Insurance broker Hub International secures $29 billion valuation in $1.6 billion investment deal
The investment is led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Alpha Wave Global, and Temasek, along with participation from other investors.
The company's valuation is an increase from $23 billion in 2023, when Leonard Green & Partners L.P. announced a minority investment.
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The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
New York court throws out $500M fraud ruling against Trump after blockbuster lawsuit from Letitia James
A state appeals court in New York has thrown out a multi-million dollar fraud penalty against Donald Trump and his associates, handing the president a significant victory in a lawsuit alleging massive fraud in his family business. Last year, a verdict in Manhattan found that Trump and his co-defendants in his Trump Organization empire had defrauded banks and investors as part of a decade-long scheme to secure favorable financing terms for some of his brand-building properties. An appeals court decision on Thursday determined that the verdict from New York Justice Arthur Engoron — which has ballooned to more than $515 million, with growing interest — was 'excessive.' Last year's ruling followed a three-year investigation and lawsuit under Attorney General Letitia James, who had accused Trump and his associates had convinced banks and lenders to give them favorable financing terms based on bogus and inflated financial statements. After a bench trial in civil court, Trump, his companies and trust were ordered to state more than $354 million. The president also was barred from holding any executive office with a New York company and from getting loans from New York banks for three years, while his adult sons are barred from executive offices with any New York company for two years. Former executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney were also permanently barred from financially controlling any New York businesses, and faced a three-year ban from serving as an officer or director of any New York business. In his ruling, Engoron pointed to the defendants' lack of credibility on the witness stand, their failed strategy to 'blame the accountants' for the false financial statements and valuations at the centre of the case, and the 'evidence of deceit' used to come up with the inflated figures under scrutiny. He pointed to a history of malfeasance within the Trump Organization, followed by the findings in the sprawling fraud case, to determine that Trump and his co-defendants are 'likely to continue their fraudulent ways' without a significant judgment against them. 'Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,' he wrote in a 92-page order. 'They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin,' he added. 'Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint. Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.'
The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
House Democrats launch investigation into Paramount merger and ‘bribe' to Trump
The ranking members of the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce committees are launching an investigation into Skydance's $8 billion merger with Paramount and whether the $16 million settlemen t to Donald Trump constituted a 'bribe,' the committees announced on Thursday. The Hill first reported on the launch of the congressional probe and a letter sent to Paramount leadership, which The Independent has also reviewed. In the letter sent to new Paramount CEO David Ellison on Wednesday night, E&C ranking member Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. and Rep. Jamie Raskin, Judiciary's top Democrat, called on Paramount leadership to provide documents and correspondence related to the deal and its approval process with the Trump administration. The merger, which was approved late last month by the FCC and officially closed on August 7, came after a politically strained and fraught process that included the previous Paramount leadership paying Trump to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview that CBS News' own lawyers said was 'without merit.' Additionally, after the settlement was announced, the president claimed that he had reached a 'side deal' with Ellison to air up to $20 million worth of pro-Trump advertisements and programming on CBS once Skydance took over the company. While the previous Paramount leadership denied any knowledge of any secret agreement, Ellison has remained mum about the matter. Days before the merger was approved by Trump's handpicked FCC chief Brendan Carr, Skydance agreed to install an ombudsman for two years to conduct a 'comprehensive review' of CBS News and review 'complaints of bias.' The company also agreed to eliminate all diversity hiring practices. On top of that, Paramount announced just before the administration approved the merger that it was canceling the long-running late show hosted by outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert, even though it was the top-rated program in late-night. Trump and Carr immediately celebrated the news of Colbert's cancellation. Paramount, meanwhile, has insisted the move was purely for financial reasons, while company sources claimed the show lost $40 million a year. 'In the days and weeks leading up to government approval of the deal, Paramount also agreed to pay $16 million to settle President Trump's meritless lawsuit related to benign edits of an episode of '60 Minutes'—a standard editorial practice—which the FCC also investigated without any legitimate regulatory basis,' the letter to Ellison read. 'The settlement raises significant concerns that Donald Trump demanded and Paramount paid an illegal bribe—a $16 million payment to the President in exchange for merger approval from the FCC.' Carr spent months during the approval process slamming CBS News' coverage of Trump, accusing it of anti-conservative bias while also reviewing complaints over alleged 'news distortion' at the network, specifically over the 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Raskin and Pallone aren't the only ones who have accused Paramount of bribing the president to push through the merger process. While the company – then led by chief shareholder Shari Redstone – was in mediation over the lawsuit, several Democratic senators warned the company that any settlement with Trump could be seen as a violation of anti-bribery statutes. 'Paramount also canceled the highly popular 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,' which President Trump openly dislikes, shortly after Mr. Colbert's on-air criticism of Paramount's settlement as a 'big fat bribe,'' Raskin and Pallone stated. 'As a condition of the merger, Skydance also agreed to make changes to CBS and its editorial practices that align with the Trump Administration's political agenda, including a commitment to eliminate 'perceived bias' in its reporting, the hiring of an ombudsman to police the news organization's editorial choices, and the dismantling of any initiatives aimed at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.' The congressmen also raised questions about the influence the new Paramount chief's father had on the process. Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, is a close ally of the president's and has invested heavily in his son's venture. 'And within days of your June 7 meeting, President Trump endorsed your bid to purchase Paramount,' the lawmakers wrote Ellison. 'Moreover, your father, Larry Ellison, who contributed up to $6 billion toward your purchase of Paramount, reportedly met privately with President Trump multiple times in recent months. Notably, none of these meetings were memorialized with filings in the FCC's docket on this transaction, prompting objections from other parties in the record.' Referencing the supposed 'side deal' with the president, the congressmen brought up Trump's public boast that he anticipated that the 'new Owners' would give him $20 million of PSAs and similar programming. 'This offer was necessarily contingent on the FCC approving the deal and does not appear to present any legitimate value to the public, only to President Trump,' Pallone and Raskin stated. 'Therefore, this appears to be an offer of payment and benefits to a government official designed to achieve a specific outcome from the government — in other words, a bribe.' Also noting that several CBS newsroom leaders parted ways with the network over Paramount's settlement negotiations with Trump, the two Democrats said that the combination of all of these actions could 'run afoul of federal and state anti-bribery statutes' while demanding detailed answers surrounding the merger approval process. 'Two wrongs do not make a right—illegitimate demands from the FCC or the Administration do not absolve your company from wrongdoing,' the lawmakers wrote to David Ellison. 'If Skydance offered a side deal of up to $20 million worth of advertisement or programming to President Trump in order to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Paramount, these actions would run afoul of federal and state anti-bribery statutes.' They continued: 'Similarly, if Paramount forced out CBS's longtime leaders, spent $16 million to settle a sham lawsuit with President Trump, or cancelled a highly popular comedy show that President Trump dislikes in order to curry favor with the Administration and to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Skydance, these actions would likely further embolden President Trump to use lawsuits and regulatory authority to attack media organizations that he finds objectionable in order to silence them.'
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Court throws out $500m civil fraud penalty against Donald Trump
An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against Donald Trump, ruling on Thursday in New York state's lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth. The decision came seven months after the Republican returned to the White House. A panel of five judges in New York's mid-level appellate division said the verdict, which stood to cost Trump more than $515m and rock his real estate empire, was 'excessive'. After finding that Trump engaged in fraud by flagrantly padding financial statements that went to lenders and insurers, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him last year to pay $355m in penalties. With interest, the sum has topped $515m. The total – combined with penalties levied on some other Trump Organization executives, including Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr – now exceeds $527m, with interest. 'While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants' business culture, the court's disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,' Judges Dianne T Renwick and Peter H Moulton wrote in one of several opinions shaping the appeals court's ruling. Engoron also imposed other punishments, such as banning Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years. Those provisions have been on pause during Trump's appeal, and he was able to hold off collection of the money by posting a $175m bond. The court, which was split on the merits of the lawsuit and the lower court's fraud finding, dismissed the penalty Engoron imposed in its entirety while also leaving a pathway for further appeals to the state's highest court, the court of appeals. The court took an unusually long time to rule, weighing Trump's appeal for nearly 11 months after oral arguments last fall. Normally, appeals are decided in a matter of weeks or a few months. New York's attorney general, Letitia James, who brought the suit on the state's behalf, has said the businessman turned politician engaged in 'lying, cheating, and staggering fraud'. Her office had no immediate comment after Thursday's decision. Trump and his co-defendants denied wrongdoing. In a six-minute summation of sorts after a months-long trial, Trump proclaimed in January 2024 that he was 'an innocent man' and the case was a 'fraud on me'. He has repeatedly maintained that the case and verdict were political moves by James and Engoron, who are both Democrats. Trump's justice department has subpoenaed James for records related to the lawsuit, among other documents, as part of an investigation into whether she violated the president's civil rights. James's personal attorney, Abbe D Lowell, has said that investigating the fraud case is 'the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president's political retribution campaign'. Trump and his lawyers said his financial statements weren't deceptive, since they came with disclaimers noting they weren't audited. The defense also noted that bankers and insurers independently evaluated the numbers, and the loans were repaid. Despite such discrepancies as tripling the size of his Trump Tower penthouse, he said the financial statements were, if anything, lowball estimates of his fortune. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion During an appellate court hearing in September, Trump's lawyers argued that many of the case's allegations were too old, an assertion they made unsuccessfully before trial. The defense also contends that James misused a consumer-protection law to sue Trump and improperly policed private business transactions that were satisfactory to those involved. State attorneys said the law in question applies to fraudulent or illegal business conduct, whether it targets everyday consumers or big corporations. Though Trump insisted that no one was harmed by the financial statements, the state contended that the numbers led lenders to make riskier loans than they knew, and that honest borrowers lose out when others game their net-worth numbers. The state has argued that the verdict rests on ample evidence and that the scale of the penalty comports with Trump's gains, including his profits on properties financed with the loans and the interest he saved by getting favorable terms offered to wealthy borrowers. The civil fraud case was just one of several legal obstacles for Trump as he campaigned, won and segued to a second term as president. On 10 January, he was sentenced in his criminal hush-money case to what's known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail, probation, a fine or other punishment. He is appealing against the conviction. And in December, a federal appeals court upheld a jury's finding that Trump sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her, affirming a $5m judgment against him. The appeals court declined in June to reconsider; he still can try to get the supreme court to hear his appeal. The president is also appealing a subsequent verdict that requires him to pay Carroll $83.3m for additional defamation claims.
