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March 2013
Global Marketplace
›
Switzerland’s oldest private bank on 3 January
acknowledged that, from about 2002 to 2010, the firm
– Wegelin & Company, founded in 1741 – helped dozens of
wealthy American customers to dodge taxes by hiding more
than $1.2bn in secret accounts.
The guilty plea, in a federal district court in New York, obliges
Wegelin to pay $74mn in fines, restitution and forfeiture
proceeds to the US government.
Although Wegelin is no longer active, obtaining a guilty plea
from a company with no business operations in the US was
something of a coup for the US Justice Department.
More broadly, the admission of guilt represents a victory
for the administration of President Barack Obama in its
crackdown on Americans who use offshore banks to evade
taxes.
Steel
A stake in two Canadian mines
advances China Steel’s goal of
securing its supplies of iron ore
ArcelorMittal said in a 2 January statement that a group led
by China Steel Corp and Posco had agreed to pay $1.1bn in
cash for 15 per cent of ArcelorMittal Mines Canada Inc.
According to the ArcelorMittal website, the deal will give
the purchasers access to two open-pit mines that together
produce about 15 million metric tons of iron ore concentrate a
year and more than 9 million mt of iron oxide pellets.
The world’s largest steel maker, based in Luxembourg,
is believed to be mulling the sale of up to one-third of its
Canadian unit, which yields some 40 per cent of Canada’s
iron ore.
As noted by
Bloomberg News
(2 January), China Steel’s
stake will bring closer a goal of meeting, by 2015, 30 per
cent of its iron ore and coal needs from mines in which it
has investments. According to the Taiwan-based company’s
website, China Steel and Posco, the largest South Korean
steel maker, will share the output of the Canadian mines
proportionate to their interests in the venture.
Bloomberg
reporters Yu-Huay Sun and Michelle Yun recalled
that Posco, with the Hong Kong-based trading company
Noble Group Ltd and Korean investors, recently withdrew its
A$1.2bn (US$1.3bn) offer for Sydney-based Arrium Ltd after
the board of the Australian steel maker and iron ore producer
declined to engage with the group.
Elsewhere in steel . . .
›
In other news of ArcelorMittal, on 30 November the
company won a ruling in a US appeals court that
upholds its Usibor patent as applicable to cold-rolled steel
www.metallurgy-tube-russia.com25 – 28 June 2013
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