An appeals court in Montenegro on Wednesday confirmed that a South Korean mogul known as “the cryptocurrency king” will be handed over to his native country, the Associated Press reported. Both South Korea and the U.S. had requested Do Kwon’s extradition from Montenegro. A Montenegrin court initially decided he should be handed over to the U.S. but that ruling was later overturned in favor of South Korea. The Appeals Court of Montenegro approved an earlier ruling by the High Court to extradite Kwon to South Korea rather than the United States, a statement said.
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China Life Insurance Co. is in crunch talks with lenders to an office tower in Canary Wharf to help stave off the locality’s third potential major default, as the eastern financial district of London grapples with some of the city’s highest vacancy rates, Bloomberg News reported. The landlord is in discussions with Lloyds Banking Group Plc, which originally financed 10 Upper Bank Street before syndicating the vast majority of the debt to several Chinese banks, about a plan to avoid an event of default ahead of the loan’s maturity next month, people with knowledge of the negotiations said.
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Troubled property developer China Evergrande Group says Beijing’s stock watchdog has fined it 4.2 billion yuan ($333.4 million) for allegedly falsifying its revenue, among other violations, as it conducts a deep clean of the troubled financial sector, the Associated Press reported. The company said in a release to mainland Chinese stock exchanges late Monday that its chairman, Hui Ka Yan, was fined 47 million yuan ($6.5 million) and banned from China’s markets for life.
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The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai has admitted a corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against over a century-old textile maker ShriVallabh Pittie (SVP) group’s affiliate Shrivallabh Pittie Industries Ltd in an application filed by the State Bank of India, the Economic Times of India reported. The lender had approached the tribunal after the company defaulted on its dues of about Rs 90 crore. The tribunal has also appointed Mukesh Verma as resolution professional.
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Electric van leasing company EVCo has been put under insolvent liquidation, with debts of almost $50 million, the Straits Times reported. EVCo, also known as Strides DST, is 60 per cent owned by transport operator SMRT’s business arm Strides Holdings and 40 per cent by Dishangtie Green Technology (Hong Kong). The two-year-old firm was incorporated in March 2022 with a paid-up capital of $10 million.
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The Bank of Japan (BOJ) ended eight years of negative interest rates and other remnants of its unorthodox policy on Tuesday, making a historic shift away from its focus on reflating growth with decades of massive monetary stimulus, Reuters reported. While the move was Japan's first interest rate hike in 17 years, it still keeps rates stuck around zero as a fragile economic recovery forces the central bank to go slow on further rises in borrowing costs, analysts say.
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The Reserve Bank of Australia said Tuesday that it still can’t rule out the possibility that interest rates will need to be raised further, adding that inflation remains too high and is expected to remain elevated for some time yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The RBA left its official cash rate on hold at 4.35% at its policy meeting. The decision was widely expected by economists. “While recent data indicate that inflation is easing, it remains high.
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China Evergrande Group founder Hui Ka Yan will be barred from the securities market for life and fined 47 million yuan ($6.53 million) after the regulator accused the group's flagship unit of inflating results, securities fraud and failing to make timely disclosures, Reuters reported. Hengda Real Estate said in an exchange filing that China's securities watchdog also penalised the company and several of its former senior executives after an investigation.
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Chinese authorities said that they took “criminal mandatory measures” against some employees at the money management business of Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., weeks after a Beijing court accepted the shadow banking giant’s bankruptcy application, Bloomberg News reported. Police in Beijing said the recovery of “stolen goods” is underway as it took action against suspects which included executives, according to a statement on WeChat on Saturday.
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Pakistan’s central bank held the key interest rate at a record high for a sixth straight meeting, as a newly-elected government holds loan talks with the International Monetary Fund that wants a tight monetary policy to curb inflation, Bloomberg News reported. The State Bank of Pakistan kept the target rate at 22%, according to a statement on Monday. Thirty of the 37 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predicted a hold while the rest expected a cut. The decision comes as a new government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seeks a new loan of at least $6 billion from the multilateral lender.
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