The U.K.’s top law-enforcement body is examining allegations that an employee leaked information to a suspect in exchange for money, undermining a probe into a suspected network of European insider traders, the Wall Street Journal reported. The internal corruption unit of the National Crime Agency, the U.K.’s equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is assessing whether a government translator who had access to wiretap recordings tipped off the target of an insider-trading investigation.

Russian aluminum company Rusal said today that it has appointed independent non-executive director Jean-Pierre Thomas as its new chairman as part of an agreed restructuring in exchange for the lifting of U.S. sanctions, Reuters reported. The previous chairman, Matthias Warnig, stepped down earlier this week after six years at the world’s largest aluminum producer outside China. His resignation was a condition of the deal.Jean-Pierre Thomas was elected by the board as chairman with effect from Jan. 1, Rusal said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said yesterday that rising protectionism and trade wars and the unpredictability of the U.S. administration have greatly contributed to global oil price volatility over the past two years, Reuters reported. Oil prices have been volatile, falling by more than a third this quarter, partly due to rising oil production in the U.S. “All these uncertainties, which are now on the market: how China will behave, how India will behave... trade wars and unpredictability on the part of the U.S. administration...

Eurostar Diamond Traders has entered restructuring proceedings in Belgium, having amassed substantial debts, according to the company’s court-appointed administrator, Rapaport News reported. The Antwerp-based diamond manufacturer owes more than $500 million to creditors across its global operations, Alain Van den Cloot, one of the administrators, estimated in an email to Rapaport News. Two Antwerp courts designated Van den Cloot and a second attorney, Nathalie Vermeersch, as provisional administrators for Eurostar’s Belgian business last month.

For the past 20 years, the border has existed on paper alone: Britain and the Republic of Ireland are both members of the European Union and its common marketplace. So people, goods and livestock can come and go as they please, traversing the mostly invisible line without tariffs or bureaucratic hindrance. But Britain’s looming exit from the European bloc, known widely as Brexit, threatens to make the old border real again — a factor that has long collided with any prospect of a smooth divorce, according to a New York Times analysis.

Over 300 employees at a technology factory in Livingston, Scotland, lost their jobs on Christmas Eve - and been told they won’t get paid, The Daily Record reported. Workers at the Kaiam manufacturing plant were told the news at a meeting on Monday with 312 of the 338 staff being made redundant. And in a further blow to employees they were told they will not receive their outstanding wages and will have to go through the Insolvency Service to get their money, which could take weeks.

Interserve said it had reached a deal with its lenders to defer a debt payment due early next year and was considering handing them its profitable building materials business RMDK as it works to avert a Carillion-style collapse, Reuters reported. “The key commercial principles on which the Deleveraging Plan is expected to be based have now been conditionally agreed between Interserve and all lenders,” the British construction and services company said in a statement on Friday.

Six “rogue directors” have been disqualified for a total of 54 years after misleading more than 300 people to invest millions of pounds in property developments across the north of England, the Yorkshire Post reported. An international investigation began after Liverpool-based Absolute Living Developments collapsed in 2016, owing at least £12m to buy-to-let investors. Among the company’s developments were three former office buildings in Bradford which were being turned into flats.