List of All Articles with Tag 'america'

SAO PAULO Brazilian retailer Americanas SA, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after an accounting scandal, said

(Reuters) -British American Tobacco appointed finance director Tadeu Marroco as CEO on Monday, succeeding Jack Bowles who is stepping down

U.S. Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican infamous for fabricating his life story, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he duped donors, stole from his campaign and lied to Congress about being a millionaire, all while cheating to collect unemployment benefits he didn't deserve. Afterward, he said wouldn't drop his reelection bid, defying calls to resign. Santos' 13-count federal indictment was a reckoning for a web of fraud and deceit that prosecutors say overlapped with his fantastical public image as a wealthy businessman — a fictional biography that began to unravel after he won election last fall. Santos, 34, was released on $500,000 bond following his arraignment, about five hours after turning himself in to authorities on Long Island to face charges of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements to Congress. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. “This is the beginning of the ability for me to address and defend myself,” Santos told reporters afterward, vowing to clear his name and calling his prosecution a “witch hunt.” Santos had said little during his arraignment, which lasted about 15 minutes. His lawyer, Joseph Murray, asked the judge for permission for Santos to travel freely for his campaign, though he did surrender his passport. Santos said he was returning to Washington for votes Thursday. Among the allegations, prosecutors say Santos induced supporters to donate to a company under the false pretense that the money would be used to support his campaign. Instead, they say, he used the money for personal expenses, including designer clothes and his credit card and car payments. Santos also is accused of lying about his finances on congressional disclosure forms and applying for and receiving unemployment benefits while he was employed as regional director of an investment firm that the government shut down in 2021 over allegations that it was a Ponzi scheme. The indictment “seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself." Reached by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Santos said he was unaware of the charges. Santos has defied calls to resign — some from fellow Republicans — as details of his fictitious resume came to light, though he did decline his committee assignments. He has given no indication that he plans to step aside because of his indictment. In the past, members of Congress in both parties have remained in office while facing charges. Santos, 34, was elected to Congress last fall after a campaign built partly on falsehoods. He told people he was a wealthy Wall Street dealmaker with a substantial real estate portfolio who had been a star volleyball player in college, among other things. In reality, Santos didn't work at the big financial firms he claimed had employed him, didn't go to college and struggled financially before his run for public office. He claimed he fueled his run largely with self-made riches, earned from brokering deals on expensive toys for wealthy clients, but the indictment alleges those boasts were also exaggerated. In regulatory filings, Santos claimed he loaned his campaign and related political action committees more than $750,000, but it was unclear how he would have come into that kind of wealth so quickly after years in which he struggled to pay his rent and faced multiple eviction proceedings. In a financial disclosure form, Santos reported making $750,000 a year from a family company, the Devolder Organization, but the charges unsealed Wednesday allege that Santos never received that sum, nor the $1 million and $5 million in dividends he listed as coming from the firm. Santos has described the Devolder Organization as a broker for sales of luxury items like yachts and aircraft. The business was incorporated in Florida shortly after Santos stopped working as a salesman for Harbor City Capital, the company accused by federal authorities of operating an illegal Ponzi scheme. In November 2021, Santos formed Redstone Strategies, a Florida company that federal prosecutors say he used to dupe donors into financing his lifestyle. According to the indictment, Santos told an associate to solicit contributions to the company and gave the person contact information for potential donors. Emails to prospective donors falsely claimed that the company was formed “exclusively” to aid Santos’ election bid and that there would be no limits on how much they could contribute, the indictment said. Santos falsely claimed that the money would be spent on television ads and other campaign expenses, it said. Last October, a month before his election, Santos transferred about $74,000 from company coffers to bank accounts he maintained, the indictment said. He also transferred money to some of his associates, it said. Many of Santos' fellow New York Republicans called on him to resign after his fabricated life story was revealed. Some renewed those calls after news of his indictment. "Sooner or later, whether he chooses to or not, both the truth and justice will be delivered to him,” said U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, a Republican representing parts of upstate New York. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican who confronted Santos at President Joe Biden's State of the Union address in February, said Santos should have resigned a long time ago. “I think we’re seeing that the wheels of justice grind slow, but they grind fine,” Romney said. House Republican leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise were more circumspect, saying Santos deserved a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Santos has faced criminal investigations before. When he was 19, he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Brazil over allegations he used stolen checks to buy items at a clothing shop. Brazilian authorities said they have reopened the case. In 2017, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after authorities said he used thousands of dollars in fraudulent checks to buy puppies from dog breeders. That case was dismissed after Santos claimed his checkbook had been stolen, and that someone else had taken the dogs. Federal authorities have separately been looking into complaints about Santos' work raising money for a group that purported to help neglected and abused pets. One New Jersey veteran accused Santos of failing to deliver $3,000 he had raised to help his pet dog get a needed surgery. ___ Farnoush Amiri in Washington and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report. ___ On Twitter, follow Jake Offenhartz at twitter.com/jangelooff and Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/ ___ Follow the AP's coverage of U.S. Rep. George Santos at https://apnews.com/hub/george-santos. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Kevin McCarthy says he won’t support George Santos’s re-election bid after all The 13 counts New York representative George Santos faces McCarthy says he will not back George Santos re-election bid after arrest – live

George Santos described criminal charges against him as a “witch hunt” in a defiant press conference following his arrest on Wednesday. The New York congressman spoke outside a federal courthouse after being arraigned on charges of fraud, theft of public funds and money laundering. “It’s a witch hunt,” he told a crowd of reporters. “I’m gonna fight my battle, I’m gonna deliver, I’m gonna fight the witch hunt, I’m gonna take care of clearing my name,” he said, adding that he was planning to run for reelection. The 34-year-old congressman for New York’s third district, who won his election after a campaign that was littered with lies about his past, was arrested shortly after 9am after turning himself in to authorities. In the 13-count indictment, federal prosecutors accused Mr Santos of lying on financial disclosure forms he filed to the House when he became a candidate, first by overstating his income from one job and failing to disclose income from another, and secondly by lying about his earnings from his company, the Devolder Organization. Prosecutors also allege that Mr Santos fraudulently used donations to his political campaign for his own benefit, spending “thousands of dollars of the solicited funds on personal expenses, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments.” The indictment alleges that Mr Santos’s fraud began before his successful run for Congress, accusing him of running an unemployment insurance fraud scheme in which he applied for government assistance in New York while still employed by a Florida-based investment firm. “Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. Mr Santos pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a $500,000 bond following his arraignment, which lasted for around 15 minutes. His lawyer said that the congressman surrendered his passport to the court. Mr Santos could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Read More Here are the 13 counts New York Rep. George Santos faces George Santos pleads not guilty to duping donors, stealing campaign cash to burnish wealthy image George Santos pleads not guilty to 13 charges – live

George Santos has been arrested after surrendering himself to authorities at a federal court on Long Island on Wednesday morning. The congressman for New York’s third district, who won his election after a campaign that was littered with lies about his past, was arrested shortly after 9am. He slipped past dozens of reporters to enter via a backdoor of the building. The indictment, which was unsealed on Wednesday, alleges a series of fraudulent schemes over several years. Mr Santos has been charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. “Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” Breon Peace, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. The arrest represents a rapid rise and fall for a man his own constituents decried as an “imposter,” but whom national Republicans utilised in order to bolster their narrow majority in the House. In the 13-count indictment, federal prosecutors accused Mr Santos of lying on financial disclosure forms he filed to the House when he became a candidate, first by overstating his income from one job and failing to disclose income from another, and secondly by lying about his earnings from his company, the Devolder Organization. Prosecutors also allege that Mr Santos fraudulently used donations to his political campaign for his own benefit, spending “thousands of dollars of the solicited funds on personal expenses, including luxury designer clothing and credit card payments.” The indictment alleges that Mr Santos’s fraud began before his successful run for Congress, accusing him of running an unemployment insurance fraud scheme in which he applied for government assistance in New York while still employed by a Florida-based investment firm. The sweeping charges follow a steady drumbeat of revelations about Mr Santos in the press dating back to his campaign. Mr Santos was elected to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District in November 2022, defeating Democrat Robert Zimmerman by a margin of 54 per cent to 46 per cent. Soon after that victory, it emerged that Mr Santos had lied about much of his personal history and work experience. A New York Times investigation found that he had lied about working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, lied about the college he attended, fabricated an animal charity, that the company from which he had earned a salary of $750,000 and dividends of $1m did not have any online presence, lied about saying he lost four employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, and that he faced criminal charges in Brazil for cheque fraud. The revelations set off a firestorm in his district. A local pressure group started by local citizens was formed with the aim of forcing Mr Santos from office. Concerned Citizens of NY03 held regular protests outside his campaign office and called on Republican leaders to expel him from Congress. But Republican House majority leader Kevin McCarthy — the person with the power to call the vote — refused to do so, instead leaving his fate to the House Ethics Committee. Reacting to news that charges were imminent on Tuesday, Mr McCarthy signalled that Mr Santos would be allowed to continue serving in Congress. “I’ll look at the charges,” he told reporters. “If a person is indicted, they’re not on committees. They have the right to vote, but they have to go to trial.” On Wednesday, Concerned Citizens of NY03 renewed their call for Mr McCarthy to expel Mr Santos. “The world has known for months that Santos is a liar, an imposter, a criminal. The only thing we didn’t know was which of his many crimes would be prosecuted first. It’s beyond time for Speaker Kevin McCarthy to withdraw his support for Santos and show him the door,” the group said in a statement. Since Mr Santos was sworn into office in January, revelations about his past have continued to emerge. The most recent report found that Mr Santos was charged with writing bad checks to purchase puppies from Amish farmers in 2017. That case was dismissed after Mr Santos claimed his checkbook had been stolen, and that someone else had taken the dogs. Mr Santos, 34, has apologised for what he described as “résumé embellishment,” but has refused to resign. Read More George Santos: Every lie disgraced Republican Congressman has been accused of making In George Santos’s district, setting of The Great Gatsby, cries of ‘imposter’ abound From resume lies to criminal charges: A timeline of George Santos’ many scandals Can George Santos still serve in Congress even if he is convicted? Kevin McCarthy dodges questions about George Santos and Donald Trump

North American travelers are unhappy with high ticket prices, staffing shortages and reduced routes, according to consumer research company J.D. Power's 2023 North American Airline Satisfaction Study.

LONDON Bank of America has hired former BNP Paribas banker Benoit Nevouet to be the manager of a

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday’s meeting between him, other Congressional leaders and President Joe Biden had produced no forward progress on an agreement to stave off what economists say would be a catastrophic default on America’s sovereign debt. Mr McCarty, who has kept the House in recess for the last two weeks and for a majority of the days since he and Mr Biden last met on 1 February, told reporters outside the White House that Mr Biden and both Republican and Democratic leaders had merely reiterated the positions they held when the House Speaker and the President met 97 days before. “Nothing has changed since then ... everybody in this meeting reiterated the positions they were at. I didn't see any new movement,” he said. The California Republican’s last meeting came just a few weeks after he eked out enough votes to claim the Speaker’s gavel with support from extremist and white nationalist members of the House Republican Conference, many of whom demanded that he use the need to lift the government’s century-old statutory debt ceiling as leverage to force Mr Biden to roll back much of the legislative record he and Democrats accomplished over the prior two years. Since that February meeting, the White House and the House of Representatives have remained far apart on what is needed before legislation allowing the US to resume issuing new debt instruments can reach Mr Biden’s desk for his signature. For his part, the president’s view has remained consistent since the beginning of the year. Mr Biden has repeatedly said that Congress should pass a “clean” debt ceiling increase and negotiate on spending cuts desired for next fiscal year when Congress begins work on a budget. Mr McCarthy characterised Mr Biden’s insistence that the Congress lift the debt ceiling on its’ own and address the spending cuts Republicans covet during the regular budgeting process as intransigent even though Republicans have not introduced a budget proposal for the next fiscal year. He also accused Senate Majority Leader Check Schumer of trying to stymie negotiations so Congress would be left without a choice but to pass the “clean” debt ceiling increase desired by Democrats and Mr Biden. “Chuck's whole idea before was to take us to the brink and someone's going to have to break right. I don't want to play politics with this. I think this is too important,” said the Speaker, who suggested the only reason Mr Biden had called a meeting was because the GOP-led House had passed a bill to raise the debt limit while enacting drastic cuts to government programmes favoured by Democrats. That legislation, which passed the House with a bare majority of GOP votes last month, would provide just a year’s worth of relief coupled with spending provisions that slash non-defence spending by as much as 20 per cent. Among the programmes on the chopping block: President Joe Biden’s student debt relief initiative, as well as funding for new IRS personnel. The plan would also add new work requirements for adults on Medicaid, cap the growth of the federal government, and impose 2022 limits on discretionary spending. The White House said in response to the bill’s passage that Republicans were attempting to “strip away health care services for veterans, cut access to Meals on Wheels, eliminate health care coverage for millions of Americans and ship manufacturing jobs overseas”. While the House-passed bill is unlikely to go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate, thus far Mr McConnell and Senate Republicans have backed up Mr McCarthy’s demand for Mr Biden to sign off on GOP-endorsed austerity measures in exchange for Republican votes to allow the US to continue paying its’ debts. Prominent GOP figures frequently claim that raising the statutory debt limit to enable the US to continue meeting financial obligations — a practice that was once routine under presidents of both parties and met no objections when it was done under Mr Biden’s predecessor — is akin to authorising new spending. That claim, however, is not how the debt limit works. Raising the debt limit does not increase or decrease the amount of money that is spent on programmes that have already been authorised by Congress and have had funds allocated to them in appropriations legislation. Experts say a failure to raise the debt limit would force the government to default on its debt and precipitate a worldwide financial crisis. The last time the US flirted with that disastrous outcome was 2011, when Republicans controlled the House and Democrats controlled the Senate and the White House. Mr Biden, then the vice president under Barack Obama, led the negotiations with congressional leaders that headed off a default, but not before the US had its credit rating decreased for the first time in history. That 2011 dispute ended with Republicans suffering a drop in their approval ratings and facing accusations of endangering the US economy for political reasons. It also came along with an unprecedented downgrade in America’s credit rating. Those same charges are being raised again now by the White House and the president’s allies in Congress, who are holding firm on Mr Biden’s call for a clean debt limit boost. Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that unless Congress acts, the US will by 1 June cease having the legal ability to issue debt instruments that allow the government to pay for spending already authorized and incurred. Despite attempts by reporters to get Mr McCarthy to guarantee that the US would not default, the House Speaker repeatedly refused to make such a promise.

Progressives are beginning a new offensive on Capitol Hill: Taking on America’s staggering $88bn in medical debt. Headed up by the Bernie Sanders spinoff group Our Revolution, advocates around the country are gathering horror stories of instances where necessary procedures were blocked by insurance companies or, perhaps worse, approved with stipulations such as “out of network” classifications that can quickly (and often do) lead to lifesaving treatment becoming a financial death sentence. The group hosted a town hall led by executive director Joseph Geevhargese on Monday, where a number of Americans shared their own personal versions of ruin at the hands of medical debt collectors and hospital bills. Between 10 per cent and half of adult Americans are thought to carry medical debt in some form, with estimates widely varrying thanks to the complexities of tracking paid-off debts. Elizabeth McLaughlin, one woman who shared her account with participants of the town hall event on Monday, spoke about how treatment she received in 2017 has led to her taking on tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt as she placed utility bills and other basic needs like groceries on lines of credit rather than face medical debt collectors. “I pass it from one [card] to another, and in the meantime I’m just grateful that I’m employed, and insured, and I can keep making the payments,” she explained. Another woman, Kristin Noreen, explained that she even filed for bankruptcy, only for her debt to immediately begin climbing into the thousands again thanks to tax obligations and other costs. Her treatment bills rose past $1m dollars after she was struck by a car on her bicycle and suffered grievous injuries, including the amputation of her hand, and now she explains that she has little chance of ever climbing out of her personal debt trap — even after her insurance paid for all but $60,000 of the treatment cost, and $50,000 of the remaining debt was handled by a charitable donation. The remaining $10,000 was still more than enough, coupled with the cost of years of therapy she says is “barely” covered by her Affordable Care Act plan, to leave her in financial desolation. “I’m back up to $10,000 on credit cards and as of last month, I have another $3,000 in debt to the IRS for prioritising my care over my estimated taxes. I’ve been denied disability and I work part-time from home as much as I’m able to,” she explained, while noting that if her pay increases from her part-time work, she is legally required to pay it towards Affordable Care Act subsidies rather than her own debt. Mr Sanders, along with a colleague in the House, Ro Khanna, reportedly plan to introduce legislation in the coming weeks aimed at addressing the issue — along with a nationwide campaign aimed at pressuring vulnerable lawmakers to get on board. Among the legislation’s priorities will be halting “predatory” debt collection practices and going after price gouging in medical billing. And while the demands in their upcoming legislation are small in comparison to Mr Sanders’s long-held desire to overhaul America’s for-profit healthcare system into a single-payer system aimed at affordability and access, the efforts by progressives to highlight the tragic cases of Americans consumed by medical debt likely aid in the left’s work to popularise the idea of major reforms and changes to the structure of America’s health system. Mr Sanders called for the elimination of all medical debt in the spring of 2022 after three leading credit agencies announced that they would no longer track paid-off medical debts when calculating credit ratings for Americans. “‘Medical debt’ and ‘Medical bankruptcy’ are two phrases that should not exist in the United States of America,” the senator said at the time. “Removing 70 percent of past-due medical debt from credit reports is a step in the right direction, and much more needs to be done. We must cancel all medical debt.” Read More Deal or default? Biden, GOP must decide what's on the table Black voters backing Biden, but not with 2020 enthusiasm House Republicans pressure Biden as they vote to raise debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts

With the US government just weeks away from being legally unable to pay its bills for the first time, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet at the White House on Tuesday. The meeting is an attempt to break what has become an economy-threatening logjam over Republican demands for Mr Biden to endorse rolling back large swaths of his legislative record. The Oval Office confab will be the first face-to-face sit-down between the two men since 1 February, when Mr Biden and the House Speaker met for what the White House described as a “frank and straightforward dialogue”. This time, the president and speaker will be joined by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. After their last meeting, Mr McCarthy told reporters outside the West Wing that the meeting with Mr Biden that the meeting left him hopeful that he and the president could “find common ground”. It was the first meeting the California Republican had with the president since he won the speaker’s gavel after a week-long marathon of 15 separate ballots. Mr McCarthy also said he’d told Mr Biden that he wanted to hammer out an agreement that would see the GOP-controlled House vote to raise the US statutory debt limit “long before” the June deadline laid out by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Ms Yellen notably warned in January that the Treasury had begun taking “extraordinary measures” to avoid defaulting on the nation’s sovereign debt. Since that February meeting, the White House and the House of Representatives have remained far apart on what is needed before legislation allowing the US to resume issuing new debt instruments can reach Mr Biden’s desk for his signature. For his part, the president’s view has remained consistent since the beginning of the year. Mr Biden has repeatedly said that Congress should pass a “clean” debt ceiling increase and negotiate on spending cuts desired for next fiscal year when Congress begins work on a budget. Mr McCarty, who only gained the Speaker’s gavel after promising far-right members of the House Republican Conference that he’d weaponise the debt limit to extract massive cuts to programs favoured by Democrats, is insisting that he and House Republicans have provided a solution to the problem with what the House calls the “Limit, Save and Grow Act”. That legislation, which passed the House with a bare majority of GOP votes last month, would provide just a year’s worth of relief coupled with spending provisions that slash non-defence spending by as much as 20 per cent. Among the programmes on the chopping block: President Joe Biden’s student debt relief initiative, as well as funding for new IRS personnel. The plan would also add new work requirements for adults on Medicaid, cap the growth of the federal government, and impose 2022 limits on discretionary spending. The White House said in response to the bill’s passage that Republicans were attempting to “strip away health care services for veterans, cut access to Meals on Wheels, eliminate health care coverage for millions of Americans and ship manufacturing jobs overseas”. While the House-passed bill is unlikely to go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate, thus far Mr McConnell and Senate Republicans have backed up Mr McCarthy’s demand for Mr Biden to sign off on GOP-endorsed austerity measures in exchange for Republican votes to allow the US to continue paying its’ debts. Prominent GOP figures frequently claim that raising the statutory debt limit to enable the US to continue meeting financial obligations — a practice that was once routine under presidents of both parties and met no objections when it was done under Mr Biden’s predecessor — is akin to authorising new spending. That claim, however, is not how the debt limit works. Raising the debt limit does not increase or decrease the amount of money that is spent on programmes that have already been authorised by Congress and have had funds allocated to them in appropriations legislation. Experts say a failure to raise the debt limit would force the government to default on its debt and precipitate a worldwide financial crisis. The last time the US flirted with that disastrous outcome was 2011, when Republicans controlled the House and Democrats controlled the Senate and the White House. Mr Biden, then the vice president under Barack Obama, led the negotiations with congressional leaders that headed off a default, but not before the US had its credit rating decreased for the first time in history. That 2011 dispute ended with Republicans suffering a drop in their approval ratings and facing accusations of endangering the US economy for political reasons. It also came along with an unprecedented downgrade in America’s credit rating. Those same charges are being raised again now by the White House and the president’s allies in Congress, who are holding firm on Mr Biden’s call for a clean debt limit boost. With both sides as far apart as they were three months ago, it’s unclear whether the White House expects Tuesday’s congressional confab to end with any positive progress on ending the impasse and preventing a default. One clue as to what Mr Biden’s advisers may be thinking can be found in the president’s travel schedule. The White House has said Mr Biden will travel to New York on Wednesday for what it describes as remarks on “why Congress must avoid default immediately and without conditions, and how the House Republican Default on America Act will cut veterans’ health care visits, teachers and school support staffs, and Meals on Wheels for seniors”. White House aides have also refused to describe the Tuesday meeting as a negotiating session. At Monday’s daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary reiterated the president’s position opposing any negotiations and demanding a clean debt ceiling increase. “There shouldn't be negotiations on the debt on the debt limit. This is something that they should get to regular order and get to work on. We should not have our House Republicans manufacturing a crisis on something that has been done 78 times since 1960. This is their constitutional duty, Congress must act. That's what the President is going to make very clear with with the leaders tomorrow,” she said.