Month: November 2018

While most Americans (aside from soldiers serving on military bases and overseas) were preparing for an afternoon of friends, family and football on Thanksgiving, President Trump decided to double down on his response to SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts after an ongoing spat between the two broke out this week when Roberts criticized Trump for calling Judge Jon Tigar of the Ninth Circuit an “Obama Judge”. Trump initially lashed out at Tigar after he became the latest Ninth Circuit judge to stymie Trump’s immigration policies by ruling against Trump’s order to crack down on asylum seekers.

Justice Roberts issued a short statement to the Associated Press on Wednesday after Trump told reporters outside the White House that he would file a “major complaint” against an “Obama judge” (Tigar) who temporarily blocked his administration’s order to not honor any asylum claims made outside designed US border crossings.

Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn’t have “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by The Associated Press.

Roberts said on the day before Thanksgiving that an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

Trump made another crack about the Ninth Circuit during the White House’s traditional pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey. “Unfortunately, I can’t guarantee that your pardon won’t be enjoined by the 9th Circuit. Always happens,” Trump quipped. He also blasted Roberts for his comments in a series of tweets sent Wednesday.

Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have “Obama judges,” and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an “independent judiciary,” but if it is why……

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018

…..are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned. Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security – these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018

And on Thursday, he followed those up with another set of tweets saying that the Ninth Circuit was “out of control” and a “complete & total disaster”, adding that it has a “horrible reputation” and that its rulings are “overturned more than any Circuit in the country.” He then accused Tigar & Co. of not knowing anything about border security and of “making our Country unsafe. “

Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster. It is out of control, has a horrible reputation, is overturned more than any Circuit in the Country, 79%, & is used to get an almost guaranteed result. Judges must not Legislate Security…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018

….and Safety at the Border, or anywhere else. They know nothing about it and are making our Country unsafe. Our great Law Enforcement professionals MUST BE ALLOWED TO DO THEIR JOB! If not there will be only bedlam, chaos, injury and death. We want the Constitution as written!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018

If US law enforcement officials aren’t allowed to do their jobs, there will only be “bedlam, chaos, injury and death.” Those are some aggressive – and possibly ill-considered – words, considering that, if the Democrats succeed with any of their investigations into Trump and his family, Roberts might hold the crucial vote that could spare the president. 

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The dollar is weaker this morning (cable higher)…

Treasury futures are unchanged, but US equity futures are extending their late-Wednesday tumble…

…with Nasdaq leading the plunge…

 

 

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Authored by Kenneth Nelson via Campus Reform,

Student groups at the University of Oregon are hosting an event this week to “decolonize” Thanksgiving.

The UO’s Native American Law Students Association and the Native American Student Union are hosting an event, titled, “Thanks But No Thanks-giving: Decolonizing an American Holiday.”

The event will focus on how people can continue to give thanks, while at the same time “raising [their] critical consciousness and identifying ways to decolonize the holiday.”

“Millions of families gather together every year to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. Many Americans do not grow up thinking much of the history behind the holiday,” the event description states.

“The main messages are that of gratitude, food, and family; however, Thanksgiving is, foundationally speaking, a celebration of the ongoing genocide against native peoples and cultures across the globe.”

Several departments at the university are sponsoring the event, including the Division of Student Life, University Counseling Center, Division of Equity and Inclusion, and Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence.

Brianna Kotka, who graduated from UO, told Campus Reform that “while it’s important for universities to acknowledge the bad parts of American history, UO often bashes or overlooks the great things about our country in the process.” 

“Despite not being perfect, there are a lot of great things about America and its traditions, and OU has to acknowledge that to become as inclusive as it likes to think it is,” Kotka added.

UO did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

A Campus Reform report revealed that, from Jan. 1, 2017 to Oct. 22, 2018, 201 UO faculty members donated $35.17 to Republican politicians or organizations and $65,597.74 to Democrat politicians and groups.

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Former FBI Director James Comey announced over Twitter on Thursday that he has been subpoeaned by House Republicans. 

He has demanded a public testimony (during which legislators would be unable to ask him questions pertaining to classified or sensitive information), saying that he doesn’t trust the committee not to leak and distort what he says. 

“Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans,” he tweeted “I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a “closed door” thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion.  Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.”

Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a “closed door” thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.

— James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018

Developing… 

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Via Political Calculations blog,

We’re going to tie something that we learned during 2009’s Thanksgiving to China’s trade war strategy with the U.S. in this article, but we first need to set the stage for that lesson by examining an alleged mistake that China’s leaders have made.

China’s leaders are facing unexpected and very rare criticism from the nation’s former top trade negotiator over their trade war strategy with the United States.

China’s former chief trade negotiator openly criticised Beijing’s trade war tactics on Sunday, singling out the decision to impose tariffs on soybeans as ill-thought out.

The comments by Long Yongtu, a former vice-minister with China’s foreign trade ministry who headed the talks that led to China’s entry to the World Trade Organisation, offered a rare glimpse into the country’s internal divisions about how to handle the dispute with the United States….

In particular, Long said it was unwise to impose import duties on soybeans in retaliation for US President Donald Trump’s decision to slap additional levies on Chinese imports.

“Agricultural products are very sensitive [in trade], and soybeans are very sensitive as well … We should have avoided targeting agricultural products because targeting agricultural products should be the last resort,” Long said. “But we have targeted agricultural products, or soybeans, right from the start.”

The agricultural states that produce the bulk of America’s soybeans make up Trump’s political heartland, but Long pointed out: “China is in dire need of soybean imports, so why did we pick out soybeans from the beginning? Is this deep thinking?”

The short answer is that it wasn’t.

The political angle is the explanation, where China’s leaders hoped to influence the outcome of the 2018 mid-term elections in the U.S.’ farm states, with the Chinese regime counting on its sympathizers to make hay out of the economic harm they purposefully sought to inflict upon U.S. soybean growers. They employed a similar strategy to inflict economic harm on the U.S.’ crude oil producing states, although that effort failed to produce any damage.

As part of its soybean tariff strategy, China’s leaders have chosen to substitute other nations’ soybeans for U.S.-grown soybeans, which is primarily used as animal feed in the country. In practice, that has meant buying up large quantities of soybeans grown in other regions of the world like Brazil, the world’s leading producer of the crop, but in recent months, that has also meant substituting other crops for soybeans, because all these other nations are not capable at this time of filling the void left behind by China’s avoidance of U.S.-grown soybeans.

At the same time, China has also acted to relax its quality standards for the soybeans that it will accept. By doing this, China will import more soybeans than it otherwise would, but the combination of diminished quality and the substitution of different crops to use as animal feed will likely have unintended consequences.

And this is where we can apply what we learned from 2009’s Thanksgiving!

In that year, we observed that while turkeys raised by U.S. farmers were growing in size, they weren’t leading to meatier birds for sale at U.S. grocery stores. At the time, we hypothesized that a policy implemented by the U.S. government was responsible for this result. That policy involved boosting government-provided incentives aimed at increasing in the amount of ethanol produced from corn in the U.S. for use in the nation’s fuel supplies, which caused the supply of corn that had previously been directed toward feeding the U.S.’ domestic animal production to instead be diverted toward ethanol production.

That change forced U.S. meat producers to substitute other crops for their preferred higher quality animal feed to fill the void created by the shift in demand, which in the case of farm-raised turkeys, ultimately led to lower quality birds on the nation’s Thanksgiving tables while also making them more costly.

In China, soybeans are largely used to feed hogs rather than cattle or turkeys, where Chinese pork producers and consumers may see a similar unintended outcome, driving home Long Yongtu’s point regarding the wisdom of China’s trade war strategy.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., President Trump has recently acted to boost the nation’s commitment to using corn-based ethanol, which is considered to be both bad science and bad policy, but in the context of China’s trade war strategy against U.S.-grown soybeans, should perhaps be viewed as a political response aimed at offsetting the economic damage caused by it.

Would it really be too much to ask the world’s political leaders to stop doing so many stupid things?

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Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has said he has “no recollection” of meeting corrupt Malaysian financier Jho Low. Maybe this will jog his memory.

Following reports published earlier this month that Blankfein attended two meetings with Low –  an “introductory meeting” in 2009 and another meeting at the Mandarin Hotel in New York in 2013 with about 20 other Goldman bankers (now-jailed ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak also attended these meetings) – the New York Times on Thursday published a report revealing that Blankfein’s involvement in securing 1MDB’s business for the bank was even deeper than previously believed.

Back in December 2012, when the bank was still struggling with the legal fallout from its predatory sales of mortgage-backed securities during the run-up to the financial crisis, Blankfein met privately with Low at Goldman’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan, according to three anonymous sources purportedly familiar with the details of the meeting, the NYT reported. The meeting occurred after the bank’s compliance department had already objected to involving Low in any of its business dealings.

Of course, nearly six years later, Low is now international fugitive, accused of being the mastermind in a multibillion-dollar fraud involving a Malaysian government investment fund.

Needless to say, this is problematic for the recently retired Blankfein, who left the bank on Oct. 1, coincidentally just one month before the DOJ started handing down indictments to Goldman bankers, one of whom has agreed to cooperate against the bank).

Why? Because it undercuts the bank’s PR line that the bribes paid in furtherance of a massive money laundering scheme were the work of a handful of “rogue employees.” The meeting was described as a “one-on-one” sitdown between Blankfein and the corrupt Malaysian banker, who reportedly played a central role in bribing officials in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Prosecutors in Malaysia and the US are looking to indict Low for his involvement in the fraud. The banker is currently on the run, living in an undisclosed location while he wages an expensive PR campaign to clear his name.

A PR rep for Blankfein confirmed that he did meet with Low, but that the meeting in question wasn’t one-on-one. Instead, the spokesman said Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny, the head of an Abu Dhabi investment fund that is now suing Goldman over its involvement with 1MDB, also attended the meeting.

A Goldman spokesman, Jake Siewert, said that Mr. Blankfein had a meeting with Mr. Low on Dec. 14, 2012, but that it was also attended by Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny, who ran an Abu Dhabi investment fund, Aabar. “Mr. Blankfein had an introductory, high-level meeting in December 2012 with the C.E.O. of Aabar, which was an existing client of the firm,” Mr. Siewert said. “At Aabar’s request, Mr. Low accompanied the C.E.O. to that meeting.”

In the three years between the 2009 and 2012 meetings with Low, Goldman’s compliance department raised multiple red flags surrounding the source of his mysterious wealth. However, Blankfein’s staff ignored these warnings.

In the three years before the 2012 meeting, the bank’s compliance staff had repeatedly rejected Mr. Low’s attempts to become a Goldman client because it was unclear how he had amassed his wealth.

But when Mr. Blankfein’s aides sought information about Mr. Low in preparation for the meeting, a senior investment banker in Asia praised Mr. Low and did not mention the compliance concerns, according to a person who has reviewed internal Goldman emails about the meeting.

Nor did the compliance red flags stop the bank from doing extensive business with 1MDB, which Malaysia’s prime minister had set up in 2008 ostensibly to invest in infrastructure and other projects to improve Malaysians’ daily lives. Goldman ultimately helped 1MDB sell more than $6 billion in bonds to investors, earning about $600 million in fees.

[…]

From the start, Goldman’s relationship with 1MDB unsettled some bank employees, according to interviews with current and former Goldman officials and a person involved in government investigations into the bank. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the criminal investigation.

Goldman’s internal compliance team, known as the business intelligence group, had repeatedly blocked Mr. Low from opening an account with the bank’s elite private client group, citing concerns about the source of his money, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors.

The compliance team also identified Mr. Low as someone Goldman should avoid working with on any 1MDB transactions, according to the court documents.

What’s more, Low’s name didn’t appear on any of the three bond deals that Goldman secured for 1MDB. But according to Tim Leissner’s plea agreement (Leissner is the former Goldman Southeast Asia chief who purportedly spearheaded the 1MDB deals), it was widely known – including, apparently, by Blankfein himself – that Low was a “key intermediary” in all three deals.

The Times also reported details about the efforts of one former Goldman executive, David Ryan, to stop the 1MDB deals over concerns about corruption and oversight. However, Goldman, which had long been weaker in Asia than many of its rivals, pushed ahead, and Ryan was overruled by Blankfein and senior Goldman executive Stephen Scherr, who is now the bank’s chief financial officer.

Goldman eventually completed three bond deals for 1MDB worth $6 billion. Because of the “high risk” associated with the deals, the bank collected 10% of the total amount in fees – some $600 million. The bank underwrote two bond offerings in 2012, and another in 2013.

If nothing else, Blankfein’s involvement makes two things clear: that Morgan Stanley raised a good point when it said in a downgrade of Goldman this week that investors should stay away from Goldman shares, because, as of now, it’s impossible to tell how deep this scandal will cut, and until the dust settles, the risks associated with Goldman are just too great. 

Bankfein’s involvement also laid bare the hypocrisy in CEO David Solomon’s faux “outrage” over 1MDB. Solomon claimed that this incident wasn’t representative of Goldman’s culture. But culture is set from the top down. And if the CEO was willing to okay these deals over the objections of the bank’s compliance department, then what does that say about the “culture of corruption” alleged by Leissner?

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Blain’s Morning Porridge submitted by Bill Blain

US Thanksgiving Day. May they enjoy. For the rest of us a quiet day in prospect? I think not.

What’s wrong with these markets?

Markets are about sentiment and expectations. At the moment, the mood feels miserable. The overarching concern is global growth vs timing off the next recession. (Yep.. it’s coming.. just like Winter.) I’m not hearing anyone particularly enthused or seeing any positive prospects for the upcoming G20 or how current trade ructions will play out.

The general expectation is for further damage to the outlook for global trade – not just China vs US, but also the implications of the US vs Europe/Germany (watch next week’s summoning of the German Autos to the White house), and the prospects for Europe’s economy if we get a nasty post Brexit mess.

The global economy has staged a stuttering anaemic recovery these past few years. The squeezed middle classes haven’t seen more money in their pockets to drive spending – instead they’ve been ramping up credit in the hope of jam tomorrow. It’s not coming, so consumers are belt-tightening. No wonder stocks and bonds are wobbling as everyone tries to suss out the consequences.

Where did inflation go? If that was recovery, just how bad is the next recession likely to be? We really do seem to be in the new normal – low growth, low inflation, low everything…

Underlying the macro-concerns are “driver” worries. Everyone is watching the Fed – which is watching US employment and is going to keep “normalising” rates, no matter what it does to stocks or how much pain it creates for Zombie over-levered companies. What’s going on in Oil – a market recently described as 3 men: Putin, MbS and Trump.. and the latter doesn’t care. Oh yes he does…

And then we get to the technical issues – such as the chronic illiquidity of bond markets, the squandering of $4.6 trillion in recent years on Stock Buybacks (converting equity into debt to put money in the hands of the few), or the anticipated consequences of unwinding the QE monetary experiment. The bad news is the yield tourists who drove up markets (right across the spectrum from HY, EM, to Stocks) are heading home.

Many of our buy-side clients are telling us their investment committees are telling them to re-focus on top credit ratings and liquidity. Good luck to them as they look for bids on the 50% of the market poised on the edge of sub-investment grade.. (Chortle, Chortle… that’s the sound of stable doors slamming as the horses bolt off down the hill.)

And then we get to the micro details, the fears and facts that driving price vol in individual securities. Fears and Facts drive volatility:

• Fears would include stories like the dismal performance of UK banks due to Brexit fears, or bonds anticipating a worst-case Italy story.
• Facts would include concerns on borrowers such as PG&E and GE, how wide the puddle of dirty suds from Danske Bank’s Eastern Europe Money Launderette will spread, and what declining iPhone orders mean.

Is there anything positive to say?

Of course! Investment opportunities are changing to reflect the new environment. Still very good money to be made from smart investing – particularly in real assets producing real returns (more on that later!). Or you can stick with common sense – and play Vol games.

For instance – the European bank sector looks like its just gone 10 rounds with a neutron bomb.

Maybe it’s time for some selective punts?

I feel like I’m a Canadian hunter on a baby-seal clubbing excursion every time I mention Deutsche Bank. Once more it’s under pressure. Yet again it’s in the news for all the wrong reasons – getting fingered as an accomplice to Danske Bank’s laundry service, losing money in its “Central Risk Book” through poorly hedged US equity risk, and watching its stock price hit new lows. As a Swiss Chum told me re Deutsche – “It’s a coconut every time!”

On the basis its always going to be bad at DB and they aren’t likely to get it right any time soon… let me suggest buying their short-term senior debt.

Why?

Because it’s unlikely to go wrong.. Whatever Europe says about not bailing out banks – the Germans are not going to let DB go. Whatever European law dictates about no state bank support – surely these rules apply to others? Not Germany. I confidently predict DB pays back its short-term senior debt.

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Britain and the European Union have agreed a draft text detailing a close post-Brexit economic relationship, paving the way for a summit of EU leaders to endorse the deal on Sunday.

May briefed her Cabinet and announced the deal outside of her Downing Street residence.

“The British people want this to be settled. They want a good deal that sets us on course for a brighter future. That deal is within our grasp and I am determined to deliver it,” she said.

As Sky News Faisal Islam reports, the new text is 26 pages long, meaning 5 additional pages were added since the UK Cabinet saw it on Tuesday, and promises a “broad deep and flexible partnership across trade and economic cooperation”

Here it is: pic.twitter.com/nl2V8fKFvK

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) November 22, 2018

Summit chair Donald Tusk said:

“It has been agreed at negotiators’ level and agreed in principle at political level.”

Bloomberg describes the key points of the latest (and perhaps final) agreement as follows:

• The Parties envisage comprehensive arrangements that will create a free trade area, combining deep regulatory and customs cooperation, underpinned by provisions ensuring a level playing field for open and fair competition.

• It should “build and improve on the single customs territory provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement which obviates the need for checks on rules of origin.

• Financial services ties to be based on equivalence. Work will start as soon as possible to avoid disruption

• Parties to explore possibility of cooperation between U.K. and regulatory agencies such as EMA, EASA

• On the Irish backstop: The Parties recall their determination to replace the backstop solution on Northern Ireland by a subsequent agreement that establishes alternative arrangements for ensuring the absence of a hard border on the island of Ireland on a permanent footing. (That’s an upgrade to the previous language.)

• In another boost for Brexiteers, the draft refers to “all available facilitative arrangements and technologies,” to ease customs procedures.

• The transition period, which Britain and the EU hope will begin once Britain leaves the EU on March 29, can be extended “for up to one or two years,” according to the draft declaration.

The text isn’t legally binding, unlike the treaty that governs the divorce, which it where the most unpalatable bits of the agreement are nestled.

The question now – as May begins to sell this deal domestically – is whether her opponents can be convinced this is the best deal possible. On the bright side, as Bloomberg notes, the deal offers May some points to help her sell it at home.

First, it gives industry what it wanted as it points the way to easy trade for goods, calling for “a free trade area, combining deep regulatory and customs cooperation.”

For Brexiteers – her most vocal opponents – it hints that the U.K. will be able to pursue its own trade policy and also stop free movement of people.

It also offers a way out of the most toxic part of the divorce deal – the Irish backstop that opponents of all political colors oppose as it risks keeping the U.K. shackled to the EU’s orbit indefinitely.

And for Brexiteers there’s also a line about how technology will come into its own in the future, solving problems that hardliners have long said hi-tech could fix.

As the following shows, she faces an uphill battle no matter what.

There is however, one other problem. As this agreement now heads to the summit of EU leaders, Spanish officials are still in negotiations on the Brexit text.

EU Commission Margaritis Schinas told reporters that the issue of Gibraltar – a sticking point because of Spanish claims – and fishing access still needed to be agreed and the ball is now in the court of EU member states. Spain says talks are still under way.

All of which likely explains why, despite an initial burst higher, cable is leaking back to reality…

We won’t be holding our breath over the weekend for the summit’s agreement but this is progress and a win for May, coming at an opportune time amid the constant hubbub of leadership challenges.

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Nissan’s board on Thursday fired Carlos Ghosn as chairman and representative director, ousting the main architect of the automaker’s alliance with France’s Renault and Japanese peer Mitsubishi Motors, and ushering in a period of uncertainty for the company’s 19-year alliance with Renault. The decision came in response to Ghosn’s arrest in Tokyo on Monday. Representative director Greg Kelly, a close Ghosn aide, was also voted out.

Nissan executives have five seats on the nine-member board, Renault loyalists have two seats and the remaining two are held by unaffiliated outside directors, a former bureaucrat and a race driver.

Renault has refrained from firing Ghosn as chairman and CEO, although he remains in detention along with Kelly, whom Nissan also accuses of financial misconduct. But Mitsubishi Motors plans to remove Ghosn from his post of chairman at a board meeting next week.

The legendary executive, who led Nissan in various capacities since 2000, faces allegations of understating his income by 5 billion yen ($44 million) over five years, starting in fiscal 2010, diverting investment money for personal use and misusing company funds. Over 10 Nissan executives have voluntarily agreed to answer prosecutors’ questions, including Saikawa and former Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga, also a board member.

The Franco-Japanese alliance, enlarged in 2016 to include Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors has been rattled to its core by Ghosn’s arrest in Japan on Monday, with the 64-year-old group chairman accused of financial misconduct. Ghosn had shaped the relationship and was pushing for a deeper tie-up, including potentially a full Renault-Nissan merger at the French government’s urging, despite strong reservations at the Japanese firm.

As Nissan scrambles to contain the scandal and strengthen its governance, the board decided to establish an independent advisory committee made up of lawyers and outside experts. The panel is expected to not only investigate Ghosn’s alleged misconduct but also consider ways to prevent similar behavior and review executive compensation.

Amid growing uncertainty over the future of the alliance, Japan’s industry minister and France’s finance minister are due to meet in Paris on Thursday to seek ways to stabilise it.

“For me, the future of the alliance is the bigger deal,” a senior Nissan official told reporters on Wednesday, when asked about Ghosn’s arrest. “It’s obvious that in this age, we need to do things together. To part would be impossible.”

* * *

Japanese prosecutors said Ghosn and Representative Director Greg Kelly, who has also been arrested, conspired to understate Ghosn’s compensation at Nissan over five years from 2010, saying it was about half the actual 10 billion yen ($88 million). Shin Kukimoto, deputy public prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, said on Thursday that court approval was received a day earlier to detain Ghosn for 10 days but he could not comment on whether he had admitted to the allegations.

Nissan said on Monday an internal investigation triggered by a tip-off from an informant had revealed that Ghosn engaged in wrongdoing including personal use of company money and under-reporting of his earnings for years.

The Asahi Shimbun said on Thursday that Ghosn had given Kelly orders by email to make false statements on his remuneration. Tokyo prosecutors likely seized the related emails and may use them as evidence, the report said.

Separately, The Yomiuri, Japan’s biggest-circulation daily, cited unnamed sources as saying Nissan’s internal investigation found that Ghosn had since 2002 instructed that about $100,000 a year be paid to his elder sister as remuneration for a non-existent advisory role. The paper said Nissan had found through the investigation that Ghosn’s sister had in fact been living in and managing a luxury apartment in Rio de Janeiro that the company had bought through an overseas subsidiary, but had done no advisory work for the car maker. Nissan has shared the information with prosecutors, Yomiuri said.

* * *

Prosecutors said Ghosn is being held at the Tokyo detention centre, which is known for its austere regime, a far cry from his usual luxury lifestyle, including restrictions on sleeping during the day and a requirement to wear a mask when meeting with visitors to prevent the spread of disease.

The detention house “is pretty cold at this of time year,” internet entrepreneur and convicted fraudster Takufumi Horie told his followers on Twitter, according to Reuters. Motonari Otsuru, a former public prosecutor who is known for overseeing the case against Horie, was hired as Ghosn’s lawyer, NHK reported.

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