Raphael Stevens

As a former start-up investor and the co-founder and CEO of $1 billion autos marketplace Carro, Aaron Tan knows a thing or two about running a business.
But if he had one piece of advice for other would-be entrepreneurs, it would be this: don’t go it alone.

“I don’t know whether I am qualified enough to give advice, per se. But I would always say that you should try to find a core team of people,” Tan told CNBC Make It.
For 36-year-old Tan, it was critical to his business.

You first of all need to find that group of friends that is willing to take the leap of faith with you.

Aaron Tan
co-founder and CEO, Carro

When he was first inspired to build an algorithm to help car buyers and sellers compare the best deals across Southeast Asia, he quickly enlisted his friends from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science to join him on the journey.
Tan is Singaporean, and his co-founders Aditya Lesmana and Kelvin Chng are Indonesian and Thai respectively. That meant that together, they had a much better understanding of the markets they were targeting and the problems they were solving — more so than Tan would have ever had on his own.
“One thing that I always give thanks to is that my team tends to be very international from day zero. This makes it a lot easier for us when we enter a market,” said Tan.

Aaron Tan, co-founder and CEO of Southeast Asian autos marketplace Carro.
Carro

It’s advice that harks back to Tan’s early days as a venture capitalist (VC) investing in companies across the U.S. and Southeast Asia.
A strong founding team is important for a start-up, he said.
“As a former VC, I saw companies, and we didn’t invest, mainly because there was one strong individual and there were no co-founders,” said Tan.

what is very important is to support each other, and for that matter, complement each other.

Aaron Tan
co-founder and CEO, Carro

“For me, what is very important is to support each other, and for that matter, complement each other,” he added.
According to Tan, a founder’s ability to build a founding team is a good sign they are self-aware and understand their strengths and weaknesses. But it also demonstrates their ability to convince others of their vision.
“You will know whether or not you are able to start a company after some time because you are able to find more people that believe in the journey,” said Tan.
“You first of all need to find that group of friends that is willing to take the leap of faith with you before you are able to find the next 100, the next 1,000 people to grow your company,” he said.
Don’t miss: How 3 college friends built a $1 billion business selling used cars
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The Pandora Papers, a collection of nearly 12 million private financial records, reveal the global tax havens of the affluent and powerful.
The super-wealthy have dodged levies by hiding money in mansions, yachts and other property in low-tax places worldwide.
Trust companies in South Dakota, Nevada and more than a dozen other states have made it easier for the elite to dodge taxes, according to published reports.

Offshore tax havens have long been a refuge for wealthy individuals trying to hide assets.
Now, states like South Dakota, Nevada and others have also become magnets for those dodging taxes.

That’s according to the Pandora Papers, a collection of nearly 12 million leaked private financial records gathered by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. 

Downtown Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Dan Brouillette | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The documents revealed those hiding money in mansions, yachts and other property in low-tax sanctuaries worldwide.
“These people are what Charlie Murphy would call ‘habitual line steppers,'” said Eric Pierre, an Austin, Texas-based certified public accountant, owner of Pierre Accounting and co-host of the CPA Huddle podcast.
More from Personal Finance:What to do if Democrats ax the backdoor Roth IRA strategyWealthy may avoid $163 billion in taxes every year. Here’s how they do itThese year-end tax moves may help you save, whatever happens in Congress
Historically, when the ultra-wealthy wanted to shelter money from creditors or taxing authorities, they funneled money into places like Switzerland or the Cayman Islands, said Michael Heller, vice dean and professor of real estate law at Columbia Law School.

While banking abroad isn’t illegal, some Americans and U.S. companies failed to report earnings. Congress cracked down in 2010 with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, requiring international banks to report U.S.-owned accounts.
A few years later, other countries agreed to disclose foreign-held assets to each other, known as the Common Reporting Standard. However, the U.S. doesn’t follow this practice, Heller said.

U.S. tax havens

Without rules to report foreign-owned assets to investors’ respective countries, the U.S. has become “the world’s dumping ground for hot money,” Heller said.
“Foreign wealthy families wanted to come to the U.S. because they got both the security from the U.S. banking system and the secrecy that they formerly got from places like Switzerland,” he said.
And some states have altered tax and estate policies to capture the inflows of wealth, Heller said, boosting the appeal for domestic and investors abroad.

Tax shelters in South Dakota

South Dakota, in particular, has become a “major destination for foreign assets,” according to the Pandora Papers, with 81 trusts named in the report.
The state’s trust assets have more than quadrupled to $360 billion over the past decade, the report finds.
“Year after year in South Dakota, state lawmakers have approved legislation drafted by trust industry insiders, providing more and more protections and other benefits for trust customers in the U.S. and abroad,” the Papers said.
One of the biggest incentives is the state’s ban on the “rule against perpetuities” for so-called dynasty trusts, allowing families to pass wealth from generation to generation, indefinitely, without estate taxes at each death.

You can set up a [dynasty] trust in South Dakota, and it can go on forever.

Rick Kahler
President of Kahler Financial Group

“You can set up a [dynasty] trust in South Dakota, and it can go on forever,” said certified financial planner Rick Kahler, president of Kahler Financial Group in Rapid City, South Dakota.
By contrast, many states limit dynasty trusts, with caps of 21 years after the death of the last beneficiary upon creation in some places.
Another perk in South Dakota is access to so-called domestic asset protection trusts, which may guard investments against creditors while still offering some control over the property.
These trusts can make it easier for someone to shield money from ex-spouses, estranged business partners and other judgments, Pierre said.

The person in charge of the trust, known as the trustee, may also have the flexibility in South Dakota to move funds from one trust to another, known as decanting, Heller said.
Moreover, the state doesn’t have income, capital gains, estate or inheritance taxes.  
“There’s no doubt that a lot of money has come to South Dakota,” said Kahler.
“It has been good economically,” he said. “And quite frankly, I have never heard of this type of abuse.” 

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Shares of Hertz jumped by as much as 13.3% after the car rental company named former Ford CEO Mark Fields as its interim chief executive officer.
Fields, who led Ford from 2014 to 2017, joined the Hertz board of directors in June.
Hertz is at a critical stage following its emergence from bankruptcy in June after operations were devastated last year by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hertz rental cars are parked in a rental lot near Detroit Metropolitan airport in Romulus, Michigan.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

Shares of Hertz Global on Tuesday were up by as much as 13.3% after the car rental company named former Ford CEO Mark Fields as its interim chief executive officer.
Fields, who led Ford from 2014 to 2017, joined the Hertz board of directors in June. He is a senior advisor to TPG Capital and a CNBC contributor.

Hertz said Fields succeeds Paul Stone, who is becoming president and chief operations officer.
The appointments are effective immediately, according to the company.
Hertz is at an important stage after its emergence from bankruptcy in June. The company’s operations were devastated last year by the coronavirus pandemic, forcing it to restructure and shed debt.

“Hertz’s unmatched global footprint will be combined with forward-looking investments that completely change the face of travel and mobility,” Fields said in a statement. “The world is going to be hearing a lot from Hertz in the weeks and months ahead.”
Shares of Hertz closed up nearly 10% to $22.15 on Tuesday.

In May, Hertz said a group of investors, including Knighthead Capital Management, Certares Opportunities and Apollo Capital Management, were funding the company’s exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and a $6 billion turnaround plan.
Fields held multiple positions during his 28-year career at Ford, including productive stints leading the automaker’s operations in North America and Europe. His tenure as CEO was not as successful. He was ousted in 2017 due to the company’s lagging stock price and lack of a solid vision for the automaker regarding electric and autonomous vehicles.
At Ford, he succeeded former Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Alan Mulally, who is credited with turning around the automaker’s operations and keeping it out of bankruptcy during the Great Recession.

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Norwegian Cruise Lines currently has eight ships in service across its three brands, and all on board must provide proof of full Covid vaccination before setting sail.
The cruise line’s full fleet of 28 ships will resume service by April 1, CEO Frank Del Rio said Tuesday.
A majority, 75%, of the company’s vessels will return to regular operations by the end of the year, he said.

Norwegian Cruise Lines CEO Frank Del Rio said Tuesday that his full fleet of 28 ships will resume service by April 1 for the first time since the pandemic anchored most of the cruise industry across the world — with 75% of the company’s vessels returning to regular operations by the end of the year.
Norwegian currently has eight ships in service across its three cruise brands, and all on board must provide proof of full vaccination before setting sail.

“If anything, the world is opening up, more people are getting vaccinated,” Del Rio told CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “Pent-up demand continues to be very, very strong for the sailings we’ve operated thus far.”

The Norwegian Dawn cruise ship arriving in the French Mediterranean port of Marseille, July 27, 2021.
Gerard Bottino | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

The company requires all passengers and crew to be vaccinated before boarding and isn’t allowing unvaccinated children who aren’t yet eligible for the shots to sail, he said.
Those under 12 are not yet allowed to receive their Covid shots, but Pfizer submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration last month in hopes of receiving an emergency use authorization to administer vaccines to 5- to 11-year-olds. If the EUA is approved, Del Rio said, fully immunized children in that age group would be allowed to cruise.
The FDA will review Pfizer’s findings at a meeting Oct. 26, and vaccines could roll out to 5- to 11-year-olds as soon as Halloween.

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“Are we missing some customers? Possibly,” Del Rio said of the vaccine mandate. “But today, we believe that our mandate is a competitive advantage.”

Miami-based Norwegian clashed with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this summer over the state’s law banning businesses from demanding proof of vaccination from customers. Norwegian said on Aug. 8 that a federal judge issued a temporary injunction to preserve the company’s proof of vaccination requirement.
Despite the cruise line’s stringent vaccine protocols, Del Rio said Covid booster shots are not yet required for passengers and employees. But he said Norwegian could either mandate boosters if the pandemic worsens or adjust the company’s existing vaccine guidelines as the pandemic wanes and more people immunize against the virus.
“I myself got the booster two weeks ago because I qualify,” Del Rio said. “And so when the timing’s right, if the pandemic continues to be a threat to mankind, then we’ll have to consider that.”

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Some 56 countries fell short of the WHO’s goal of getting 10% of their populations immunized against the virus by the end of September.
“Not meeting that target is heartbreaking,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid. “If we had used the more than 6 billion vaccines that have been administered today differently, we would be in a very, very different situation right now.”
In Africa, just 15 of the continent’s 54 nations have vaccinated 10% or more of their population. Two African nations have yet to receive any vaccines.

Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the World Health Organization’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, speaks during a press conference following an emergency committee meeting over the new coronavirus in Geneva on Jan. 22, 2020.
Pierre Albouy | AFP | Getty Images

A World Health Organization official said Tuesday that unvaccinated people are “dying unnecessarily” from Covid-19, citing global vaccine inequities as one of the main obstacles to immunizing more people against the virus.
Some 56 countries fell short of the WHO’s goal of getting 10% of their populations immunized against the virus by the end of September, officials said in a Q&A livestreamed on its social media channels. Increasing access to vaccines would help reduce Covid deaths and hospitalizations as the world approaches 5 million coronavirus fatalities, said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19.

“Not meeting that target is heartbreaking; it’s more than heartbreaking, it’s more than frustrating,” she said. “It’s beyond words, I have to say, because if we had used the more than 6 billion vaccines that have been administered today differently, we would be in a very, very different situation right now.”

She said the data on Covid vaccines shows very clearly that they are safe and effective at preventing hospitalizations and death.
“They just need to be accessible” to more people, she said. “The result of this are people who are dying unnecessarily.”
Van Kerkhove’s comments echo those of U.S. health officials who have said that almost all Covid deaths recorded nationwide have been among unvaccinated patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Sept. 10 that unvaccinated people are 11 times likelier to die from Covid, 10 times likelier to require hospitalization for their symptoms and roughly 4.5 times likelier to contract the virus overall.

CNBC Health & Science

But with inoculations stalling in poorer nations and hospitals struggling to keep up with the more transmissible delta variant, Van Kerkhove said vaccines should be prioritized for those most vulnerable, and she called for the continued use of masks and social distancing to mitigate against Covid outbreaks.

“You can’t have it both ways, where you have everything opened up and you have everybody living and pretending that this is over while you have your ICUs full,” Van Kerkhove said.  
The WHO opposes the distribution of Covid booster doses, urging wealthier countries to distribute their supplies to developing nations in hopes of immunizing at least 40% of every country by the end of the year. The disparities in distribution are particularly evident in Africa, where the organization reported on Sept. 30 that just 15 of the continent’s 54 nations have vaccinated 10% or more of their population.
More than two dozen countries on the continent have fully immunized 2% or less of their populations, while two African nations have yet to receive any vaccines, the agency said.

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