OIL EXECS ACCUSED OF LYING TO INVESTORS
Hedge fund executives were charged Monday in a $1 billion fraud case linked to an oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed three workers and injured several others.
A founder and chief investment officer of Platinum Partners, and six other defendants, were accused of lying to investors about the performance of a fund that ran into trouble when one of its largest assets, the Black Elk oil exploration company, had a rig explode in 2012 off Louisiana.
Authorities accused Platinum of falsely reporting returns while collecting more than $100 million in fees during a conspiracy that cheated investors out of $1 billion.
GM factories to idle as car inventory builds. General Motors
will temporarily close five factories next month as it tries to reduce a growing inventory of cars on dealer lots.
The factories will close anywhere from one to three weeks because of the ongoing U.S. market shift toward trucks and SUVs. Just over 10,000 workers will be idled.
The company’s Detroit-Hamtramck factory and Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas City, Kan., each will be shut down for three weeks, while a plant in Lansing, Mich., will be down for two weeks. Factories in Lordstown, Ohio, and Bowling Green, Ky., each will be idled for one week.
British Airways to run holiday flights despite strike. British Airways
says it can run its full holiday schedule on Christmas and Dec. 26 even if a planned cabin crew strike goes ahead.
Chief executive Alex Cruz said Monday that detailed contingency plans are in place so that flights can operate as normal.
He urged the Unite union to call off the planned strike. The dispute involves pay for staff members who have joined the airline in the last six years, and negotiations continue.
Great Britain also faces a postal strike and a railroad strike over the holiday period.
Strong dollar could hurt Trump’s economic plans. Presidentelect
Donald Trump’s ambitious plans to revive exports, return jobs to the United States and increase oil drilling are running up against a homegrown threat: the surging U.S. dollar.
Since the Nov. 8 election, the dollar has shot up 5 percent.
The gain reflects the U.S. economy’s strength and investor confidence that Trump will accelerate growth.
It could rise even more now that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates. But an expensive dollar makes U.S. goods costlier overseas, and imports cheaper in the U.S. That creates pain for American manufacturers.
A high dollar can also lead some U.S. multinational companies to move operations overseas where their dollars go further. And it tends to shrink oil prices.