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(Bloomberg) — German law enforcement shut down what they say was the biggest illegal Darknet market place seizing 23 million euros ($25.2 million) worth of Bitcoin. 

The Russian-language Hydra Market platform was used for drug trafficking and money laundering and in 2020 alone had sales on 1.2 billion euros, the Frankfurt prosecutors’ anti-cybercrime unit said Tuesday. Prosecutors said they seized 543 Bitcoin in total.

Frankfurt Prosecutors and German federal police cooperated with U.S. authorities on the probe.

Hydra Market had about 17 million client accounts and more than 19,000 sales accounts. The server structure was in Germany. Last year, German police had already taken down the DarkMarket that about half a million people used to trade drugs and cryptocurrencies.

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(Bloomberg) — Across Ukraine’s farm belt, silos are bursting with 15 million tons of corn from the autumn harvest, most of which should have been hitting world markets. The stockpiles — about half the corn Ukraine had been expected to export for the season — have become increasingly difficult to get to buyers, providing a glimpse into the turmoil Russia’s war has wrought in the approximately $120 billion global …

The $120 Billion Global Grain Trade Is Being Redrawn by Russia’s War in Ukraine Read More »

(Bloomberg) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared an end to the state of disaster he declared more than two years ago to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Transitional measures, including the wearing of face masks at indoor public spaces and limits on gatherings, will remain in place until new regulations are promulgated next month, Ramaphosa …

South Africa Ends State of Disaster After More Than Two Years Read More »

(Bloomberg) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s prospects of winning a second term as head of the ruling African National Congress and the country received a boost when his allies wrested control of the party in a key province from a bloc loyal to his deputy, David Mabuza.  A former premier of Mpumalanga, Mabuza helped …

Ramaphosa Party Allies Take Power in Key South Africa Region Read More »

(Bloomberg) — KKR & Co. is open to exploring new deals with Telecom Italia SpA as alternatives to its original 10.8 billion-euro ($11.9 billion) full takeover proposal, according to a letter sent by the U.S. private equity firm late Monday.

“At present we are not able to reconfirm our proposed offer,” KKR said in the letter, which was seen by Bloomberg News. “We remain at your disposal to either complete due diligence on our proposed transaction, or explore any other transactions in the interest of the company, its shareholders and the country of Italy.” 

Telecom Italia shares rose as much as 2.6%, reversing earlier losses, after Bloomberg reported earlier about a possible new plan from KKR. Representatives for Telecom Italia and KKR declined to comment on the letter.

Bloomberg reported last week that KKR would abandon a full takeover bid on Telecom Italia if it was unable to proceed with so-called due diligence to examine the company’s finances.

Single Network

With Chief Executive Officer Pietro Labriola already working on a plan that mirrors some aspects of KKR’s takeover proposal, Telecom Italia could now invite the private equity firm to join its in-house project. KKR is already a key investor in Telecom Italia’s FiberCop fiber unit, where it invested 1.8 billion euros about two years ago. 

Read more: Telecom Italia Pushes KKR to End Bid, Join Spinoff Plan

Labriola’s strategy calls for landline assets to be merged with those of smaller, state-backed rival Open Fiber SpA, aligning Telecom Italia with a government goal of building a single national fiber network while avoiding duplicate investments.

As part of that plan, state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA, Telecom Italia’s second-largest investor, would get a majority stake in the company’s fixed network assets, people familiar with the matter said earlier this year. Cassa Depositi, known as CDP, is also the controlling shareholder of Open Fiber. 

Telecom Italia over the weekend confirmed that it signed a non-disclosure agreement with CDP to start preliminary discussions on integrating its network with that of Open Fiber. That deal is also open to KKR and other funds, two other people familiar with the matter said.

Separately,  CVC Capital Partners last month made a non-binding offer for 49% of Telecom Italia’s new enterprise services unit. Telecom Italia plans to discuss CVC’s bid at a board meeting scheduled for April 7, after the company’s annual general meeting, people familiar with the matter said earlier.

(Updates with shares, company plan from third paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) —

Crypto exchange FTX US agreed to take a stake in IEX Group Inc., owner of the stock exchange made famous by “Flash Boys,” as they team up on technology and regulatory efforts to expand access to digital assets for retail and institutional investors.

The companies plan to collaborate on building a market structure for trading crypto securities and work closely with regulators, according to a statement Tuesday. FTX US declined to disclose terms, saying it will be a “significant investor” in IEX. The deal is set to close next month, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions.

“With this investment, we’re aligned with one of the most trusted and innovative companies in equities markets,” Sam Bankman-Fried, chief executive officer of FTX and FTX US, said in the statement. 

Crypto and traditional financial markets are moving closer together. The partnership with FTX is the first substantial push into trading digital assets for IEX, the exchange operator featured in “Flash Boys,” the Michael Lewis book about high-frequency trading. The firm will provide entry points for institutional investors to access digital assets, spokesperson Vera Newhouse said in an interview. FTX US is entering into equities trading, and has also made a push for institutional clients. 

Read More: A 30-Year-Old Crypto Billionaire Wants to Give His Fortune Away

IEX has taken less market share than its public rivals such as Nasdaq Inc. and Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s New York Stock Exchange. The firm represented 2.7% of U.S. equities volume in March, compared with Nasdaq’s more than 17%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

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(Bloomberg) — The largest retirement community in the U.S. now doubles as the country’s second most-dynamic metropolitan area — sandwiched in the rankings between two California technology hubs.

Florida’s The Villages, has attracted early retirees, swelling its population, and also become a magnet for the host of services demanded by its community — from health to entertainment. It surged up to second place in 2021 from 11th the previous year in an annual index of more than 380 metropolitan areas released by Heartland Forward.

San Jose, Silicon Valley’s biggest city, took top spot, while San Francisco — while struggling to recover from the Covid-19 crisis — took third. Heartland, a think tank focused on economic development in the central states of the U.S., said the San Francisco Bay area remains a center of innovation and continues to attract high-tech talent.

The “Most Dynamic Metropolitans” report, in its third annual edition, ranks places based on criteria that include economic, employment and wage growth, as well entrepreneurship metrics like business creation.

Many cities at the top experienced population growth, including St. George, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, where newly remote workers flocked during the pandemic.

Among the sharpest declines in the ranking are metros that are dependent on oil and gas, despite the surge in energy prices last year and into 2022. Midland, Texas — No. 1 in 2019 and 2020 — sank to 38th.

Rocky Mountains 

The study reflects the geographic shifts of the past couple of years. Smaller metropolitan areas with outdoor activities and tourist attractions lured remote workers who fled big coastal cities and travelers who might have gone abroad if not for Covid.

Rocky Mountain states claimed a dozen of the top 25 spots in 2021, including five for Utah and three each for Idaho and Colorado.

The ranking also points to the boom in logistics and manufacturing hubs that benefited from the explosive growth in e-commerce, and from businesses seeking to lower their reliance on production overseas. A key example is the Memphis, Tennessee, area — home to the country’s busiest cargo airport thanks to FedEx Corp.

Arkansas appears to be another beneficiary — last year more people moved to the southern state than departed it for the first time since 2003, according to a study of migration patterns by Atlas Van Lines. 

The Fayetteville, Arkansas, area, home of the ever-expanding mega-retailer Walmart Inc. in Bentonville, is now competing with the coasts for talent, according to Heartland Forward, which is based there. The region, which combines a big university and outdoor amenities, is also in LinkedIn Corp.’s top 10 “opportunity magnet” metropolitan areas. 

Manufacturing centers including Columbus, Ohio — where Intel Corp. plans to open a massive computer-chip hub — and the nearby Cleveland area moved up in the Heartland Forward report. So did several Michigan locations.

While coastal superstar cities and tech centers remain highly ranked, the 2021 index shows that smaller and medium-sized places with a mix of new businesses and established companies or universities are gaining significant ground.

“Covid has taught us that diversification of a community’s economic ecosystem is what provides resilience during uncertainty,” said Ross DeVol, president and chief executive officer of Heartland Forward. “We hope that will be a takeaway from our current report.”

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(Bloomberg) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced an end to the state of disaster he declared more than two years ago to manage the coronavirus pandemic.

Transitional measures, including the wearing of face masks at indoor public spaces and limits on gatherings, will remain in place until new regulations are promulgated next month, Ramaphosa said in a speech broadcast on state radio on Monday. The announcement enables all economic activity to continue as normal.

“The end of the state of disaster is a firm commitment to rebuild our economy even while the coronavirus exists among us,” he said.

The rand gained 0.4% to 14.5361 per dollar by 11:26 a.m. on Tuesday, while the benchmark government 10-year bond yield dropped five basis points to 9.89%, the lowest in more than a month.

The government introduced a series of strict lockdowns under the state of disaster, including restrictions on business activity that led to the biggest economic contraction in at least 73 years in 2020.

South Africa has had 3.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases so far and more than 100,000 of those who were diagnosed with the disease have died, although excess-deaths data show the true toll is probably about three times higher. About 44% of adults have been fully vaccinated.

The highest number of Covid-related deaths during the fourth wave of infections in February was 240, compared with 420 during the third wave in July 2021, Ramaphosa said. In the past week, the highest daily number of fatalities was 12.

(Updates with rand, bond gains in fourth paragraph)

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(Bloomberg) — Murder investigators in the European Union avoided a blanket ban on the use of suspects’ phone records even as the bloc’s top court confirmed a prohibition on the retention of swathes of citizens’ communications data.

The EU Court of Justice said on Tuesday that EU law “precludes the general and indiscriminate” scooping up of traffic and location data by crime agencies. But on the other hand, judges said national rules can allow the “targeted” retention of traffic and location data for “the purposes of combating serious crime and preventing serious threats to public security.”

The Luxembourg-based EU court in a landmark ruling in 2020 said only serious threats to national security should warrant access to phone data stored on a general and indiscriminate basis. That exemption includes terrorism cases, and an EU court adviser in November said it excludes both market-abuse cases and alleged murders.

EU judges weighed in after Irish judges sought guidance in a high-profile murder case that was based on the use of phone records gleaned by police. Graham Dwyer was convicted by an Irish court in 2015 for the murder of Elaine O’Hara, a childcare worker, in 2012. The case quickly earned notoriety in Ireland amid a nine week long trial, with Dwyer’s personal life widely publicized, as has been his time in prison.

In Tuesday’s judgment, the EU court said “the admissibility of evidence obtained by means of such retention” was a matter of national law.

A spokesman for Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the Irish case “will will now revert to the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice will consider, together with the Attorney General’s Office, the judgment of the Supreme Court when the case is finalized.”

Inside-Trading Case Into $23 Million Jackpot Hangs by Thread 

The EU court’s ruling could also offer clues on the outcome in a separate case that will be decisive for one of France’s biggest insider-trading probe, where the two main suspects challenged investigators’ rights to access their phone records. An adviser to the EU court in November criticized French law at the time for failing to guarantee their privacy rights. 

The case is: C-140/20,  G.D. v. The Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Ressources, Attorney General.

 

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(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk didn’t take long to start stirring things up for Twitter Inc. — and its new CEO.

Less than 24 hours after revealing he’s acquired a 9.2% passive stake in the company, the Tesla Inc. chief asked Twitter users whether they wanted an edit button, offering misspelled “yes” and “no” options in his usual eccentric style. The billionaire has posted recently about what he views as shortcomings of the service, where he has more than 80 million followers and has filled the void left by Donald Trump as one of the most influential accounts. 

Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, who succeeded Jack Dorsey as CEO in November, quickly quote-tweeted the poll and recited words Musk had used earlier about Twitter’s adherence to free speech principles: “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.” The Twitter CEO may have been mocking Musk’s query, though the action shows he’s keeping a close eye on the account of the Tesla and SpaceX chief.

Elon Musk’s ‘Passive’ Stake in Twitter Belies His Big Influence

Twitter’s official account posted a message on April 1 saying “we are working on an edit button,” which may have been intended as an April Fool’s joke; however it collected more than 1.3 million likes, suggesting the demand for such a facility is high.

The option to edit posts after publishing has been a longstanding request of Twitter users frustrated with the inability to fix typos on published posts or correct misstatements on viral tweets. Musk’s poll had nearly 2.3 million votes late on Monday, split 74% for “yse” and 26% for “on.”

(Updates with latest poll figures)

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