiuna is seeking the termination of the Carbacid Investments’ buyout of BOC Kenya after filing an objection to the deal at the Capital Markets Tribunal citing undervaluation.
Mr Kiuna, a former BOC Kenya chairman, said the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) erred in approving the takeover by ignoring the undervaluation of BOC besides disregarding the protection of interests of minority shareholders.
The tycoon, who holds 1.4 million BOC shares equivalent to a 7.6 percent stake, filed the appeal on March 1, 2021.
The legal action means that the buyout process, which was scheduled to close on April 6, 2021 will be put on hold until the issue is determined.
Carbacid and Aksaya Investments LLP, a firm controlled by its major shareholder Baloobhai Patel, have teamed up to offer BOC investors a buyout price of Sh63.5 per share or an aggregate of Sh1.2 billion.
“That the approval granted by the first respondent in respect of the proposed takeover offer by Carbacid Investments Plc and Aksaya Investments LLP to acquire up to 100 percent of the issued ordinary shares of BOC Kenya Plc be set aside in its totality for being invalid, null and void ab initio,” Mr Kiuna said.
The businessman laid out the grounds for his contention that Carbacid’s offer is inadequate. He said that as of December 31, 2020, BOC had Sh1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents alone.
The company holds 14.8 million shares in Carbacid currently worth about Sh180 million. Mr Kiuna said that BOC has not revalued its freehold land and buildings at market rate, adding that they are grossly undervalued at the stated historical value of Sh46.4 million.
“The information presented in the [BOC] financial statements is incorrect, not up to date and misleading, with some entries having been exaggerated and others understated,” he said.
Dyer and Blair Investment Bank, the independent financial advisor hired by BOC to review Carbacid’s offer, said that the bid undervalued the company by 30.8 percent.
Dyer and Blair stated that BOC share was worth Sh91.76 a piece, valuing the firm at Sh1.7 billion. This is Sh552 million more than Carbacid’s total bid price of Sh1.2 billion.
The board of BOC agreed with the investment bank’s assessment and told shareholders to make up their own mind with regard to the merits of Carbacid’s offer.
This came after BOC’s majority shareholder, BOC Holdings, had already committed to sell its 65.38 percent stake to Carbacid at the Sh63.5 per share offer price.
Mr Kiuna filed documents which he said demonstrate that the CMA went out of its way to accommodate Carbacid’s takeover bid, including by relaxing the buyout conditions and aiding information blockage.
“The proposed takeover offer is not conditional as to acceptances and therefore its success is guaranteed and the level of acceptances by the minority shareholders in [BOC] is inconsequential,” Mr Kiuna said.
The CMA on its part has insisted that all the relevant disclosures to BOC shareholders have been made and it is upon them to make their own individual decisions.
“The Authority has also noted the contents of the final independent financial advisor circular and is satisfied that the circular contains material information … that the shareholders of BOC Kenya and their independent professional advisors would reasonably require or expect to be informed about in relation to the offer,” the CMA wrote to BOC’s board on February 15 this year.
This was the same stance taken by the regulator in 2018 when it refused to wade into allegations that US conglomerate Seaboard Corporation was undervaluing Unga Group in its bid of Sh40 per share.
The regulator, however, appeared to take a tougher stance in earlier buyout deals, including scuttling BOC’s previous bid to acquire Carbacid.
BOC announced its intention to buy Carbacid in December 2005. Shareholders of both companies were happy to conclude the transaction but the CMA was not satisfied with the manner in which BOC waived its minimum threshold for acceptances, freezing the deal until October 2009 when it was called off.
Mr Ngugi becomes the second high-net-worth Kenyan to protest a buyout of a Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm on the basis of undervaluation, among other grievances.
Centum Investment Company, controlled by billionaire investor Chris Kirubi, in 2014 filed cases at the High Court and the CMA tribunal to challenge the buyout of agricultural firm Rea Vipingo by British brothers Richard and Jeremy Robinow.
The brothers had initially offered to buy out the company’s minority shareholders at Sh40 per share but were later forced to more than double it to Sh85 per share as part of a settlement with Centum.
The investment firm had sued the CMA for approving the duo’s revised bid of Sh85 per share despite the fact that it was contingent upon the sale of part of Rea Vipingo’s land on unspecified date and price.
This is the latest business dispute involving Mr Kiuna, who has launched legal battles to defend his rights in various companies including Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (OMLAC) and liquor distributor Maxam Limited.
He filed a suit arguing that OMLAC’s shares were undervalued in the company’s merger with UAP Holdings. He also sued Dutch brewer Heineken International for ending the exclusive local distributorship of his company Maxam by appointing other sellers.
He was awarded Sh1.8 billion, which the multinational disputed in an appeal. Mr Kiuna’s business interests include stakes in Maiden Lane Investments Limited, Proctor & Allan (EA) Limited and land holdings in Tatu City.
What’s the cost of mission drift? For Jack Dorsey, the founder of Square, it’s more than $4 billion by one measure. That’s the amount of market value that investors swiped from the payments company on Thursday morning after it handed over $297 million to superstar rapper Jay-Z and put him on its board.
Dorsey’s $100-billion behemoth is buying streaming music service Tidal from Jay-Z. The payments firm can easily swing the bill, but the rationale is head-scratching. Companies that creep into other adjacencies find even small deals bring big headaches.
Six years ago, Jay-Z launched Tidal after buying control of its Swedish parent for $54 million. The vision was bold. A music platform for artists owned by artists – including Kanye West, Daft Punk and Madonna – with crisper sound and better royalties. It never fully took off with the public at least — estimates for Tidal’s subscribers range anywhere from 1 million to 5 million according to press reports. Spotify Technology, by contrast, has amassed 155 million customers.
Square believes the acquisition of Tidal squares with its own goal of “economic empowerment” extending now to musicians. The payment ecosystem could help artists sell more merchandise or tickets perhaps. But beyond e-commerce, it’s hard to see how Square’s expertise will generate more subscribers already tuned in to Amazon.com, Apple and Spotify.
True, under Dorsey’s leadership Square has done exceptionally well, even if he splits his time running Twitter. Square staked out territory with small businesses with an easy-to-use point-of-service system, and shareholders have been rewarded. In five years, its stock is up nearly 2,000%.
But as Thursday’s stock decline suggests, drifting has a cost. Verizon Communications, for instance, swayed from selling mobile-phone services when it bought AOL and Yahoo, two dying internet firms, for around $9 billion only to write down most of the value. Square may have no problems right now, but Jay-Z could very well bring one in the future.
Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has had to seek the local administration’s intervention to cushion them from the disgruntled community members.
The government has put on notice job seekers threatening to disrupt operations of the power generating company, KenGen.
Speaking in his office on last week, Nakuru deputy county commissioner Kisilu Mutua said the government was privy to information about impending demonstrations against KenGen.
Some members of the communities in Naivasha sub county have been accusing the company of sidelining them during recruitment and awarding of tenders.
The locals had also complained of unfair playing ground, saying people outside the sub county were being given preference.
Last year a Nakuru businessman Steve Kariuki has threatened to sue the company over unfairness in awarding tenders arguing that the procurement process was flawed.
Sources talking to Kenya Insights on the lamentations of the locals say they’re basically blackmailing the company as most lack the technical know how to work in the company. The bad blood has extended to politicians whore said to be inviting the community to revolt against the company. They argue that they should be given first priority in recruitment instead of the company importing people from outside. We’ve also been notified that this is not the first time the threats of raiding the company has come but more often KenGen gives in to the demands by silencing the noises in the Kenyan way.
KenGen net profit for the half-year period ended December 2020 fell 38.13 percent on the back of lower earnings from thermal power generation and absence of tax savings.
KenGen, which is 70 percent owned by the State, announced on Thursday profit dropped to Sh5.06 billion from Sh8.17 billion a year earlier.
On the other hand, Kenya Power the biggest buyer of electricity from KenGen reported a drop of 80.06 percent in profit for the same period to Sh138 million, citing depressed demand for power amid Covid-19 knocks on economic activity.
KenGen, on the other hand, said profits were hurt after cash reimbursed from expenses arising from fuel and water costs fell 64.2 percent to Sh1.23 billion. The fall was largely as a result of continued displacement of thermal power by increased generation of geothermal and hydro-electric electricity.
Imagine placing a bet and receiving a confirmation message that you have won the bet but the betting firm refuses to pay you! This was the predicament in which Timothy Muchina, an avid punter, found himself in when a betting company delayed for two and half years to pay his winning prize.
According to Muchina, he placed a winning bet on the ‘sababisha daily jackpot with Betika’ on 8th July 2019 and the bet was successful for a winning prize of Kshs 50,000. However, he did not receive his betting prize by the following day as per the regulations of the firm and despite making numerous calls to the customer care and follow up; the money was not hitting his account.
The continuous unresponsiveness by the betting firm pushed Muchina to lodge a complaint with the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB)–the body mandated to regulate and control betting, lotteries and gamming in the country–but the board failed to investigate the matter prompting him to seek the intervention of the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Commission by a way of inquiry took up the matter with the Chairman of the BCLB leading to the payment of the winning reward to Mr. Muchina by Betika on 28th January 2021.
A professional photographer was finally paid Kshs. 2.2million owed to him by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company(KENGEN)for photography services following the intervention of the Commission in a case of inordinate delay.
According to Mr. Joshua Onyancha, he was a contracted photographer for KENGEN-since 2013 and was attached to the Human Resource- Training School, Safety and Liaison Departments in Olkaria Geothermal Power Station. He was in charge of photography during the staff training programs, team building, community meetings and other company events.
The company was making prompt payment for the services until 2015 when the company began delaying in settling outstanding payments. However, since he had a contract with the company he continued offering his services with the hope that he will be paid until April 2017 when he finally stopped when no money was hitting his account.
Efforts to have the company pay the outstanding amount owed were futile a matter which subjected him to hard economic times. “I am facing economic hardship as a result of the inordinate delay by the company to settle my dues, my children are out of school due to lack of fees and my business has closed down,” said Mr. Onyancha when he filed a complaint with the Office of Ombudsman.
The Commission by a way of inquiry took up the issue with the KENGEN’s Geothermal Development Director who informed the Commission that they had not completed the documentation and therefore, invited Mr. Onyancha to furnish them with the pending documents to facilitate payment. The Geothermal Development Director, in a letter to the Commission, confirmed that the company made the payment in full after verification of the documents.
Mr. Onyancha in an email to the Commission confirmed receipt of the payment.
“I am happy to report that the pending payment from KENGEN has been effected. I was paid Kshs 2.2 million in two instalments, the first in December 2020 and the second on 28th January 2021. I also want to thank the Commission for the good work you are doing,” read the email.
Despite public denials, well-known citizenship broker Henley & Partners helped disgraced financier Jho Low, who stands accused of stealing billions from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, obtain a passport from Cyprus.
Jho Taek Low had billions of dollars, but he was running out of places to put them.
By 2015, the Malaysian financier had become the face of the now-infamous 1MDB embezzlement scandal. His theft of billions from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund had been widely reported. So had the trail of splashy purchases he made around the world: a transparent grand piano for supermodel Miranda Kerr, a New York City penthouse once owned by Jay-Z, a $6-million emerald green soup can painted by Andy Warhol, an entire hotel in Beverly Hills.
Banks were increasingly wary of him. So were governments. He was under investigation by law enforcement in Singapore and Switzerland. U.S. authorities were closing in, too. He needed a safe refuge for both himself and his money.
To solve these problems, Low turned to the sunny eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where, with a view to establishing a new financial foothold, he purchased citizenship in 2015 under the country’s controversial “golden passport” scheme.
Technically known as Citizenship By Investment, the program was meant to attract wealthy foreigners seeking European Union passports. But in the eyes of critics, its main effect was to make Cyprus a go-to destination for kleptocrats and criminals who want to pay their way into the bloc. It also proved lucrative for a small army of lawyers and financial service providers who greased the wheels.
The program was ditched last October after a damning investigation by Al Jazeera exposed local politicians offering to help a fictitious Chinese criminal get citizenship. The circumstances under which Low received his golden passport are under scrutiny by Cypriot authorities.
Now, an investigation by OCCRP and the Sarawak Report can reveal previously undisclosed details about how Low obtained Cypriot citizenship — and who helped him do it.
Though his connection to one of the world’s biggest thefts of public funds had already been widely exposed, he was able to hire London-based Henley & Partners, perhaps the world’s best-known passport brokerage firm, to provide him with citizenship services.
The company has repeatedly denied helping Low, while blaming local employees for any mistakes that were made. But invoices and other documents obtained by OCCRP show that Henley pocketed at least 710,000 euros for services it provided to him. The bulk of its earnings came from a 650,000-euro commission Low paid for his purchase of a luxury seaside villa.
Acquiring local real estate worth at least half a million euros was a requirement of the Cypriot visa program. This provided opportunities for citizenship firms like Henley to pad their earnings by serving the additional role of a real estate broker.
“In any major scandal there’s always a multitude of enablers that allow the movement of the money, and in doing so they allow the fraud to continue,” said Debra LaPrevotte, a former FBI special agent who was involved in the initial stages of the 1MDB investigation.
“Every single one of those people has some type of due diligence responsibility. Yet they ignore it, and by enabling the movement of this money they don’t see the secondary effect of this, that the billions that left Malaysia should have been helping the people of Malaysia.”
?A “Staggering” Amount of Stolen Money
In July 2016, the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint alleging that over $3.5 billion had been misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a fund created by the government of Malaysia to promote economic development, between 2009 and 2015. (That figure would later be revised upwards to $4.5 billion.) The money was stolen by high-level fund officials and their associates, then laundered through a series of complex transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the United States.
The complaint named Low as the mastermind behind the theft. He was accused of laundering more than $400 million that had been diverted from the fund. Much of it ended up in the U.S. in the form of luxury real estate, jewelry, and iconic artworks, including a Monet and a Van Gogh. Stolen 1MDB money was also spent on gifts for some of Low’s famous friends, including Leonardo DiCaprio — who received the Oscar statuette Marlon Brando had won for “On The Waterfront.” Some of the money was also allegedly used to fund the production of “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Low has denied any wrongdoing in the 1MDB affair, insisting he was just an intermediary and that the charges against him are politically motivated. His whereabouts are unknown, and two law firms representing him in the U.S. and U.K. did not respond to requests for comment.
Serving the Global Elite
In the world of citizenship for sale, service providers are key. These companies identify target nations, manage the required investments, and do everything else needed to help the world’s wealthiest people become “global citizens,” as their marketing language tends to phrase it.
And there is no service provider more sought after than Henley & Partners, a London-based consultancy that bills itself as “the global leader in residence and citizenship planning.”
While Henley boasts of its exclusive client list and high-level connections, it has emphatically denied any connection with Low. In November 2019, the company released a statement rejecting media reports that it had helped the Malaysian fugitive.
But documents obtained by OCCRP indicate that Henley did, in fact, play a role in brokering Low’s Cypriot citizenship –– and that it received a hefty commission for its services.
Low signed a contract with Henley on May 7, 2015, according to a copy of the document obtained by OCCRP. By that time, he was already emerging in the public eye as a key player in the 1MDB saga.
Less than four months later, he had a Cypriot passport in his hands after purchasing a 5-million-euro beachfront villa from a real estate firm partnered with Henley.
In a series of emails, Henley & Partners told OCCRP that it had rejected Low as a client “due to the contents of an external due diligence report that made it clear that he was a second-generation PEP [politically exposed person].”
“To be very clear, Jho Low was never a client of Henley & Partners,” the firm said in a three-page statement. “Henley & Partners was not mandated by Jho Low.”
The company continued to deny any relationship even after being presented with documentary evidence. “We can however understand a level of confusion from outside observers as to the nature of the relationship,” a spokesperson wrote.
Henley & Partners said that after rejecting Low, it referred him to FidesCorp Services Limited, a Cyprus-based accounting firm that also provides citizenship services. Henley & Partners wrote that it had “no interest” in FidesCorp and had an “ad hoc relationship” with the company, which it said provided “complementary and non-competitive services to a similar client base.”
In fact, the two companies have worked closely together for years, with the head of FidesCorp even helping Henley set up its Cyprus office.
Leaked emails and financial documents obtained by OCCRP indicate that FidesCorp played a role in arranging Low’s Cypriot affairs, but that the relationship with Low was initiated and led by Henley & Partners.
In this way, Henley appears to have used FidesCorp as a shield to avoid scrutiny over its relationship with Low, even as it earned hundreds of thousands of euros on commissions related to his purchase of a Cypriot passport, the documents show.
They also show that Henley & Partners worked with Low until at least late November 2016, by which time his close ties to the 1MDB fraud were widely known.
?Due Diligence Done?
Service providers such as Henley & Partners have a legal obligation to look into their clients’ backgrounds to make sure they are not facilitating money laundering.
If a client appears to be a PEP, or politically exposed person, they are supposed to be examined with even more scrutiny, since they’re at higher risk of being involved in corruption. The rules also apply to real estate agents.
In Low’s case, it would not have taken long to uncover troubling information about his wealth.
“As of February 2015 there was publicly available information and media articles connecting Jho Low with the 1MDB scandal,” LaPrevotte, the former FBI agent, told OCCRP. “Anybody doing any due diligence should have seen them.”
Henley & Partners did see them. The contract it signed with Low contains an attached profile from World-Check, a commercial database of high-risk individuals. The profile correctly identifies Low as a PEP for being a “close associate” of Najib Razak, Malaysia’s prime minister at the time, who has since been sentenced to jail for sending 1MDB funds to his personal bank accounts.
In the document, Low is described as the Chief Executive Officer of Jynwel Capital Limited, the Hong Kong financial services firm the U.S. Department of Justice says funneled money stolen from 1MDB.
One lengthy New York Times investigation cited in the profile detailed extensive concerns about Low’s lavish spending and opaque real estate deals, given his close ties to Razak.
“Speculation is brewing over where Low is getting his money from,” it quoted another news outlet as saying.
Maira Martini, a policy expert at Transparency International, said that if Henley saw Low as too high-risk for its citizenship brokering business, it should have avoided working on his behalf as a real estate broker, too.
“Did they also take into account the level of risk when supporting him to find a property in Cyprus?” she asked.
Leaked emails obtained by OCCRP show the company’s own employees actively working to help Low obtain citizenship.
In order to qualify, Low chose to pay a local developer $5 million euros to build him a villa on a prime plot of beachfront land in Ayia Napa, an eastern Cyprus resort town whose white-sand beaches and turquoise waters made it a prime destination for investors seeking passports.
In an email to Low on June 21, 2015, Yiannos Trisokkas, at the time Henley & Partners’ managing partner in Cyprus and chairman of the firm’s real estate committee, outlined the next steps.
“We have already instructed our exclusive local service provider and the companies are ready with the nominee services included as well,” he wrote. “Once the contract of sale is signed for the villa between the seller and the buyer (your company), then the nominee will be signing further to your written instructions.”
Trisokkas instructed Low to transfer 5,960,000 euros for the house to an escrow account in Cyprus that had been set up for him by FidesCorp on instructions by Henley & Partners.
That amount, he noted, did not include what Low would need to pay for “anything related to your citizenship application.” He asked Jennifer Lai, Henley’s head of business at the time, whether she had invoiced Low for the application.
The next day, on June 22, FidesCorp invoiced Low 80,000 euros for “our fees and expenses in relation to professional services rendered.” Out of this sum, 60,000 euros were then sent to Henley — a payment the company described as a referral fee.
“Due to long standing contracts that were then in place, but are now amended, H&P was in the position to invoice Fidescorp for commission payment for the referral,” the company said.
Invoices issued by two of Henley’s subsidiaries, Henley & Partners Cyprus Limited and Henley & Partners Hong Kong Limited, to FidesCorp Limited. They show that, out of the 80,000-euro citizenship fee paid by Jho Low, Henley’s share was 60,000 euros.
Three days after Trisokkas’s June email, 5,960,000 euros were transferred from Low’s personal account at the Abu Dhabi State Fund-owned Falcon Private Bank to the client escrow account at Bank of Cyprus set up by FidesCorp, according to a report drafted by a Cypriot government investigative committee.
According to the report, Deutsche Bank acted as a correspondent bank in the transaction. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson said that “for legal reasons we cannot provide any information on potential or existing client relationships.” The Bank of Cyprus did not respond to a request for comment.
Henley’s assistance to Low did not stop there. Leaked emails show that in late November 2016, Low changed his mind about the purchase. He emailed Trisokkas to say he wanted to build his house on a larger plot than the one he initially acquired.
Trisokkas swiftly replied, offering a bigger beachfront plot in the same area that would have “more privacy,” before agreeing to scrap the old contract and sign a new one “under the same terms and conditions.” A new purchase agreement was signed seven months later, in June 2017.
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“We remain entirely certain that this firm did nothing wrong,” Henley wrote in a statement to OCCRP, underlining the words for emphasis.
However, it admitted, “It may be that some individual staff members involved at the time did not act as one team or failed to adhere to the new procedures or did not exercise a sufficient level of judgment as to their interaction with real estate partners.”
The firm added that “all possibly involved and responsible persons are no longer with the firm today,” including Jennifer Lai and Yiannos Trisokkas.
“Henley and Partners in 2021 is not the Henley [and] Partners of 2010, or of 2015-17,” the company said. “There has been a series of significant changes both in terms of senior management and in terms of governance, structure and processes.”
Indeed, according to her LinkedIn profile, Lai left the company in September 2020, after spending nearly five years as a managing partner.
However, as of mid-January 2021, Trisokkas was still a director of Henley & Partners Cyprus Limited, according to corporate documents. His profile was removed from Henley’s website in early January, shortly after OCCRP sent Henley an email inquiring about its role in brokering Low’s citizenship.
FidesCorp declined to comment, citing client confidentiality. “In light of the fact that an investigation is currently in progress by the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus, we are obliged to refrain from making any statements,” the firm added.
A Mysterious Intermediary
The bulk of Henley & Partners’ earnings from Low came not from the “citizenship fee” he paid, but from a large commission a Henley subsidiary charged him on his purchase of the waterfront property.
This commission — 650,000 euros, or an unusually high 13 percent of the property’s sales price — was paid to Henley Estates Limited, a Maltese company that had been set up in 2010 by Andrew Taylor, a broker who worked with Henley on real estate deals for citizenship services. He was later hired, and by 2015 the company had been fully integrated into Henley & Partners.
On his LinkedIn page, Taylor listed himself as Henley & Partners’ vice-chairman until early January, when he removed the title shortly after OCCRP submitted questions to Henley & Partners about the Low deal.
Henley & Partners told OCCRP that because Henley Estates had started out as an independent company set up by Taylor, it had retained some of its old contacts and business practices. Henley Estates sometimes received payments for its work brokering property deals for local developers, but had never been paid by Low, the company said.
“Any engagement between Jho Low and H&P staff, if any, was a result of Henley’s long-standing position as an agent of multiple real estate developers,” the company wrote.
“At no point did any person or entity within the H&P Group structure, including Henley Estates, ever contract or receive income directly from Jho Low. They contracted and received income from long standing corporate and real estate partners.”
However, OCCRP has found that this is incorrect. According to a transfer receipt obtained by reporters, Low himself paid the 650,000-euro fee directly to Henley Estates, from the account in Cyprus set up for him by FidesCorp.
The deal was shrouded in secrecy and conducted with the help of multiple shell companies and nominee service providers — firms that offer “nominees” to act on behalf of other companies, to keep their true owners hidden.
Credit: SkyPrime Screenshots from a SkyPrime promotional video for prospective buyers of second homes in Cyprus.
In short, the villa was sold by SkyPrime, a local real-estate developer with high-level connections, and a longtime partner of Henley in Cyprus. It advertises itself as catering to “high net worth individuals.”
However, parts of the transaction were processed through a shell company called Donnica Management Limited, which has no website or public presence and was registered in May 2015, the same month Low inked his contract with Henley. The company appears to have been set up for the sole purpose of facilitating the deal — and obscuring any connection to Low. It was Donnica, not SkyPrime, that received Low’s payment for the villa. And it was Donnica, not Low, that was invoiced by Henley & Partners for its commission fee.
Donnica and SkyPrime appear to be connected, since they have the same address, directors, and ultimate shareholder. But both companies have hidden their true owners behind a nominee service provider.
Nominees fill corporate posts to keep the true owners of companies secret. In this case, the nominee service provider concealing the owners of both Donnica and SkyPrime was run by a partner in the Cypriot law firm Tsitsios & Associates.
The law firm declined to comment on the Low case, but it has worked with Henley before, according to this internet post written by one of its associates, which boasts of the companies’ “long-standing synergy.”
A glowing online review written by an associate from Tsitsios & Associates, explaining that the two firms frequently worked together.
When confronted with evidence that it had received a large payment from Low, Henley maintained it had done nothing wrong, but conceded that the real estate transaction was “an example from which Henley & Partners should and did learn.”
Maira Martini, a policy expert on corrupt money flows at Transparency International, questioned the ethics of rejecting Low as a client, then profiting from selling him real estate.
“As a PEP and high-risk client, according to H&P’s own assessment, they should have undertaken enhanced due diligence and reported any suspicious transactions to authorities,” she said.
“Instead of that, they [not only] decided to refer the client to another firm in exchange for a fat commission for the citizenship application, but seem to have continued behind the scenes to assist Low to find a real estate property in Cyprus — for an even fatter commission.”
A 1MDB Enclave in Cyprus?
Low wasn’t the only person involved in the 1MDB scandal who was seeking E.U. citizenship. OCCRP has found that around the same time he applied for Cypriot citizenship, one of his closest 1MDB associates did too. His brother, who helped him funnel millions of dollars out of Malaysia, then applied in September 2015, as did another close aide. All three listed Cyprus addresses in the same area as Low’s villa.
?
Low’s brother and two associates who applied for Cypriot citizenship are all accused by the U.S. Justice Department of abetting his theft of Malaysian government funds.
They are:
Low Taek Szen — Low’s older brother and managing director of Jynwel Capital, his Hong-Kong-based financial vehicle. According to the U.S. Justice Department, he was the owner of a BSI Bank account in Singapore that was used to move millions of dollars.
Loo Ai Swan (a.k.a. Jasmine Ai Swan) — a Malaysian national who served as 1MDB’s general counsel in 2012 and 2013. She was identified by the U.S. Justice Department as the main point of contact between 1MDB and Goldman Sachs, which helped raise billions of dollars for the Malaysian fund. (Goldman admitted last year that its Malaysian office had ignored red flags and paid bribes to officials there).
Tan Kim Loong (aka Eric Tan) — reportedly one of Low’s closest aides. According to the U.S. Justice Department, he controlled the Singapore bank account through which part of the stolen funds was laundered.
Loo Ai Swan and Tan Kim Loong were named as key figures in the 2016 U.S. civil lawsuit seeking to reclaim assets bought with stolen 1MDB money. In December 2018, a Malaysian court reportedly issued warrants for their arrest. Their whereabouts are unknown.
Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told OCCRP that none of the three was granted citizenship. He declined to comment on their property acquisitions, citing the ongoing investigation into Low’s citizenship.
?Would You Like to Buy a Bank?
Perhaps anticipating that he would soon lose access to the global banking system, Low turned to FidesCorp again in 2016 — this time to try to buy a bank of his own in his new country.
Documents obtained by the Sarawak Report and shared with OCCRP show that Low tried to purchase the Cypriot Development Bank, a small lender that would later be fined for violating anti-money laundering regulations.
Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah, a member of Kuwait’s royal family who had become one of Low’s favorite fixers, embarked on negotiations to buy the bank on his behalf in June 2016, with FidesCorp as a broker.
In a letter, Sheikh Sabah mandated FidesCorp to negotiate “the acquisition of no less than 51% and up to 100% of the share capital of Cyprus Development Bank for the maximum bid amount of 80 million euros for 100% stake.” The document went on to say that this “be done in coordination with my advisors such as Mr Bashar Kiwan, Mr Low Taek Jho or Mr Hamad Al-Wazzan.”
According to people familiar with the events who spoke to OCCRP on condition of anonymity, when FidesCorp asked Sheikh Sabah to transfer the money for the purchase, he suddenly disappeared.
The reasons for this lack of follow-through are unknown. Perhaps another solution had been found: Later that summer, Sheikh Sabah was reportedly helping Low open offshore accounts at his own small bank in the Comoro Islands. Cyprus Development Bank told OCCRP that it had never received the proposal from Low and had no relationship with him.
By 2019, Low was one of the most famous fugitives in the world. But this didn’t prevent his Cypriot service providers from lending a helping hand yet again.
That May, his girlfriend, Jesselynn Chuan Teik Ying, applied for a Cypriot passport, with FidesCorp acting as her agent.
Ying was not as lucky as Low. By the time she applied, her boyfriend’s citizenship application had become public knowledge, sparking widespread anger and prompting the government to launch an investigation into how a man accused of stealing billions had bought his way into Cyprus.
Her application was withdrawn around the same time the scandal broke.
In October 2019, Low struck a 700-million-dollar deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. He agreed to forfeit assets including high-end real estate in the U.S. and the U.K., and return tens of millions of dollars in investments he had allegedly made with funds misappropriated from the 1MDB.
His whereabouts, as well as those of Low Taek Szen, Loo Ai Swan, Tan Kim Loong, and Jesselynn Chuan Teik Ying, remain unknown. The government of Cyprus announced in October that it would begin the process of revoking Low’s passport, but at the moment his citizenship status is unclear.
