The insolvency case of Guo Wengui, the exiled Chinese businessman, got off to raucous start Tuesday when a longstanding creditor called the move “astonishing” and signaled it would wage an aggressive fight in bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. Guo, a former partner of Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, filed for bankruptcy last month after moving a yacht from New York waters, a shift that would keep it out of the reach of creditors, and then facing a $134 million penalty for taking that step.

The U.S. and European Union blocked Russia’s central bank from using its emergency reserves to protect the economy from the Western pressure campaign, a salvo the bank’s governor said risked triggering a financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. The coordinated action blocks the central bank from selling dollars, euros and other foreign currencies in its reserves stockpile to stabilize the ruble. Announcing the move Monday in Washington before U.S. markets opened, U.S.

The Canadian economy mostly likely started 2022 on a strong footing, despite the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, while fourth-quarter growth came in above expectations, official data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Canada's economy grew 6.7% in the last three months of 2021 on an annualized basis, beating analyst forecasts of 6.5%, while gross domestic product in January most likely rose 0.2% after stagnating in December, Statistics Canada data showed. The strong fourth-quarter print came in above the Bank of Canada's own forecast in January of a gain of 5.8%.

A fugitive Malaysian financier said he won support from allies of former U.S. President Donald Trump for a possible settlement of a probe into the looting of funds from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, a former Goldman Sachs banker testified on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Tim Leissner offered a glimpse of what he had heard from financier Jho Low about the attempted deal, on the sixth day of his testimony at the trial of Roger Ng, another former Goldman banker. Ng, 49, has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to launder money and violate an anti-bribery law.

After posting a loss for the fourth quarter, Credito Real said it was seeking to avoid a messy legal battle with creditors and would work to keep the company running following a default earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported. The lender that focuses on payroll loans posted a loss of 359.4 million pesos ($17.7 million) in the fourth quarter as cash levels dwindled to around $30 million. Credito Real failed to pay a 170 million Swiss franc ($184 million) bond due Feb. 9. After huddling with more than 100 representatives from creditors on Feb.

Canada's Ontario province on Monday will introduce legislation to establish a minimum wage and other rights for gig economy workers such as drivers for ride-hailing companies, Premier Doug Ford said, Reuters reported. The legislation, which Ford called a first for a Canadian province, includes clarity around hours and pay calculations. It also includes protection against dismissal from a digital platform without proper notice or explanation, and ensure tips that workers earn remain with them, Ford told reporters.

Mexico’s economy narrowly avoided recession in 2021, as manufacturers adjusted to supply chain snarls and shortages amid a lack of fiscal stimulus, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product stayed unchanged in the fourth quarter from the previous three-month period, better than the median estimate for a 0.1% decline in a Bloomberg survey, according to final data released by Mexico’s statistics institute Friday. Preliminary data last month had showed GDP falling 0.1%, which followed a 0.4% third-quarter contraction.

Mexico’s Unifin Financiera SAB said it placed the full amount it sought to raise in the local debt market on Thursday as it faced a test of confidence among investors following the default of another Mexican non-bank lender, Bloomberg News reported. The equipment leasing company sold 3 billion pesos (about $145 million) in one-year notes, according to a filing with the stock exchange. The notes have a variable rate of Mexico’s interbank rate plus 1.4 percentage points and total demand was for 3.08 billion pesos.

When the United States barred Americans from doing business with Russian banks, oil and gas developers and other companies in 2014, after the country’s invasion of Crimea, the hit to Russia’s economy was swift and immense. Economists estimated that sanctions imposed by Western nations cost Russia $50 billion a year. Since then, the global market for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets has ballooned, the New York Times reported. That’s bad news for enforcers of sanctions, and good news for Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden unleashed sanctions targeting Russia’s sale of sovereign debt abroad and the country’s elites, responding to what he described as the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. “He’s setting up a rationale to take more territory by force,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House. “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” Biden said that he’s sending an unspecified number of additional U.S. troops to the Baltics in a defensive move to defend NATO countries.