INVEST IN CANADA EVS:

DOJ CHARGES MAN IN

$2B TAX FRAUD: Federal prosecutors charged Texas billionaire Robert Brockman on Thursday with a $2 billion tax fraud scheme in what they say is the largest such case against an American. Department of Justice officials said at a news conference that Brockman, 79, hid capital gains income over 20 years through a web of offshore entities in Bermuda and Nevis and secret bank accounts in Bermuda and Switzerland. Prosecutors announced that the CEO of a private equity firm that aided in the schemes would cooperate with the investigation.

WALGREENS HAS

REBOUND: Walgreens Boots Alliance said Thursday that it made $373 million in the final quarter of fiscal 2020 after losing $1.7 billion the previous quarter, when millions of shoppers stayed home to avoid the rapidly spreading pandemic. COVID-19 still hurt. The drugstore chain estimated that the pandemic’s impact shaved about $520 million from its operating income in the most recent quarter. But Walgreens also grew sales and prescriptions in the United States and saw some improvement in the United Kingdom. Walgreens Boots Alliance runs more than 9,000 stores in the United States and several thousand locations internationally.

GM ROBOT CARS TO

General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit says it will pull the human backup drivers from its vehicles in San Francisco by the end of the year. Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said in a statement that the company got a permit Thursday from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to let the cars travel on their own. The move follows last week’s announcement from Waymo that it would open its autonomous ride-hailing service to the public in the Phoenix area in vehicles without human drivers.

HAVE NO BACKUP: FIAT CHRYSLER TO

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles agreed to invest as much as $1.1 billion in one of its two assembly plants in Canada as part of a tentative agreement reached with more than 9,000 local autoworkers. Unifor, which represents about 20,000 workers at Canadian auto facilities, said Fiat Chrysler agreed to spend on a new electric-vehicle platform that will be produced at its Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant starting in 2024.