Undermoney At Work

6/30/2022

Book News

Following the Money with Jay Newman

For debut novelist Jay Newman, a tale of cash and conspiracies draws on real-life observations.

6/24/2022

Geopolitics

Jay Newman on the Coming Crisis for Emerging Markets (PODCAST)

There are a lot of challenges facing emerging markets right now. For a start, the dollar has been pretty strong, heaping pressure on governments that have borrowed in a foreign currency. Meanwhile, energy and food prices are soaring. These are two things that emerging markets often have to import, or subsidize for their citizens.

Listen to the interview

4/20/2022

WHO’S WINNING THE MONEY WAR WITH RUSSIA: A CONVERSATION WITH JAY NEWMAN

The United States and our partners around the world have been turning the screws on Russia financially and Russians are doing everything they can to avoid the sanctions. David Rothkopf talks with Jay Newman, a former hedge fund portfolio manager for Elliott Management and novelist whose new book is “Undermoney: A Novel”, about the methods they are using to skirt sanctions and what we can do to stop them. Are the sanctions making a difference? Can any economic pressure points work in the long term? Will Russia default on its debt and does it even matter? Don’t miss this important conversation.

Listen to the Interview

4/13/2022

Geopolitics

Financial Times: Unsafe at any price

Jay Newman was a senior portfolio manager at Elliott Management, and is the author of Undermoney, a thriller about the illicit money that courses through the global economy.

In 1965, Ralph Nader wrote Unsafe at Any Speed, exposing a car industry that systematically stifled safety features. Over the past two decades, the industry that peddles emerging market sovereign debt — countries, their bank underwriters, and the lawyers that write the contracts — has been peddling bonds that are unsafe at any price.

4/5/2022

Book News

On The Money Interview

Your daily dose of economics, business and consumer news, views and discussion presented by GB News expert Liam Halligan.

Watch the Interview

4/5/2022

Book News

Around The Sun Interview

Eric Bovim is joined by Jay Newman. Jay has worked in the field of international finance as a trader, investment banker, and investor for forty years. During most of that time, he focused on investments in the defaulted debt of sovereign nations in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia. As if that’s not enough for one plate Jay has just penned his first novel Undermoney.

Listen to the Interview

3/24/2022

Geopolitics

Russia will likely default with April 4 payment due of $2.2B: experts

Investors breathed a sigh of relief last week after the Russian government made a $117 million interest payment on its foreign debt. But a much bigger payment comes due April 4 — to the tune of $2.2 billion — and creditors are far less optimistic Russia will pony up this time.

3/21/2022

Book News

Jay Newman Wants to Be the Wolfe of Wall Street

The sovereign-debt investor, best known for a fifteen-year legal fight with Argentina, channelled Tom Wolfe and John le Carré to write “Undermoney,” a financial thriller featuring Vladimir Putin, a Paul Singer-esque hedge-fund manager, and, of course, sex.

3/16/2022

Geopolitics

Will Russia Pay Its Debts? The Czar Made Good in 2001

To Jay Newman’s pessimism regarding the repayment of Russian debt obligations (“If Putin Owes You Money, Good Luck Collecting It,” op-ed, March 10), I offer a modest note of optimism.

3/15/2022

Geopolitics

Dollars or Rubles? Russian Debt Payments Are Due, and Uncertain.

The Russian government owes about $40 billion in debt denominated in U.S. dollars and euros, and half of those bonds are owned by foreign investors. And Russian corporations have racked up approximately $100 billion in foreign currency debt, JPMorgan estimates.

3/10/2022

Book News

If Putin Owes You Money, Good Luck Collecting It

As economic and banking sanctions against Russia proliferate, many investors and creditors are asking what will happen with Russian sovereign debt, which the Russian Federation has issued through both foreign-currency bonds and ruble bonds. If history is a guide, nothing good awaits foreign lenders.

3/7/2022

Geopolitics

What a Russia bond default would mean for the markets

One of the next big questions looming over the economic war against Russia is what will happen to its sovereign bonds. The Russian government has borrowed about $49 billion in the form of dollar- and euro-denominated bonds, and owes a series of interest payments to bondholders in the coming months.

Where it stands: Some, like Jay Newman, alum of Elliott Management — and of Argentina’s restructuring — say the bonds are worth zero.

3/4/2022

Geopolitics

Hedge Fund Veteran Jay Newman Says Russia’s Sovereign Debt Is Worthless

Jay Newman, the hedge fund veteran behind one of the lengthiest and most contentious sovereign debt battles in history, says there’s no opportunity to profit in Russian debt.

The former star fund manager at Elliott Management Corp., who helped billionaire Paul Singer win an epic 15-year fight against Argentina after its $95 billion default in 2001, says Russian government debt is likely worthless after a slew of sanctions were slapped on the nation for its invasion of Ukraine. He expects an imminent default.

2/24/2022

Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault

Acording to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine.

Read the full article (PDF attached)

2/16/2022

Intelligence

Justice Department Targets ‘Spoofing’ and ‘Scalping’ in Short Seller Investigation

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether short sellers conspired to drive down stock prices by sharing damaging research reports ahead of time and engaging in illegal trading tactics, people familiar with the matter said.

2/15/2022

Intelligence

U.S. Requests Extradition of Former Honduran President

Juan Orlando Hernández, who stepped down as president last month, was recently accused in a drug-trafficking case in federal court in New York.

2/15/2022

Intelligence

A Crucial Clue in the $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: A $500 Walmart Gift Card

Federal investigators spent years hunting for clues in the 2016 hacking of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, when thieves stole bitcoin now worth $4.5 billion. In the end, what helped lead them to two suspects was something much more quotidian: a $500 Walmart gift card.

2/9/2022

Geopolitics

Documentary: The Venezuela Crisis: State Of Disaster

Once the richest nation in Latin America, Venezuela is now a broken economy enveloped in crime, corruption and hyperinflation. The downfall of Venezuela serves as a modern-day macro tragedy as millions of Venezuelans starve while corrupt government officials continue to thrive. The story of the Venezuelan crisis shows how a surplus of rich commodities, from oil and gas to cocoa and coffee, have been squandered under the rule of former President Hugo Chavez and current President Nicolas Maduro.

Watch the movie

2/7/2022

Intelligence

The perils of Team Biden playing ‘make-believe’

Children engage in much “make-believe” to stimulate their imagination and creativity. Adults are supposed to distinguish between make-believe and reality. Yet increasingly, we seem to be governed by people who fail to understand the difference.

2/2/2022

Geopolitics

Classified 2016 email shows US diplomat warning of Hunter Biden deals in Ukraine

A classified US State Department email from 2016 shows a leading diplomat warning that Hunter Biden’s lucrative job with a Ukrainian energy company “undercut” American efforts to fight corruption in the Eastern European country.

1/29/2022

Geopolitics

Democrats Decried Dark Money. Then They Won With It in 2020

A New York Times analysis reveals how the left outdid the right at raising and spending millions from undisclosed donors to defeat Donald Trump and win power in Washington

1/21/2022

Intelligence

Serbia revokes Rio Tinto’s licenses to end $2.4bn Jadar lithium project

The Serbian government has revoked the lithium exploration licences granted to Rio Tinto amid environmental protests to effectively put an end to the proposed $2.4bn Jadar lithium project.

1/20/2022

Geopolitics

How much darker can political money get? New GOP bill tries to further shield donors

Florida Republicans are pushing legislation that would enact broad new layers of secrecy around nonprofit organizations’ corporate and individual donors, a move that would allow some political groups to shield sources of funding from local and state government scrutiny.

1/14/2022

Intelligence

Bain & Co, tax and Jacob Zuma: a tale of ‘state capture’ in South Africa

Bain’s work shines a light on the nexus between business and politics in South Africa and follows criticism of peers such as McKinsey and KPMG.

1/13/2022

Intelligence

How shady Kazakh cash is building NYC’s poshest pads

What do two lavish new condo towers coming to the Upper West Side and Midtown have in common? Connections to dubious Kazakh cash.

1/10/2022

Intelligence

Fed Governors trading on inside information: Undermoney at work

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida announced Monday that he will step down from the central bank on Friday, two weeks earlier than his term was scheduled to end, in the wake of renewed questions about his trading activity at the onset of the pandemic.

1/10/2022

Reviews

Totally Terrifying Political Thriller

So very current. All the bad guys are there, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia.

1/4/2022

Intelligence

Swedbank Ex-Chief Charged Over Money Laundering Scandal

Birgitte Bonnesen accused of fraud and market manipulation...

Will the UN Start to Take Cybercrime Seriously?

The U.N. is set to begin negotiations between its member states to establish legal instruments to confront the growing scourge of cybercrime, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime announced, adding that the discussion could be tough as countries have different ideas of what constitutes a cybercrime.

12/30/2021

Intelligence

Sudanese security forces storm TV channels, beat journalists

Security forces in Sudan stormed the offices of Al-Arabiya – Al-Hadath – and Al-Sharq channels, and assaulted journalists and their employees.

12/29/2021

Intelligence

Libya orders arrest of second minister over corruption allegations

Libyan prosecutors ordered the arrest of the country's culture minister as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in the handling of state funds.

12/28/2021

Intelligence

UK Hands Down Largest Sentences for Money Laundering

A U.K. court sent two men behind bars for a total of 33 years for laundering the equivalent of nearly US$95 million and fraudulently claimed $13.44 million in COVID-19 Bounce Back Loans for their fake companies, the National Crime Agency reported.

12/28/2021

Geopolitics

Taliban faction in Pakistan spreads terror through extortion

Militants from a Pakistani insurgent group with ties to the Taliban are forcing victims to pay exorbitant fees or risk facing mortal consequences. In light of the current developments in Afghanistan, immediate intervention from Pakistani authorities must be a priority.

12/23/2021

Intelligence

Sudan’s coup imperils economic reforms and anti-corruption efforts

The coup d’état staged on October 25 by the commanders of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), respectively General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo (“Hemedti”), illustrates how entrenched kleptocratic systems fight back when their interests and stranglehold on national economies are threatened by macroeconomic reform policies and the effective deployment of anti-corruption measures.

12/15/2021

Geopolitics

Uganda Finds China’s Leverage Is in the Fine Print of Its Lending

A clause in an agreement with the African nation has stirred a flap over whether the country signed away financial control of Entebbe International Airport.

12/12/2021

Geopolitics

'Anything goes': The 5 most and 6 least corrupt nations in the world

Transparency International has recently released its 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index, a list of 180 countries that have been ranked according to the public's perception of their country’s public sector.

12/9/2021

Intelligence

No quick fix for Haiti — but corruption comes first

Recent headlines from Haiti portray a country in free fall. A president’s assassination, recovery from the massive August earthquake, fuel and hard currency shortages, kidnappings and criminal gangs operating with impunity all indicate a bleak future and possible failed state — all too close to the United States.

12/7/2021

Geopolitics

Notorious Money Launderer Reza Zarrab’s Lavish Life and New Business in Miami

Facing 130 years in prison, infamous Turkish-Iranian money launderer Reza Zarrab took a plea deal in 2017 agreeing to testify in U.S. courts.

12/7/2021

Intelligence

Congo Ousts Mining Leader in a Cloud of Corruption Claims

The country’s president removed Albert Yuma Mulimbi as chairman of the state mining firm. Cobalt in Congo is a crucial resource in the global clean energy revolution.

11/24/2021

Geopolitics

Argentina and holdout creditors flood papers in ad war

Read at REUTERS

11/24/2021

Geopolitics

After 15 Years, a Bond Trade Now Pays Of

Elliott Management’s wager on Argentinian government bonds has yielded $2.4 billion after many twists and turns

Read at WSJ

11/24/2021

Geopolitics

Out of Africa

The Debt Frenzy

From Argentina to Zambia, investment firms are snatching up the poor world's debt.

Keep Your Eye on the U.N.’s Fat Kleptocats

With world leaders in New York, spotting corruption is as easy as watching a ‘public servant’ hop into an idling Bentley.

World Bank Props Up Despots With New ‘Corruption’ Loans New Item

The City of London Is Hiding the World’s Stolen Money

In 1969, two years after the Cayman Islands, a British territory, passed its first law to allow secretive offshore trusts, an official government report struck an ominous note. A tide of glossy propositions from private developers, it warned, was washing through the islands. Cayman was fast becoming a state captured by shady finance.

3/11/2021

Geopolitics

The Global Illicit Economy

Through stark images and charts, this report gives a graphic illustration of how the global illicit economy has boomed in the past 20 years and how it poses a serious threat to security, development and justice.

Learn more

JAY NEWMAN

CHANNELS

MEDIA

Following the Money with Jay Newman

Jay Newman on the Coming Crisis for Emerging Markets (PODCAST)

WHO’S WINNING THE MONEY WAR WITH RUSSIA: A CONVERSATION WITH JAY NEWMAN

Financial Times: Unsafe at any price

On The Money Interview

Around The Sun Interview

Russia will likely default with April 4 payment due of $2.2B: experts

Jay Newman Wants to Be the Wolfe of Wall Street

Will Russia Pay Its Debts? The Czar Made Good in 2001

Dollars or Rubles? Russian Debt Payments Are Due, and Uncertain.

If Putin Owes You Money, Good Luck Collecting It

What a Russia bond default would mean for the markets

Hedge Fund Veteran Jay Newman Says Russia’s Sovereign Debt Is Worthless

Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault

Justice Department Targets ‘Spoofing’ and ‘Scalping’ in Short Seller Investigation

U.S. Requests Extradition of Former Honduran President

A Crucial Clue in the $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: A $500 Walmart Gift Card

Documentary: The Venezuela Crisis: State Of Disaster

The perils of Team Biden playing ‘make-believe’

Classified 2016 email shows US diplomat warning of Hunter Biden deals in Ukraine

Democrats Decried Dark Money. Then They Won With It in 2020

Serbia revokes Rio Tinto’s licenses to end $2.4bn Jadar lithium project

How much darker can political money get? New GOP bill tries to further shield donors

Bain & Co, tax and Jacob Zuma: a tale of ‘state capture’ in South Africa

How shady Kazakh cash is building NYC’s poshest pads

Fed Governors trading on inside information: Undermoney at work

Totally Terrifying Political Thriller

Swedbank Ex-Chief Charged Over Money Laundering Scandal

Will the UN Start to Take Cybercrime Seriously?

Sudanese security forces storm TV channels, beat journalists

Libya orders arrest of second minister over corruption allegations

UK Hands Down Largest Sentences for Money Laundering

Taliban faction in Pakistan spreads terror through extortion

Sudan’s coup imperils economic reforms and anti-corruption efforts

Uganda Finds China’s Leverage Is in the Fine Print of Its Lending

'Anything goes': The 5 most and 6 least corrupt nations in the world

No quick fix for Haiti — but corruption comes first

Notorious Money Launderer Reza Zarrab’s Lavish Life and New Business in Miami

Congo Ousts Mining Leader in a Cloud of Corruption Claims

Argentina and holdout creditors flood papers in ad war

After 15 Years, a Bond Trade Now Pays Of

Out of Africa

The Debt Frenzy

Keep Your Eye on the U.N.’s Fat Kleptocats

World Bank Props Up Despots With New ‘Corruption’ Loans New Item

The City of London Is Hiding the World’s Stolen Money

The Global Illicit Economy

Brilliantly told and filled with jaw-dropping action and unforgettable characters,

Undermoney offers a savage look at the secret lives of the world’s richest people.

Jay Newman