Town Hall News

By Chris Prentice and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged crypto firm Beaxy.com and several executives for registration failures on Wednesday, expanding regulators’ push to rein in the industry. The SEC accused a Chicago-based firm behind Beaxy and some affiliates of serving in various roles such as an exchange, broker and clearing agency without registering with the SEC. That structure, which is common […]

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Energy drinks maker Monster Beverage Corp’s Monster Energy has accused Red Bull of targeting it with anti-competitive practices after Red Bull was raided by European Union antitrust regulators last week. The European Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer in the 27-country bloc, said last week it had raided an energy drinks company on suspicion of taking part in a cartel and also […]

By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) – A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday refused to transfer to another court a lawsuit by Republican states challenging a Biden administration rule allowing socially conscious investing by retirement plans, rejecting claims of “judge shopping.” U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, said the Biden administration had provided no evidence that the litigation did not belong in his court or that plaintiffs were attempting […]

By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON (Reuters) – Investors withdrew $1.6 billion of cryptocurrency from crypto exchange Binance since it was sued by the U.S. CFTC on Monday, blockchain data tracker Nansen said on Wednesday. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance – the world’s biggest crypto exchange – along with its CEO and former top compliance executive, alleging that they were operating an “illegal” exchange and a “sham” compliance […]

By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fidelity National Financial Inc will pay $3.5 million to settle New York Attorney General Letitia James’ claims that the largest U.S. title insurer illegally conspired with rivals not to solicit each other’s employees. Under an agreement made public on Wednesday, Fidelity also agreed to end all “no-poach” agreements within 30 days, and cooperate with James’ probe into the title insurance industry. James said […]

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A majority of the U.S. Senate backed legislation on Wednesday to repeal two decades-old authorizations for past wars in Iraq, as Congress pushes to reassert its role over deciding whether to send troops into combat. The Senate voted 66-30 in favor of legislation to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, or AUMFs, well above the 51 vote majority […]

By Angus Berwick and Chris Prentice (Reuters) – A former chief executive of Binance’s de-facto U.S. subsidiary has enlisted a former federal prosecutor and top cop at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to represent her in the U.S. government’s investigations into the giant cryptocurrency exchange, a person with direct knowledge told Reuters. Catherine Coley, who launched Binance.US in 2019 and left suddenly two years later, is being advised by James […]

(Reuters) – Britain said it would investigate Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware in depth after the U.S. chipmaker offered no immediate undertakings in response to its concerns about the impact of the $61 billion deal on the server market. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said earlier this month that Broadcom’s acquisition of the cloud computing and virtualisation company could drive up the cost of computer parts and software for servers. It […]

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romania’s Senate approved a bill on Wednesday decriminalising some abuse of power cases in a move reminiscent of attempts to weaken the fight against corruption which triggered major street protests six years ago. Romania is one of the European Union’s most corrupt states, according to Transparency International, and Brussels kept its justice system under special monitoring since it joined the EU in 2007. The Commission recommended lifting […]