Vodafone Group Plc VOD.L has reportedly won a controversial $2 billion tax case against the Indian government after the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague held Friday that India breached its Bilateral Investment Treaty with The Netherlands by imposing tax liability on Vodafone. India is believed to have claimed as much as 279 billion rupees from [...]
The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ordered Thursday that the bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. (Julius Baer), as the successor of the Cantrade Private Bank Switzerland (Cantrade), must pay CHF 150 million to the German government. The case stems from an ongoing investigation by the Bundesanstalt für vereinigungsbedingte Sonderaufgaben (Federal Agency for Unification-related Special Tasks) into [...]
The High Court of Kenya delayed Thursday the dissolution of the nation’s parliament, pending a full hearing of the case scheduled for October 7th. The decision reverses an order given by Chief Justice David Maraga advising President Uhuru Kenyatta to dissolve the parliament because neither of the legislative houses had one-third of their seats occupied by women in [...]
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan reported Wednesday that senior politicians and government officials have embezzled $36 million since 2016 linked to government entities. The commission also claimed that this amount is what they could trace and it could be higher. “At one end of the spectrum, South Sudan’s political elites were [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Thursday reversed a ruling creating a negotiation class of opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies in a multi-district litigation designed to streamline settlement agreements between cities adversely affected by the opioid epidemic and opioid manufacturers. This suit arose as a result of opioid manufacturers, distributors and [...]
Volkswagen do Brasil, a subsidiary of the German Volkswagen Group, signed a Conduct Adjustment Agreement (CAA) on Thursday, agreeing to pay out R$36M (reals), or about USD $6.5M, to victims of human rights violations during the Brazilian military rule. A report by the National Truth Commission (NTC) in 2014 revealed that Volkswagen cooperated with the [...]
Australia’s Westpac Bank agreed to pay a A$1.3 billion fine on Thursday in a proposed settlement with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) for breaching the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act of 2006 (AML/CTF Act) by failing to reasonably monitor suspicious transactions associated with possible child exploitation and terrorist networks. AUSTRAC, the [...]
The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) announced Thursday via twitter that French prosecutors had opened a formal investigation of BNP Paribas over its alleged complicity in crimes against humanity, genocide and torture in Sudan. The decision to investigate banking giant BNP Paribas comes nearly a year after nine sudanese victims filed a complaint, with [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday denied descendants of the victims of the first twentieth-century genocide the ability to collect reparations from Germany. This putative class action was brought on behalf of members and descendants of the Ovaherero and Nama indigenous peoples. Between 1884 and 1903, Germany colonized present-day Namibia, [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court finding Thursday that Maddoff investors who profited must pay back their earnings, even if they were not aware of the Ponzi scheme. The investors involved were people who, at the time of the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, received [...]
