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Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Download the June 2025 edition of Report on Business magazine
Cover: Blackberry's new media-shy chief executive dishes on the former smartphone giant's plans to conquer another market – inside your car. Also: We rank Canada's Best Managed Companies of 2025, and learn lessons every leader should live by. Plus: Barbecue maker Napoleon plays up its made-in-Canada bona fides, but building more products at home is easier said than done. Download the PDF May: Diversity, equity and inclusion was supposed to make organizations fairer and more meritocratic, and the world a better place. So why has the blowback against DEI been so fast and so harsh? Also: At Nortel Networks' peak 25 years ago, it was worth more than 35% of the value of the TSX 300. So how did Canada's biggest boom company ever go so bust? Former insiders provide an oral history. Plus: We present our annual list of non-CEO All-Stars who help their companies win big. Download the PDF April, 2025: GardaWorld is a key player in the ever-increasing $250-billion domain of global security. We travelled to West Virginia to find out what clients can expect from their top-of-the-line treatment, guns and all. Also: Sports betting has been immensely profitable since Ontario legalized it, but risks remain. Plus: Vancouver-based Teck Resources branches out with a copper mine high in the Andes, but a lot could still go wrong. March, 2025: We talk to GFL Environmental's Patrick Dovigi about how he built a waste management giant, accrued billions in debt, had his house shot at, pulled off a mega sale, and still managed to keep investors onside. Also: we unveil our annual Changemakers list – 20 emerging leaders reinventing how Canada does business. Plus: Robert Allan Inc.'s all-electric tugboats really are the little boats that can change everything. Download the PDF December, 2024: In this edition, we profile our 2024 CEOs of the Year – five multifaceted leaders from diverse industries who know how to elevate a business. Also: Our economics team looks at the best- and worst-case scenarios for 2025, with input from bank CEOs and other heavy hitters on what may lie ahead. Plus: we speak with SickKids Foundation CEO Jennifer Bernard on how she plans to raise $1.7-billion (with a little help from Ryan Reynolds). Download the PDF November, 2024: In this issue, we question the tobacco industry's plan to phase out cigarettes and get a whole new generation hooked on nicotine in different ways. Also: we look at the anti-Succession CEO handover at Linamar. Plus: for the fourth year in a row, we present a list of Canada's Best Law Firms. Download the PDF October, 2024: In this edition, we talk to Suncor CEO Rich Kruger about his all-in-on-oil strategy. Also: we follow engineering firm Stantec's wild discoveries in its race to get ahead of climate change. Plus: we go in-depth on Canada's Top Growing Companies. Download the PDF June, 2024: In this edition, we trace Bombardier's fall and its recent upward run (albeit as a far smaller organization, with just one line of business). Also: with Ottawa pushing Canada's pension funds to invest more in the domestic economy, we profile Caisse CEO Charles Emond. Plus: we go in-depth on Canada's Best Managed Companies. Download the PDF May, 2024: In this issue we talk to Pet Valu CEO Richard Maltsbarger about how he is deftly expanding his chain while easing it upscale at the same time. Also: we give out our annual Best Executive awards, celebrating the non-CEO all-stars who help companies win big. Plus: we follow Montreal company RodeoFX's rise to the top of the visual-effects business. Download the PDF April, 2024: In this issue we meet the Mi'kmaq Chief charting a new course for Canada's largest seafood company. Also: we examine why the percentage of Canadian companies with women CEOs has declined. Plus: we sit down with Jamie Salter of Authentic Brands to discuss how he's recharged dozens of brands and revitalized the careers of Shaq, David Beckham and more. Download the PDF
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why Diddy trial witness Capricorn Clark is key to his racketeering and sex-trafficking charges
A third former employee of Sean "Diddy" Combs may testify against him in Manhattan on Tuesday. Capricorn Clark is a onetime personal assistant who rose to be one of his top marketing executives. Her testimony could provide important corroboration of racketeering and sex-trafficking charges. During the first two weeks of testimony in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial in Manhattan, her name was dropped two dozen times. Now, Capricorn Clark is set to take the stand first thing Tuesday, kicking off the third week of the government's sex-trafficking and racketeering case against the millionaire hip-hop entrepreneur. As Combs' former personal assistant and top marketing exec, Clark will be the highest-ranking employee to testify so far. (Tony Abrahams, former CFO for Combs Enterprises, is on deck to testify as soon as later this week.) Prior trial testimony has cited Clark as a witness to acts of violence, a $20,000 extortion, and kidnapping, all elements in the September indictment Combs is fighting at trial. Once on the stand, she could bolster the top two federal charges against the music mogul: sex trafficking and racketeering, each carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. The violence Clark possibly witnessed includes an incident from a 2010 dinner in West Hollywood. At the dinner, Combs punched girlfriend-turned-key-accuser Cassie Ventura in front of other guests, witness Dawn Richard testified. Clark, Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre, and other top Combs employees at the dinner appeared to do nothing, she told jurors last week. "Mr. Combs punched Cassie in the stomach," Richard, a singer for Bad Boy groups Danity Kane and Diddy Dirty Money, testified, recalling the violence. Richard described Ventura doubling over, then being ordered by Combs to leave the dinner. "No one intervened," she testified. If successfully corroborated by Clark and others, that stomach punch — and any lack of intervention by Combs' staff — could support both top counts. The same goes for any additional violence witnessed by Clark, a longtime friend and confidant of Ventura, who called her "Cap." So far, more than a dozen instances of violence, nearly all of them against Ventura throughout their on-and-off, 2007-2018 relationship, have been described by eyewitnesses, including Ventura herself. Prosecutors allege that Combs sex-trafficked Ventura via force and threats throughout those years, beating and threatening her into complying with a decade's worth of "freak offs," elaborately-staged, often videotaped sex performances involving himself, male escorts, and interstate travel. Prosecutors say the threats that kept Ventura compliant include one from December 2011, when Combs found out that she was dating rival rapper Kid Cudi. Clark is cc'd on a Blackberry message in which Ventura, using the alias "Veronica Bang," tells mom Regina Ventura about Combs' threats to release explicit sex tapes and to have "someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi," a reference to Kid Cudi's given name. Clark could be asked Tuesday about receiving this message, and about any independent knowledge she may have about its underlying threats. She could also help the prosecution prove the racketeering charge, which alleges that Combs' employees enabled his crimes, including by obstructing justice through doing nothing, as at the 2010 dinner Richard said they both attended. Prosecutors say other underlying crimes of the Combs criminal "racket" include arson and kidnapping, and here again, Clark's testimony could prove key. According to prior testimony, Clark was enmeshed in the 2011 Kid Cudi flareup as both a top Combs employee and a Ventura confidant. Jurors heard two weeks ago, from Ventura, that Clark helped keep Combs from learning about the brief romance. Ventura testified that he found out anyway during a freak-off in Los Angeles. Going through Ventura's phone, Combs saw an email Ventura sent Clark asking her to deliver Ventura's toiletries bag to Mescudi's address. Ventura told jurors that Combs was so enraged, he lunged at her with a corkscrew in his fist. Mescudi added more details on Thursday, telling jurors that a jealous Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home and rifled through his Christmas presents. Mescudi testified that Clark called to tell him, in real time, that she was sitting in a car outside his house and that Combs and an unnamed "affiliate" were inside. "She told me that Sean Combs and an affiliate came to her apartment and made her get in the car to come up to my house," Mescudi testified. Asked for details of just how Clark was forced into the car, Mescudi said, "They forced her physically." Prosecutors may present this to jurors as an instance of the underlying racketeering crime of kidnapping. Prosecutors allege Ventura was a repeated victim of kidnapping, including in 2016, when security cameras captured her being kicked and dragged by Combs in the hallway of the InterContinental hotel. Ventura told jurors that she was trying to leave a freak-off at the time, after being slugged in the eye by Combs — and that Combs was trying to drag her back inside their room. In another kidnapping alleged by prosecutors, Ventura was forced by Combs to remain for a week in a Los Angeles hotel. In testimony corroborated by a former PA last week, Ventura told jurors she was kept hidden at the hotel so that her face could heal from being brutally stomped on by Combs as she cowered on the floor of his SUV. Combs has denied all allegations of coercive sex. During pretrial and trial proceedings, his attorneys have repeatedly tried to show that Combs' accusers are disgruntled employees, rejected musical artists, and spurned girlfriends, many of whom sought big paydays by filing civil lawsuits against him. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Why Diddy trial witness Capricorn Clark is key to his racketeering and sex-trafficking charges
During the first two weeks of testimony in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial in Manhattan, her name was dropped two dozen times. Now, Capricorn Clark is set to take the stand first thing Tuesday, kicking off the third week of the government's sex-trafficking and racketeering case against the millionaire hip-hop entrepreneur. As Combs' former personal assistant and top marketing exec, Clark will be the highest-ranking employee to testify so far. (Tony Abrahams, former CFO for Combs Enterprises, is on deck to testify as soon as later this week.) Prior trial testimony has cited Clark as a witness to acts of violence, a $20,000 extortion, and kidnapping, all elements in the September indictment Combs is fighting at trial. Once on the stand, she could bolster the top two federal charges against the music mogul: sex trafficking and racketeering, each carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. The violence Clark possibly witnessed includes an incident from a 2010 dinner in West Hollywood. At the dinner, Combs punched girlfriend-turned-key-accuser Cassie Ventura in front of other guests, witness Dawn Richard testified. Clark, Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre, and other top Combs employees at the dinner appeared to do nothing, she told jurors last week. "Mr. Combs punched Cassie in the stomach," Richard, a singer for Bad Boy groups Danity Kane and Diddy Dirty Money, testified, recalling the violence. Richard described Ventura doubling over, then being ordered by Combs to leave the dinner. "No one intervened," she testified. If successfully corroborated by Clark and others, that stomach punch — and any lack of intervention by Combs' staff — could support both top counts. The same goes for any additional violence witnessed by Clark, a longtime friend and confidant of Ventura, who called her "Cap." So far, more than a dozen instances of violence, nearly all of them against Ventura throughout their on-and-off, 2007-2018 relationship, have been described by eyewitnesses, including Ventura herself. Prosecutors allege that Combs sex-trafficked Ventura via force and threats throughout those years, beating and threatening her into complying with a decade's worth of "freak offs," elaborately-staged, often videotaped sex performances involving himself, male escorts, and interstate travel. Prosecutors say the threats that kept Ventura compliant include one from December 2011, when Combs found out that she was dating rival rapper Kid Cudi. Clark is cc'd on a Blackberry message in which Ventura, using the alias "Veronica Bang," tells mom Regina Ventura about Combs' threats to release explicit sex tapes and to have "someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi," a reference to Kid Cudi's given name. Clark could be asked Tuesday about receiving this message, and about any independent knowledge she may have about its underlying threats. She could also help the prosecution prove the racketeering charge, which alleges that Combs' employees enabled his crimes, including by obstructing justice through doing nothing, as at the 2010 dinner Richard said they both attended. Prosecutors say other underlying crimes of the Combs criminal "racket" include arson and kidnapping, and here again, Clark's testimony could prove key. According to prior testimony, Clark was enmeshed in the 2011 Kid Cudi flareup as both a top Combs employee and a Ventura confidant. Jurors heard two weeks ago, from Ventura, that Clark helped keep Combs from learning about the brief romance. Ventura testified that he found out anyway during a freak-off in Los Angeles. Going through Ventura's phone, Combs saw an email Ventura sent Clark asking her to deliver Ventura's toiletries bag to Mescudi's address. Ventura told jurors that Combs was so enraged, he lunged at her with a corkscrew in his fist. Mescudi added more details on Thursday, telling jurors that a jealous Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home and rifled through his Christmas presents. Mescudi testified that Clark called to tell him, in real time, that she was sitting in a car outside his house and that Combs and an unnamed "affiliate" were inside. "She told me that Sean Combs and an affiliate came to her apartment and made her get in the car to come up to my house," Mescudi testified. Asked for details of just how Clark was forced into the car, Mescudi said, "They forced her physically." Prosecutors may present this to jurors as an instance of the underlying racketeering crime of kidnapping. Prosecutors allege Ventura was a repeated victim of kidnapping, including in 2016, when security cameras captured her being kicked and dragged by Combs in the hallway of the InterContinental hotel. Ventura told jurors that she was trying to leave a freak-off at the time, after being slugged in the eye by Combs — and that Combs was trying to drag her back inside their room. In another kidnapping alleged by prosecutors, Ventura was forced by Combs to remain for a week in a Los Angeles hotel. In testimony corroborated by a former PA last week, Ventura told jurors she was kept hidden at the hotel so that her face could heal from being brutally stomped on by Combs as she cowered on the floor of his SUV. Combs has denied all allegations of coercive sex. During pretrial and trial proceedings, his attorneys have repeatedly tried to show that Combs' accusers are disgruntled employees, rejected musical artists, and spurned girlfriends, many of whom sought big paydays by filing civil lawsuits against him.
Hindustan Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Jyoti Malhotra's arrest reminiscent of 15-year-old Madhuri Gupta spying case
The arrest of YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra for allegedly spying for Pakistan has sent ripples through the nation's security establishment. But this isn't the first time such a betrayal has jolted India. The case of Madhuri Gupta, a senior Indian diplomat arrested in 2010 for leaking sensitive information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), remains one of the most shocking breaches of national trust in recent history. While Jyoti Malhotra allegedly used digital media platforms to gather and transmit information, Gupta operated within the inner sanctums of Indian diplomacy. A seasoned officer of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Gupta was serving as Second Secretary (Press and Information) at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad when she was found to have betrayed her nation. Madhuri Gupta's fall from grace was dramatic and unprecedented. An alumna of Jawaharlal Nehru University and a career diplomat with 27 years of service, she was fluent in Urdu and handpicked for her role in Pakistan. Her job primarily involved monitoring local media and reporting developments to New Delhi. But beneath the surface, Gupta fed some of India's most closely held secrets to its arch-rival. In early 2010, alarm bells rang within Indian intelligence circles. Then Intelligence Bureau Director Rajiv Mathur was tipped off about a leak within the Islamabad mission. Investigators launched a covert operation, feeding Gupta false information to see if it would resurface - and it did. What emerged was a tale of emotional manipulation and espionage. Gupta had fallen in love with a much younger Pakistani man named Jamshed - or "Jim" — who turned out to be an ISI operative. According to investigators, Gupta was ensnared in a classic "honeytrap." Her romantic relationship was a facade, expertly crafted to exploit her emotional vulnerabilities and extract state secrets. Gupta's betrayal ran deep. She passed along classified information about India's foreign policy, internal defence operations, the identities and passwords of intelligence officers, and even details related to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. She used email accounts created by ISI handlers — such as lastrao@ and arao@ — and communicated through Blackberry devices and laptops, many of which were later recovered by investigators. One particularly alarming detail uncovered during her trial was her trip to Jammu and Kashmir under the pretense of attending a wedding. Her true objective was to gather intelligence about the region's hydroelectric infrastructure — a matter of significant interest to Pakistani intelligence. Gupta remained in regular contact with at least two ISI officers, Mubshar Raza Rana and Jamshed, and had been transmitting information from her office and residence in Islamabad from late 2009 until her arrest in April 2010. Once enough evidence had been amassed, Gupta was summoned to New Delhi under the pretext of SAARC summit preparations. She was arrested on April 22, 2010, by Delhi Police's Special Cell and charged under the Official Secrets Act. The court found her guilty of criminal conspiracy under Sections 3 and 5 of the Act and Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. Though the information she leaked did not directly pertain to India's military hardware, the court emphasized that it was still critical and could be "extremely useful to the enemy country." "She was holding a position of great trust, and her actions tarnished the country's image," the court stated. It further rejected her plea for leniency, citing the severe damage her actions had caused to national security. Gupta spent 21 months in Tihar Jail before being released on bail. In 2018, she was formally convicted, although the court allowed her to appeal the verdict. She died in 2021 at the age of 64. Now, with Jyoti Malhotra's arrest, comparisons to Gupta's case are inevitable. But while Malhotra allegedly operated from the digital domain as an influencer-turned-informant, Madhuri Gupta's actions cut much deeper. Her position gave her access to critical government operations and personnel.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cassie Ventura's mom says she called the cops and tried to hit Diddy after he stole her daughter's phone
Cassie Ventura's mother was called to the witness stand in Sean "Diddy" Combs' criminal trial. Regina Ventura described threats Combs allegedly made after her daughter's 2011 affair with Kid Cudi. "I was yelling and screaming and trying to hit him," she said of confronting the rapper in 2016. Cassie Ventura's mother told a federal jury in Manhattan that she once screamed at and tried "to hit" her R&B singer daughter's ex, Sean "Diddy" Combs. Regina Ventura sat wrapped in a large beige shawl as she described physically confronting the hip-hop tycoon during testimony at Combs' sex-trafficking and racketeering trial on Tuesday. It was August 2016, and the mom of two from Connecticut had been visiting daughter Cassie Ventura in Los Angeles when she learned that Combs had stolen her daughter's cellphone, she told jurors. Cassie Ventura was upstairs in her apartment, the mom testified, leaving her to call the police and take on Combs outside the building. "I was yelling and screaming and trying to hit him," to get Combs to give the phone back, the mom testified, her voice quiet and calm throughout her 15 minutes on the stand. "He did give it back," she told the eight men and four women on Combs' jury. The elder Ventura also described an incriminating Blackberry text from the couple's 2011 breakup, a message first shown to the jury last week. In the message, Cassie Ventura tells her mother that Combs threatened her with revenge porn and physical harm out of jealousy over her relationship with rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott jealous threats around Cassie Ventura's 2011 Kid Cudi romance came with a demand for money, jurors heard Tuesday. Regina Ventura testified that she borrowed against her home of 57 years — Cassie Ventura's childhood home in Connecticut — to pay $20,000 that Combs said he needed for unpaid "expenses." Combs was "angry he spent money on her and she had been with another person," Regina Ventura said. "I was scared for my daughter's safety," the mom said, when asked why she wired Combs the money. Combs returned the Ventura family's cash "about four or five days later," she told jurors. Her testimony gave no explanation for why the money was returned. Regina Ventura's turn on the stand followed more than 20 hours of testimony delivered to the jury by her daughter. Cassie Ventura took the stand last week while eight months pregnant with her third child with husband Alex Fine. She detailed what she said were years of sexual abuse at the hands of Combs during their 11-year relationship. The younger Ventura, who prosecutors allege was one of two women that Combs sex-trafficked, has played a key role in the hip-hop mogul's ongoing trial. Over the course of her four days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura at times gave tearfully described feeling "worthless" while joining in on the drug-fueled, often dayslong sex performances that Combs dubbed "freak offs." These sex encounters, which prosecutors say Combs arranged, directed, and often recorded, are at the core of the indictment against Combs. Combs used "lies, drugs, threats, and violence to force and coerce" Ventura and later an anonymous Jane Doe into the freak offs, prosecutor Emily Johnson told the jury in her opening statements last week. Read the original article on Business Insider
