Tag Archives: JUDIC

Business

Airbus and Qatar Airways settle bitter A350 jet row

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PARIS, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Airbus (AIR.PA) and Qatar Airways have settled a dispute over grounded A350 jets, the companies said on Wednesday, averting a potentially damaging UK court trial after a blistering 18-month feud that tore the lid off the global jet market.

The “amicable and mutually agreeable settlement” ends a $2 billion row over surface damage on the long-haul jets. The spat led to the withdrawal of billions of dollars’ worth of jet deals by Airbus and prompted Qatar to increase purchases from Boeing.

The cancelled orders for 23 undelivered A350s and 50 smaller A321neos have been restored under the new deal, which is also expected to see Airbus pay several hundred million dollars to the Gulf carrier, while winning a reprieve from other claims.

Financial details were not publicly disclosed.

The companies said neither admitted liability. Both pledged to drop claims and “move forward and work together as partners”.

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The deal heads off what amounted to an unprecedented public divorce trial between heavyweights in the normally tight-knit and secretive $150 billion jet industry.

The two sides had piled up combined claims and counter-claims worth about $2 billion ahead of the June trial.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire welcomed the deal, which came in the wake of increasing political involvement amid close ties between France, where Airbus is based, and Qatar.

“It is the culmination of significant joint efforts. It is excellent news for the French aerospace industry,” he said.

Airbus shares closed up 1% before the announcement.

Qatar Airways had taken the unusual step of publicly challenging the world’s largest planemaker over safety after paint cracks exposed gaps in a sub-layer of lightning protection on its new-generation A350 carbon-composite jets.

Airbus had acknowledged quality flaws but, backed by European regulators, had insisted that the jets were safe and accused the airline of exaggerating flaws to win compensation.

DAMAGES

Supported by a growing army of lawyers, both sides repeatedly bickered in preliminary hearings over access to documents, to the growing frustration of a judge forced to order co-operation.

Analysts said the deal would allow both sides to feel vindicated, with Qatar Airways winning damages and recognition that the problem lay outside the manual and therefore required a new repair, and Airbus standing its ground on safety and spared the difficult task of finding a home for cancelled A350s.

Qatar will get the in-demand A321neos needed to plan its growth, albeit three years later than expected, in 2026. Airbus’ decision to revoke that order, separate from the disputed A350 contract, had been criticised by global airlines group IATA.

Airbus said it had done its best to avoid pushing Qatar too far back in the queue, though some experts question whether it could have met the earlier schedule because of supply problems.

The settlement is also expected to stop the clock ticking on a claim for grounding compensation that had been growing by $6 million a day, triggered by a clause agreed upon after the repainting of a jet for the World Cup revealed significant surface damage.

Originally valued at $200,000 per day per plane, Airbus’ theoretical liability was ratcheting upwards by a total of $250,000 an hour for 30 jets – or $2 billion a year – by the time the deal was struck, based on court filings. Neither side commented on settlement details.

Airbus said it would now work with the airline and regulators to provide the necessary “repair solution” and return Qatar’s 30 grounded planes to the air.

Confirmation of a settlement came after Reuters reported a deal could arrive as early as Wednesday. In 2021, a Reuters investigation revealed other airlines had been affected by A350 skin degradation, all of whom said it was “cosmetic”.

The dispute has focused attention on the design of modern carbon-fibre jets, which do not interact as smoothly with paint as traditional metal ones, and shed light on industrial methods.

Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas, Michel Rose
Editing by David Goodman, Diane Craft and Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for thousands of talc lawsuits

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Jan 30 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Monday shot down Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ.N) attempt to offload tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products into bankruptcy court. The ruling marked the first major repudiation of an emerging legal strategy with the potential to upend U.S. corporate liability law.

J&J is among four major companies that have filed so-called Texas two-step bankruptcies to avoid potentially massive lawsuit exposure. The tactic involves creating a subsidiary to absorb the liabilities and to immediately file for Chapter 11.

The court ruled the healthcare conglomerate improperly placed its subsidiary into bankruptcy even though it faced no financial distress. J&J’s two-step sought to halt more than 38,000 lawsuits from plaintiffs alleging the company’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer. The appeals court ruling revives those lawsuits.

Reuters last year detailed the secret planning of Texas two-steps by Johnson & Johnson and other major firms in a series of reports exploring corporate attempts to evade lawsuits through bankruptcies.

Monday’s decision by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed the bankruptcy filed by the J&J subsidiary in 2021. Before the filing, J&J had faced costs of $3.5 billion in verdicts and settlements.

J&J shares closed down 3.7% – the biggest one-day percentage decline in two years. The company said in a statement that it would challenge the ruling and that its talc products are safe.

Plaintiffs attorneys and some legal experts have argued the two-step could set a dangerous precedent, providing a blueprint for any corporation to easily avoid undesirable litigation. The appeals court decision could force companies considering the strategy to more carefully consider its risks, two legal experts said.

“It is a push back on the notion that any company anywhere can use the same tactic to get rid of their mass tort liability,” said Lindsey Simon, a professor at University of Georgia School of Law.

Bankruptcy filings typically suspend litigation in trial courts, forcing plaintiffs into often time-consuming settlement negotiations while leaving them unable to pursue their cases in the courts where they originally sued.

The 3rd Circuit ruling does not directly impact three other Texas two-step bankruptcies, filed by subsidiaries of Koch Industries-owned Georgia Pacific, global construction giant Saint-Gobain(SGOB.PA), and Trane Technologies (2IS.F). Those cases fall under the jurisdiction of the 4th Circuit appeals court. 3M (MMM.N) attempted a similar maneuver, which is currently pending in the 7th Circuit.

Those companies did not comment on the 3rd Circuit ruling or did not immediately respond to inquiries. All have previously defended the bankruptcies as the best way to fairly compensate claimants. Plaintiffs’ attorneys have countered that the Texas two-step is an improper manipulation of the bankruptcy system. The strategy uses a Texas law to split an existing company in two, creating the new subsidiary meant to shoulder the lawsuits.

New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, valued at more than $400 billion, said its subsidiary’s bankruptcy was initiated in good faith. J&J initially pledged $2 billion to the subsidiary to resolve talc claims and entered into an agreement to fund an eventual settlement approved by a bankruptcy judge.

“Resolving this matter as quickly and efficiently as possible is in the best interests of claimants and all stakeholders,” J&J said.

A three-judge panel on the appeals court rejected J&J’s argument, finding the company’s subsidiary, LTL Management, was created solely to file for Chapter 11 protection but had no legitimate need for it. Only a debtor in financial distress can seek bankruptcy, the panel ruled. The judges pointed out that J&J assured that it would give LTL plenty of money to pay talc claimants.

“Good intentions – such as to protect the J&J brand or comprehensively resolve litigation – do not suffice alone,” the judges said in a 56-page opinion. “LTL, at the time of its filing, was highly solvent with access to cash to meet comfortably its liabilities.”

‘PROJECT PLATO’

The decision could force J&J to fight talc lawsuits for years in trial courts. The company has a mixed record fighting the suits so far. While the firm was hit with major judgments in some cases before filing bankruptcy, more than 1,500 talc lawsuits have been dismissed and the majority of cases that have gone to trial have resulted in verdicts favoring J&J, judgments for the company on appeal, or mistrials, according to its subsidiary’s court filings.

A December 2018 Reuters investigation revealed that J&J officials knew for decades about tests showing that the company’s talc sometimes contained traces of carcinogenic asbestos but kept that information from regulators and the public. J&J has said its talc does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.

Facing unrelenting litigation, J&J enlisted law firm Jones Day, which had helped other companies execute Texas two-step bankruptcies to address asbestos-related lawsuits.

J&J’s effort, as Reuters reported last year, was internally dubbed “Project Plato,” and employees working on it signed confidentiality agreements. A company lawyer warned them to tell no one, including their spouses, about the plan.

Jones Day did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Texas two-step has garnered criticism from Democratic lawmakers in Washington, and inspired proposed legislation that would severely restrict the practice.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, cheered Monday’s appeals court decision. Whitehouse chaired the first congressional hearing scrutinizing two-step bankruptcies in February of last year.

“Bankruptcy is meant to give honest debtors in unfortunate circumstances a fresh start,” he said, not to allow “large, highly profitable corporations” to avoid accountability for wrongdoing with a legal “shell game.”

Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Mike Spector in New York; and Dan Levine in San Francisco; additional reporting by Dietrich Knauth and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; editing by Bill Berkrot and Brian Thevenot

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Tom Hals

Thomson Reuters

Award-winning reporter with more than two decades of experience in international news, focusing on high-stakes legal battles over everything from government policy to corporate dealmaking.

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US

Memphis disbands police unit after fatal beating as protesters take to streets

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MEMPHIS, Tenn., Jan 28 (Reuters) – The specialized police unit that included the five Memphis officers charged with the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols was disbanded on Saturday as more protests took place in U.S. cities a day after harrowing video of the attack was released.

The police department said in a statement it was permanently deactivating the SCORPION unit after the police chief spoke with members of Nichols’ family, community leaders and other officers. A police spokesperson confirmed all five officers were members of the unit.

Video recordings from police body-worn cameras and a camera mounted on a utility pole showed Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, repeatedly screaming “Mom!” as officers kicked, punched and struck him with a baton in his mother’s neighborhood after a Jan. 7 traffic stop. He was hospitalized and died of his injuries three days later.

Five officers involved in the beating, all Black, were charged on Thursday with murder, assault, kidnapping and other charges. All have been dismissed from the department.

Nichols’ family and officials expressed outrage and sorrow but urged protesters to remain peaceful. That request was largely heeded on Friday when scattered protests broke out in Memphis – where marchers briefly blocked an interstate highway – and elsewhere.

Cities across the United States saw renewed nonviolent demonstrations on Saturday. In Memphis, protesters chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!” angrily catcalled a police car that was monitoring the march, with several making obscene gestures. Some cheered loudly when they learned of the disbandment of SCORPION.

[1/12] People protest next to a police car after the release of the body cam footage showing police officers beating Tyre Nichols, the young Black man who died three days after he was pulled over while driving during a traffic stop by Memphis police officers, in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., January 28, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Hundreds of protesters gathered in New York’s Washington Square Park before marching through Manhattan, as columns of police officers walked alongside them.

Taken together, the four video clips released Friday showed police pummeling Nichols even though he appeared to pose no threat. The initial traffic stop was for reckless driving, though the police chief has said the cause for the stop has not been substantiated.

The SCORPION unit, short for the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods, was formed in October 2021 to concentrate on crime hot spots. Critics say such specialized teams can be prone to abusive tactics.

Friends and family say Nichols was an affable, talented skateboarder who grew up in Sacramento, California, and moved to Memphis before the coronavirus pandemic. The father of a 4-year-old child, Nichols worked at FedEx and had recently enrolled in a photography class.

Nate Spates Jr., 42, was part of a circle of friends, including Nichols, who met up at a Starbucks in the area.

“He liked what he liked, and he marched to the beat of his own drum,” Spates said, remembering that Nichols would go to a park called Shelby Farms to watch the sunset when he wasn’t working a late shift.

Nichols’ death is the latest high-profile instance of police using excessive force against Black people and other minorities. The 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, galvanized worldwide protests over racial injustice.

Reporting by Maria Cardona in Memphis, Tennessee, and Diane Bartz in Washington; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Robert Birsel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Diane Bartz

Thomson Reuters

Focused on U.S. antitrust as well as corporate regulation and legislation, with experience involving covering war in Bosnia, elections in Mexico and Nicaragua, as well as stories from Brazil, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Nigeria and Peru.

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Business

FTX founder Bankman-Fried objects to tighter bail, says prosecutors ‘sandbagged’ him

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NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried on Saturday urged a U.S. judge not to ban the indicted FTX cryptocurrency executive from communicating with former colleagues as part of his bail, saying prosecutors “sandbagged” the process to put their client in the “worst possible light.”

The lawyers were responding to a Friday night request by federal prosecutors that Bankman-Fried not be allowed to talk with most employees of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund without lawyers present, or use the encrypted messaging apps Signal or Slack and potentially delete messages automatically.

Bankman-Fried, 30, has been free on $250 million bond since pleading not guilty to charges of fraud in the looting of billions of dollars from the now-bankrupt FTX.

Prosecutors said their request was in response to Bankman-Fried’s recent effort to contact a potential witness against him, the general counsel of an FTX affiliate, and was needed to prevent witness tampering and other obstruction of justice.

But in a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said prosecutors sprung the “overbroad” bail conditions without revealing that both sides had been discussing bail over the last week.

“Rather than wait for any response from the defense, the government sandbagged the process, filing this letter at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyers wrote. “The government apparently believes that a one-sided presentation – spun to put our client in the worst possible light – is the best way to get the outcome it seeks.”

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers also said their client’s efforts to contact the general counsel and John Ray, installed as FTX’s chief executive during the bankruptcy, were attempts to offer “assistance” and not to interfere.

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan declined to comment.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers proposed that their client have access to some colleagues, including his therapist, but not be allowed to talk with Caroline Ellison and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, who have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors.

They said a Signal ban isn’t necessary because Bankman-Fried is not using the auto-delete feature, and concern he might is “unfounded.”

The lawyers also asked to remove a bail condition preventing Bankman-Fried from accessing FTX, Alameda or cryptocurrency assets, saying there was “no evidence” he was responsible for earlier alleged unauthorized transactions.

In an order on Saturday, Kaplan gave prosecutors until Monday to address Bankman-Fried’s concerns.

“The court expects all counsel to abstain from pejorative characterizations of the actions and motives of their adversaries,” the judge added.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Factbox: FACTBOX Georgia on his mind: Donald Trump troubled by more legal woes

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Jan 25 (Reuters) – Donald Trump could learn soon whether he or any associates will be charged or cleared of wrongdoing in a Georgia probe into his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, one of a series of legal threats looming over the Republican former U.S. president:

GEORGIA ELECTION TAMPERING PROBE

On Tuesday, the prosecutor in the state of Georgia spoke to a judge on behalf of a special grand jury empanelled in May to investigate Trump’s alleged efforts to influence that state’s 2020 election results.

Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney and a Democrat who will ultimately decide whether to pursue charges against Trump or anyone else, said the grand jury had completed its task and decisions were “imminent.”

The investigation focuses in part on a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021. Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes needed to overturn Trump’s election loss in Georgia.

Legal experts said Trump may have violated at least three Georgia criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.

Trump could argue that his discussions were constitutionally protected free speech.

U.S. CAPITOL ATTACK

The U.S. Justice Department has investigations under way into both Trump’s actions in the 2020 election and his retention of highly classified documents after departing the White House in 2021.

Both investigations involving Trump are being overseen by Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor and political independent. Trump has accused the FBI, without evidence, of launching the probes as political retribution.

A special House of Representatives committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol urged the Justice Department to charge Trump with corruption of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and inciting or aiding an insurrection.

The request is non-binding. Only the Justice Department can decide whether to charge Trump, who has called the Democratic-led panel’s investigation a politically motivated sham.

MISSING GOVERNMENT RECORDS

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to investigate whether Trump improperly retained classified records at his Florida estate after he left office in 2021 and then tried to obstruct a federal investigation.

Garland also appointed former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur for Maryland to investigate the removal of classified records in President Joe Biden’s possession dating to his time as vice president.

It is unlawful to willfully remove or retain classified material.

In Trump’s case, the FBI seized 11,000 documents from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago Florida estate in a court-approved Aug. 8 search. About 100 documents were marked classified; some were designated top secret, the highest level of classification.

Trump has accused the Justice Department of engaging in a partisan witch hunt.

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL CIVIL LAWSUIT

New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a civil lawsuit filed in September that her office uncovered more than 200 examples of misleading asset valuations by Trump and the Trump Organization business between 2011 and 2021.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Commerce, Georgia, U.S. March 26, 2022. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer/File Photo

A Democrat, James accused Trump of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to obtain lower interest rates on loans and get better insurance coverage.

A New York judge ordered that an independent monitor be appointed to oversee the Trump Organization before the case goes to trial in October 2023.

James seeks to permanently bar Trump and his children Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka Trump from running companies in New York state, and to prevent them and his company from buying new properties and taking out new loans in the state for five years.

James also wants the defendants to hand over about $250 million that she says was obtained through fraud.

Trump has called the attorney general’s lawsuit a witch hunt. A lawyer for Trump has called James’ claims meritless.

James said her probe also uncovered evidence of criminal wrongdoing, which she referred to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service for investigation.

DEFAMATION CASE

E. Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, has filed two lawsuits accusing Trump of having defamed her when he denied her allegation that he raped her in New York’s Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996.

Trump accuses her of lying to drum up sales for a book.

Carroll first sued Trump after he denied the accusation in June 2019 and told a reporter at the White House that he did not know Carroll, that “she’s not my type,” and that she concocted the claim to sell her new memoir.

The second lawsuit arose from an October 2022 social media post where Trump called the rape claim a “hoax,” “lie,” “con job” and “complete scam,” and said “this can only happen to ‘Trump’!”

That lawsuit includes a battery claim under the Adult Survivors Act, which starting last Nov. 24 gave adults a one-year window to sue their alleged attackers even if statutes of limitations have expired.

A U.S. judge on Jan. 13 rejected as “absurd” Trump’s effort to dismiss the second lawsuit.

Trump and Carroll are awaiting a decision from a Washington, D.C., appeals court on whether, under local law, Trump should be immune from Carroll’s first lawsuit over his June 2019 comments.

That lawsuit would likely be dismissed if the court decided that Trump spoke within his role as president, and continue if Trump spoke in his personal capacity as Carroll argues.

Any decision would have no effect on Carroll’s second defamation and battery lawsuit. A trial in the first lawsuit is scheduled for April 10.

NEW YORK CRIMINAL PROBE

Although Trump was not charged with wrongdoing, his real estate company was found guilty on Dec. 6 of tax fraud in New York state. A judge this month sentenced Trump’s namesake real estate company to pay a $1.6 million criminal penalty, the maximum the judge could impose.

Jurors convicted the Trump Organization, which operates hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world, of paying personal expenses for top executives including former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, and issuing bonus checks to them as if they were independent contractors.

Weisselberg, the company’s former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty and was required to testify against the Trump Organization as part of his plea agreement. He is also a defendant in James’ civil lawsuit.

Reporting by Joseph Ax, Luc Cohen, Karen Freifeld, Sarah N. Lynch, Jonathan Stempel and Jacqueline Thomsen; Editing by Howard Goller

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World

Ex-kickboxer Andrew Tate says Romanian prosecutors have no evidence against him

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BUCHAREST, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Divisive internet personality Andrew Tate said on Wednesday there was no justice in Romania and that the case file against him in a criminal investigation for alleged human trafficking and rape was empty.

Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian female suspects have been in police custody since Dec. 29 pending an ongoing criminal investigation on charges of forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women, accusations they deny.

On Thursday, a Romanian court extended their detention until Feb. 27. Prosecutors have said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage.

The victims were then taken to properties on the outskirts of the capital Bucharest and through physical violence and mental intimidation were sexually exploited by being forced to produce pornographic content for social media sites that generated large financial gain, prosecutors said.

They also said Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer who holds U.S. and British nationality, raped one of the victims in March last year, which he has denied.

“They know we have done nothing wrong,” Tate told reporters as he was brought in for further questioning by anti-organised crime prosecutors, the first comments to the media since his arrest. “This file is completely empty. Of course it’s unjust, there is no justice in Romania unfortunately.”

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are escorted by police officers outside the headquarters of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, in Bucharest, Romania, January 10, 2023. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via REUTERS

Asked whether he has hurt women, Tate said: “Of course not.”

Earlier this month, Romanian authorities said they had seized goods and money worth 18 million lei ($3.99 million), including luxury cars and properties as a part of the investigation.

“There is no evidence against me,” Tristan Tate told reporters on Wednesday. “The authorities are planning to steal my cars and steal my money. That is why I am in jail.”

Prosecutors have said the seizure was meant to prevent the assets being concealed.

The Tates “are confident in the defence, they are confident in the evidence in their favour, they have given a detailed statement, they have collaborated (with authorities),” their lawyer Eugen Vidineac told reporters after the questioning.

“We believe the defence is starting to take shape.”

Andrew Tate gained mainstream notoriety for misogynistic remarks that got him banned from all major social media platforms, although his Twitter account was reinstated in November after Elon Musk acquired the social media network.

Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Octav Ganea; Editing by Nick Macfie and Daniel Wallis

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World

Indian university reports power cut ahead of Modi documentary screening

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NEW DELHI, Jan 24 (Reuters) – A top Indian university cut off power and internet supply on campus on Tuesday before a screening by its students’ union of a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India has dismissed as propaganda, broadcaster NDTV reported.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the capital New Delhi had threatened disciplinary action if the documentary was screened, saying the move might disturb peace and harmony on campus.

Modi’s government has labelled the documentary, which questioned his leadership during deadly riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002, as a “propaganda piece”, blocked its airing and also barred sharing of any clips via social media in India.

Modi was chief minister of the western state during the violence in which more than 2,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims.

The students’ union of the JNU, long seen as a bastion of left-wing politics, was to screen the documentary, “India: The Modi Question”, at 9 p.m. (1530 GMT).

A person present with students inside campus said the documentary was now being watched on mobile phones through links shared over Telegram and Vimeo (VMEO.O) after the power went out.

“There are about 300 people streaming the documentary now in campus on their phones since the power went out about half an hour before the screening,” the person, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters.

Footage from inside the campus showed some students huddled together and watching the film on a laptop propped up on a chair.

The JNU media coordinator did not comment when asked about reports of internet outage and a power cut inside the campus. A source in the administration said a fault in the power line caused outages in faculty residences and other facilities and the issue was being looked into.

The university administration earlier said it had not given permission for the documentary screening.

“This is to emphasise that such an unauthorised activity may disturb peace and harmony of the university campus,” it said.

“The concerned students/individuals are firmly advised to cancel the proposed programme immediately, failing which a strict disciplinary action may be initiated as per the university rules.”

Union president Aishe Ghosh had asked students via Twitter to attend the screening, describing it as having been “‘banned’ by an ‘elected government’ of the largest ‘democracy'”.

Ghosh did not respond to phone calls and a message after reports emerged of a power outage in campus.

Police vigilance was ramped up following a request from campus, police said.

The documentary was also screened at some campuses in the Communist-ruled southern state of Kerala, The Hindu newspaper reported.

India’s home ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the government’s plans if the film is shown at JNU and in Kerala.

The 2002 Gujarat violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59. Crowds later rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods. In 2017, 11 men were jailed for life for setting the train ablaze.

Modi has denied accusations that he did not do enough to stop the riots and was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court. Another petition questioning his exoneration was dismissed last year.

Last week, the BBC said the documentary was “rigorously researched” and involved a wide range of voices and opinions, including responses from people in Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly, Shivam Patel and Rupam Jain; additional reporting by Krishn Kaushik; Editing by Robert Birsel and Clarence Fernandez

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US

Ex-FBI official worked for sanctioned Russian oligarch, prosecutors say

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NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) – A former top FBI official was charged on Monday with working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, as U.S. prosecutors ramp up efforts to enforce sanctions on Russian officials and police their alleged enablers.

Charles McGonigal, who led the FBI’s counterintelligence division in New York before retiring in 2018, pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts including sanctions violations and money laundering at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.

He was released on $500,000 bond, following his arrest over the weekend.

Prosecutors said McGonigal, 54, in 2021 received concealed payments from Deripaska, who was sanctioned in 2018, in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch.

McGonigal was also charged with unsuccessfully pushing in 2019 to lift sanctions against Deripaska.

Sanctions “must be enforced equally against all U.S. citizens in order to be successful,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Michael Driscoll said in a statement. “There are no exceptions for anyone, including a former FBI official.”

Separately on Monday, federal prosecutors in Washington said McGonigal received $225,000 in cash from a former member of Albania’s intelligence service, who had been a source in an investigation into foreign political lobbying that McGonigal was supervising.

McGonigal faces nine counts in that case, including making false statements to conceal from the FBI the nature of his relationship with the person.

“This is obviously a distressing day for Mr McGonigal and his family,” the defendant’s lawyer Seth DuCharme told reporters after the Manhattan hearing. “We’ll review the evidence, we’ll closely scrutinize it, and we have a lot of confidence in Mr McGonigal.”

Deripaska, the founder of Russian aluminum company Rusal (RUAL.MM), was among two dozen Russian oligarchs and government officials blacklisted by Washington in 2018 in reaction to Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

He and the Kremlin have denied any election interference.

Also charged in the Manhattan case was Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet diplomat who later became an American citizen and Russian language interpreter for U.S. courts and government agencies.

Prosecutors said Shestakov he worked with McGonigal to help Deripaska, and made false statements to investigators.

Shestakov pleaded not guilty on Monday and was released on $200,000 bond.

The enforcement of sanctions are part of U.S. efforts to pressure Moscow to stop its war in Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation.”

Deripaska was charged last September with violating the sanctions against him by arranging to have his children born in the United States.

The following month, British businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was charged with conspiring to violate sanctions by trying to move Deripaska’s artwork out of the United States.

Deripaska is at large, and Bonham-Carter is contesting extradition to the United States.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien, Bill Berkrot, Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Luc Cohen

Thomson Reuters

Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.

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World

EU imposes new Iran sanctions, won’t brand Guards ‘terrorists’ for now

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BRUSSELS, Jan 23 (Reuters) – The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on more than 30 Iranian officials and organisations, including units of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, blaming them for a “brutal” crackdown on protesters and other human rights abuses.

The United States and Britain have also issued new sanctions against Iran, reflecting a deterioration in the West’s already dire relations with Tehran in recent months.

Foreign ministers from the EU’s 27 member countries agreed the measures at a meeting in Brussels.

The sanctions targeted units and senior officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) across Iran, including in Sunni-populated areas where the state crackdown has been intense, a list published in the EU’s Official Journal showed.

Some EU governments and the European Parliament have made clear they want the IRGC as a whole added to the bloc’s list of terrorist organisations. But the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, noted that could only happen if a court in an EU country determined the IRGC was guilty of terrorism.

“You cannot say ‘I consider you a terrorist because I don’t like you’,” he told reporters ahead of the Brussels talks.

The new sanctions were imposed on 18 people and 19 entities. Those targeted cannot travel to the EU and any assets they hold inside the EU can be frozen.

Relations between the EU and Tehran have spiralled downwards during stalled efforts to revive talks on its nuclear programme and as Iran has moved to detain several European nationals.

The bloc has also become increasingly critical of the continuing violent treatment of protesters in Iran, including executions, and the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia.

Sweden, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said the new sanctions targeted “those driving the repression.”

“The EU strongly condemns the brutal and disproportionate use of force by the Iranian authorities against peaceful protesters,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said in a Twitter post by the country’s EU diplomatic mission.

The IRGC was set up shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi’ite clerical ruling system. It has an estimated 125,000-strong military with army, navy and air units, and commands the Basij religious militia often used in crackdowns.

“The Iranian regime, the Revolutionary Guards terrorise their own population day after day,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Monday’s meeting.

The day before the Brussels meeting, over a thousand people took to the streets of the city to protest against the detention in Iran of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele.

Iran earlier warned the EU against designating the IRGC as a terrorist entity.

Reporting by Andrew Gray, Bart Meijer Philip Blenkinsop and Parisa Hafezi, Writing by Ingrid Melander and Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Peter Graff, Timothy Heritage and John Stonestreet

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India blocks BBC documentary on Modi from airing in India

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MUMBAI, Jan 22 (Reuters) – India has blocked the airing of a BBC documentary which questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots, saying that even sharing of any clips via social media is barred.

Directions to block the clips from being shared have been issued using emergency powers available to the government under the country’s information technology rules, said Kanchan Gupta, an adviser to the government, on his Twitter handle on Saturday.

While the BBC has not aired the documentary in India, the video was uploaded on some YouTube channels, Gupta said.

The government has issued orders to Twitter to block over 50 tweets linking to the video of the documentary and YouTube has been instructed to block any uploads of the video, Gupta said. Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the directions, he added.

Modi was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when it was gripped by communal riots that left more than 1,000 people dead, by government count – most of them Muslims. The violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59.

Human rights activists estimate at least double that number died in the rioting.

Modi denied accusations that he failed to stop the rioting. A special investigation team appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the role of Modi and others in the violence said in a 541-page report in 2012 it could find no evidence to prosecute the then chief minister.

Modi was later named the head of his party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which he led to power in general elections in 2014 and then in 2019.

Last week, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry termed the BBC documentary a “propaganda piece” meant to push a “discredited narrative”.

Reporting by Ira Dugal; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan

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