Raphael Stevens

London-based Standard Chartered, which primarily serves clients in emerging markets, was previously punished with more than $1.7 billion in fines after admitting in 2012 and 2019 to violating sanctions on Iran and other blacklisted countries.
The bank denies that it ran transactions for any organizations designated as terrorists.
Court filings provided by former Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) employee turned whistleblower Julian Knight claim that U.S. officials lied by denying that Knight provided them with evidence of far greater wrongdoing by the bank.

Standard Chartered Plc bank branch in Hong Kong
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Recent documents submitted to a U.S. federal court allege that major British bank Standard Chartered helped finance sanctioned Iranian entities and terrorist groups, and that relevant evidence was ignored by American authorities.
London-based Standard Chartered, which primarily serves clients in emerging markets, was previously punished with more than a combined $1.7 billion in fines after admitting in 2012 and 2019 to violating sanctions on Iran and other blacklisted countries.

The bank denies that it ran transactions for any organizations designated as terrorists.
The latest court filings, provided by former Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) employee turned whistleblower Julian Knight, claim that U.S. officials lied by denying that he provided them with evidence of far greater wrongdoing by the bank. The officials then applied to dismiss his whistleblower case against the bank as “meritless” in 2019 in order to shield it, Knight alleged. He has now asked a U.S. federal court in New York to reinstate the case.
Knight, who led a Standard Chartered transaction services unit between 2009 and 2011, was one of two whistleblowers who gave U.S. investigators confidential bank statements in 2012 and 2013. The statements documenting transactions that he says contained proof of further sanctions breaches, including violations beyond 2007, when the bank said it had stopped any dealings with Iran.
Knight’s court filing alleges that the U.S. government committed a “colossal fraud” against the legal system by denying he had presented “damning evidence” that Standard Chartered “facilitated many billions of dollars in banking transactions for Iran, numerous international terror groups, and the front companies for those groups,” according to a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Some of that evidence, the court filing says, showed that the bank’s clients included front companies for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Palestinian militant group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Iran-linked entities in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Germany and other countries. 

The two whistleblowers alleged that U.S. authorities who investigated Standard Chartered “made false statements to a court in order to have their [Knight’s and his colleague’s] claim for a whistleblower’s reward dismissed” in 2019, the BBC reported.
The authorities in question, including an FBI agent, said that the whistleblowers’ claims “did not lead to the discovery of any new … violations.” The court then dismissed the case as “meritless.” CNBC has contacted the U.S. Department of Justice for comment.
The ICIJ report says Knight’s latest claim alleges that the U.S. government “lied that it had conducted ‘a lengthy, costly, and substantial investigation’ into his claims or it was “fully aware” of the transactions he had provided “and simply lied to conceal them,” adding: “The Government’s own statements support the latter scenario.”
In response to a CNBC request for comment, a Standard Chartered spokesperson described Knight’s court filing as “another attempt to use fabricated claims against the bank, following previous unsuccessful attempts” and said that the “false allegations underpinning it have been thoroughly discredited by the U.S. authorities who undertook a comprehensive investigation into the claims and said they were ‘meritless’ and did not show any violations of U.S. sanctions.” More

The U.S. Small Business Administration plans to unveil new government-backed credit lines of up to $5 million for small businesses, SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman told CNBC.
The SBA is launching a working capital pilot program in the coming months that is designed to be more attractive to both lenders and borrowers than the agency’s existing products, Guzman said in a phone interview.
The SBA’s new working capital lines will have an annual fee and interest rates based on the prime rate plus 3% to 6.5%, which would be roughly 12% to 15% today, according to the agency.

Ira L. Black – Corbis | Corbis News | Getty Images

The U.S. Small Business Administration plans to unveil new government-backed credit lines of up to $5 million for small businesses, SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman told CNBC.
The SBA is launching a working capital pilot program in the coming months that is designed to be more attractive to both lenders and borrowers than the agency’s existing products, Guzman said in a phone interview.

“An ongoing challenge for small businesses who are trying to go after that contract, perhaps to help us rebuild infrastructure … or a manufacturing facility that’s trying to expand its orders, is being able to have working capital to deliver against that,” Guzman said.
The project is part of the SBA’s efforts to broaden its flagship lending program for American small businesses. Through its 7(a) loan program, the SBA provides guaranties to lenders to encourage them to extend loans to small business owners.
The program backed more than 57,000 loans worth $27.5 billion last year, a 7% increase from 2022; most of those loans were for less than $350,000.

Isabel Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) nominee for U.S. President Joe Biden, is sworn in during a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021.
Bill Leary | Bloomberg | Getty Images

But the SBA’s efforts to provide revolving lines of credit have had “less uptake” from lenders and business owners than the agency had hoped, Guzman said.
The agency’s SBA Express loan, for instance, offers credit lines of up to $500,000, but with a 50% guaranty, which made it less appealing to lenders, she said. Another SBA product called CapLines had a complicated fee structure that wasn’t as affordable, Guzman said.

“This product is our aim to increase access to a simpler working capital line,” Guzman said. “It basically takes the best of our various options to create a pilot program to see if we can get more borrowers an affordable working capital line, versus just a pure reliance on credit cards” or other capital sources,  she said.
The SBA’s new working capital lines will have an annual fee and interest rates based on the prime rate plus 3% to 6.5%, which would be roughly 12% to 15% today, according to the agency. They will allow small business owners to either fund specific projects or borrow against their assets.
Loans larger than $150,000 will have a 75% guaranty by the SBA, limiting the losses that lenders face if customers can’t repay their debts. Loans smaller than $150,000 have an 85% guaranty, the agency said.
“In an environment of higher interest rates, we want to make sure that the SBA is an option for more businesses,” Guzman said.
Business owners interested in applying when the program goes live should head to the SBA’s website or its pre-screening lender platform, she said.

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Pavlo Gonchar | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

E-Trade is having internal discussions about whether to ban Keith Gill — the meme stock trader who just disclosed a big position in GameStop — from the trading platform over concerns regarding potential market manipulation, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The brokerage, owned by Morgan Stanley, hasn’t reached a decision yet, the Journal said, citing people familiar with deliberations inside the firm.

GameStop shares shot up early Monday after Gill, who goes by “DeepF——Value” on Reddit, posted a screenshot of what could be his portfolio holding a significant amount of GameStop common shares and call options. The meme stock leader holds 5 million shares of GameStop and a position of 120,000 call options with a strike price of $20 that expire on June 21, purchased for about $5.68 each, the screenshot showed.
E-Trade declined comment to CNBC, noting “we don’t publicly discuss the individual activity of our clients.”
Morgan Stanley’s global financial-crimes unit and external counsel began debating if it should cancel Gill’s account as the firm monitored his account activity, the Journal said.
The brokerage found that in May Gill had bought call options before he posted on social media platform X, the Journal said, adding that some of those contracts expired that week, meaning he likely made a profit.
The meme stock mania in 2021 led to a series of congressional hearings, including testimony by Gill, around brokers’ practices and gamifying retail stock trading. Gill also faced several class action lawsuits, including one alleging that he pretended to be a novice trader despite being a licensed professional.

Gill worked as a marketing and financial education employee at MassMutual in 2019 and 2020.
— Click here to read the WSJ story. More

Keith Gill still owned 5 million shares of GameStop and 120,000 call options with a strike price of $20 that expire on June 21, according to a screenshot he showed.
The meme stock leader known as ‘Roaring Kitty’ is behind GameStop’s recent roller-coaster ride.
E-Trade, the Morgan Stanley-owned brokerage Gill uses, is holding internal talks about whether to ban him from the platform, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Keith Gill, known on Reddit under the pseudonym DeepF——-Value and as Roaring Kitty, is seen on a fragment of a youtube video displayed on a smartphone screen in front of GameStop logo.
Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Meme stock leader Keith Gill, who’s behind GameStop’s recent roller-coaster ride, appeared to hold onto his big position in the video game retailer even after Monday’s big rally.
Gill, whose handle is “DeepF——Value” on Reddit and “Roaring Kitty” on YouTube and X, posted another screenshot of his portfolio showing the same common stock and call option holdings Monday after the stock market closed as those he shared Sunday evening. He still owned 5 million shares of GameStop and 120,000 call options with a strike price of $20 that expire on June 21, the screenshot showed.

The post on Reddit’s r/SuperStonk forum could not be independently verified by CNBC. 
Shares of GameStop climbed about 4% in extended trading following his latest Reddit post.

Arrows pointing outwards

GameStop closed Monday’s volatile session up 21%, after soaring as much as 70% at one point intraday. The stock was hit by a Wall Street Journal report in afternoon trading saying E-Trade, the Morgan Stanley-owned brokerage Gill uses, is holding internal talks about whether to ban him from the platform over concerns regarding potential market manipulation.
Gill’s latest post came shortly after the WSJ report. It appeared to show the trader did not sell even as the value of his common stock stake alone jumped to $140 million from $115.7 million in a single day. More

Workers tend to leave paid time off, like vacation days, on the table each year.
Those unused days may not roll over to next year; you may also not get a financial benefit by forgoing them.
There are ways to take vacation time more efficiently and maximize the quality of the days off, experts said.

D3sign | Moment | Getty Images

Americans aren’t good at taking vacation.
About 62% of workers say having a job with paid time off — for vacations or illness — is “extremely important” to them, more so than benefits like health insurance, a 401(k) plan or paid parental leave, according to a Pew Research Center report from 2023. However, 46% don’t use all the time off made available to them, Pew found.

“If you never take vacation or have time off, you’re not honoring how humans were created and what we need to stay refreshed,” said Elizabeth Grace Saunders, a time management coach. “We’re biological human beings. We’re not machines.”
The number of vacation days workers typically get depends on a variety of factors, like company tenure, income and industry.
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For example, on average, private sector employers offer 11 vacation days after one year of service; 15 days after five years; 18 days after 10 years; and 20 days after 20 years, according to 2023 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, 32% of employees say their unused vacation days don’t roll over to the next year, while 28% don’t get paid for unused days, according to a 2022 poll by Qualtrics.

What’s more, the U.S. is the only developed nation that doesn’t require that workers get paid vacation, according to a 2019 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

About 21% of Americans who work in the private sector don’t get paid vacation, and 20% do not get paid holidays, according to the BLS.
Those who work in service jobs, earn lower wages, have part-time or non-union roles or work at smaller companies are much less likely to get them, agency data shows.
Here’s how you can maximize your vacation time, whether paid or unpaid — both for efficiency and overall quality, according to experts.

‘Play a little Tetris’

Grouping vacation days with other guaranteed time off helps extend your time away without sacrificing additional paid time off, experts said.
In other words: Take advantage of weekends and paid holidays.
For example, July 4 this year falls on a Thursday. Taking off just one day (Friday, July 5) would give you a four-day weekend.
“Play a little Tetris” with your calendar, Saunders said.
There’s often a trade-off with this approach, however.
For example, traveling around holidays or flying on weekend days like Friday and Sunday are generally busier and more expensive, said Sally French, a travel expert at NerdWallet.

Leverage business travel, remote work

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images

Workers may be able to bookend business trips with vacation time, French said.
If your company sends you to a conference in another state for part of the workweek, you might take a vacation day to spend an extra day in your destination city, French explained.
If coupled with a weekend, workers may not even need to use any paid time off, she said. The company may also cover a portion of the costs like airfare, she added.
Additionally, those who work remotely or only part time in the office may be able to leverage those arrangements to get away without taking time off, French said. (There’s even a practice especially among younger workers known as “quiet vacationing,” whereby workers work around a dearth of PTO by secretly taking time off.)
Hotels leaned into this trend during the Covid-19 pandemic, offering amenities like rooms for video calls and co-working spaces free for guests, she said.
“That trend really has not died off even in 2024,” she said.
Workers with this flexibility can also more easily take advantage of traveling on cheaper days, like midweek for flights, she added.

Pace PTO in a ‘measured’ way

Pacing vacation days throughout the year in a “measured” way helps prevent burnout, Saunders said.
She recommends taking at least one day off every month — or at least every couple months — even if it’s just a staycation.

People who don’t take a vacation until “feeling really burnt out” get to a point where they don’t enjoy work and need two or three days of vacation just to feel “normal” again, she said.
Workers who don’t get many days off (perhaps 10 total, for example) may want to consider taking one longer trip that requires four or five PTO days and bundling their remaining days with paid holidays, Saunders said.

Boost that ‘refreshed’ feeling

People may feel more “refreshed” by PTO if they take days off strategically during different periods of busy-ness at work, Saunders said.  
Taking time off during busy periods feels more “refreshing” than doing so when things are more chill, for example, she said.
Of course, people may not be able to get away during crunch time or may not have people to whom they can delegate work while they’re away; for such people, taking time off during chiller periods may be more beneficial to avoid work stress while on vacation.
Likewise, it may help to give yourself an extra day before returning to work — by returning Saturday instead of Sunday, let’s say — to take care of errands like laundry, French said.
That buffer may give some additional peace of mind, she said.

Give yourself an ‘acceptable minimum’

Many people may avoid taking time off due to feelings of guilt.
For example, 43% of Americans don’t use all their PTO because they feel badly about co-workers taking on extra work, according to Pew Research Center.  
Additionally, some studies have shown that workers who get “unlimited” PTO tend to take off less time relative to those with a set limit.
Workers who struggle to take time off should set a personal “acceptable minimum” — for example, ensuring you take off at least 15 days in any given year, Saunders said.  
And try to fully unplug while on vacation, experts advise.
Put up your “out of office” message, turn off e-mail notifications and don’t take work calls; if you absolutely must, try to limit work to just one hour a day, Saunders said.

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