Latest news with #MuddyWaters
Zawya
19-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
EY negligently missed huge fraud at collapsed UAE hospital operator, $3bln UK trial hears
EY failed to spot a major fraud by main shareholders of UAE hospital operator NMC Health in what lawyers for the firm's administrators described as disgraceful auditing, at the start of a roughly $3 billion London trial on Monday. The administrators of NMC – a FTSE 100 company when it collapsed in 2020 after disclosing more than $4 billion in hidden debt – are suing over audits from 2012 to 2018, when EY gave an unqualified opinion that NMC's accounts were accurate. The company's administrators Alvarez & Marsal say EY, one of the world's "Big Four" auditors and formerly known as Ernst & Young, was negligent in failing to get proper access to NMC's books, missing billions in unreported borrowing. EY, however, denies the negligence allegation and argues that it was NMC's own senior personnel who perpetrated the fraud and manipulated its accounts, hiding the fraud from EY. The 12-week trial at the High Court which began on Monday is the latest lawsuit brought against a major auditor and comes after recent criticism of EY specifically over work for travel firm Thomas Cook and German payments company Wirecard. NMC Health PLC listed in London in 2012 and joined the FTSE 100 in 2017, before short-seller Muddy Waters questioned its financials in December 2019 sending NMC's shares tumbling by almost a third in a day. NMC's administrators were seeking up to 2.7 billion pounds from EY in damages for losses, largely relating to undisclosed guarantees, but court filings for the trial put the figure at around 2 billion pounds plus interest. Their lawyer Simon Salzedo said EY's audits over seven years were among the "most fundamentally flawed examples of big-firm auditing that have disgraced a courtroom in this jurisdiction". Salzedo accepted that auditors giving a wrong opinion did not amount to negligence, but said: "Two wrong opinions looks very much like carelessness and to give seven in a row is rather harder to explain away." But EY's lawyers argued in court filings the auditing firm was "itself a principal target and victim of the fraud" committed by NMC staff for the benefit of its principal shareholders. NMC's case was based on expecting an auditor "to do the impossible by uncovering a pervasive and collusive fraud being practised and covered up in effect by the directors and management", EY's lawyers said. NMC has separately brought litigation against its founder BR Shetty, who denies any wrongdoing, and others in London, the UAE and the United States. (Reporting by Sam Tobin Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Music with Kirsten Zemke
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Kirsten brings us some "swamp rock" - a genre that emerged in the American South, particularly Louisiana and Mississippi in the early 70s. Muddy Waters Photo: Wiki commons
Wall Street Journal
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘International Jazz Day in Morocco' Review: PBS's Musical Melange
We get a glimpse of what we think we're going to get from 'International Jazz Day in Morocco' when a Tangier musician appears, cradles a three-stringed, round-necked guembri in his lap, and plays a blues solo he might have copied from a Muddy Waters record. His one-woman audience is an appreciative Dee Dee Bridgewater, the estimable American vocalist. So as intros go, it is international, arguably connected to jazz, and is definitely Morocco. Whether the enthusiastic Jeremy Irons was the right guy to host the show is a question—he's hardly the jazz ambassador that someone like, say, Christian McBride is. And opening act Shemekia Copeland, a rather generic blues belter (and daughter of Johnny), immediately takes the show in a genre-specific direction. Likewise, Melody Gardot, who is best described as a chanteuse. Which may be French, but isn't vaguely African.
Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
These Sennheiser headphones could be great therapy for stress
It is only recently that I started realising that my appreciation of music has always been linked to my mental state. From my teens when I began discovering music to now, when I need to find time to sit and appreciate a song, a lot has changed. But, the fact remains that great audio quality always makes you pause whatever you are doing to enjoy the moment. The Sennheiser HD505 headphones are exactly the kind of headphones that make you forget daily stress and focus on the composition streaming into your ears. The HD505 has a familiar Sennheiser over-the-ear design with a synthetic leather headband and metal mesh earcup covers with bronze-finish accents that give it a very premium look. The HD505 is surprisingly light and very comfortable to wear for long hours. The cups completely immerse your ears and don't warm up much, even in Delhi summers. The 6-foot cable is long enough to connect from the source of your choice and comes with a 6.3mm adapter for those using music systems. The dual-tone finish makes the headphone look premium. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express) Whenever I am testing audiophile headphones, the first song I listen to is always the one that leaves a lasting impact. I started the Sennheiser HD505 journey with a FLAC version of Brothers in Arms by Club For Five. I could not have chosen something better. This cappella group from Finland has vocals at such a level that most headphones will struggle to make it palatable. But the HD505 managed the baritone so well, along with heartbeat-like thumbing in the middle. The HD505 has a custom 120-ohm transducer housed in an open earcup that gives all music a natural feel. It is with a composition like NTO's Petite that you get to experience the full range of this headphone's capabilities, from a punchy bass to rich details. This is the sort of music that can take you into a trance, and the HD505 gradually fades into the background, letting the music embalm you with its mystical capabilities. With something more vocal like With My Home in the Delta, the soulful voice of Muddy Waters is the centre of attention, though you don't miss any details, not the guitars or the regular drum beats. Each strum is as if someone is tugging on your heart… it is not every day you listen to songs with such intent. I had heard enough… I knew I had to listen to Leonard Cohen to seal my appreciation of the HD505. A live performance of his famous Blue Raincoat took me to the cold New York streets with music playing on the sidewalks, ushered into a surreal world far from my reality as only Cohen's voice and words can. This is that kind of headphone… one that does not need noise cancellation to shut out the noise of your life. A premium headphone for audiophiles. (Image credit: Nandagopal Rajan/ The Indian Express) At Rs 27,990, the Sennheiser HD505 might not be for everyone. But I would consider this among the best headphones at the moment for audiophiles who love their songs to be rendered without overpowering technology. I found my time with the Sennheiser HD505 both destressing and therapeutic… as long as I knew what songs to play. This therapy is strongly recommended.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Applovin Plunged in March
Shares of digital advertising up-and-comer Applovin (NASDAQ: APP) plunged 18.2% in March, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Applovin already had a rough February, when it was hit by two short-seller reports. And while the entire technology sector had a rough March as well, Applovin had another especially bad month, as it was hit by -- you guessed it -- a third short-seller report. On March 27, a short-selling hedge fund manager under the name Muddy Waters published a short report against Applovin. According to Muddy Waters, Applovin's new digital advertising engine engages in a number of irreputable tactics in order to make its digital advertising revenue look better than it otherwise would be. Muddy Waters concluded Applovin's software essentially scraped user IDs and data from other social media platforms in order to find high-value targets, which Muddy Waters claims is a violation of app store rules. The hedge fund then went on to accuse Applovin of using "retargeting" methods that boost ad sales relative to actual demand. All in all, Muddy Waters thinks that Applovin's new e-commerce advertisers are only seeing 25% to 35% "incremental" demand to their existing social media advertising, whereas Applovin's management claimed that the incrementality of spending on its mobile games platform was more like 100%. Muddy Waters' claims mirror those of short-seller firms Fuzzy Panda and Culper Research, which collaborated in a short report against the company in February. And like those short-sellers, Muddy Waters believes Applovin's software should be "deplatformed" from the major app stores, given that these accusations would amount to a violation of the app stores' privacy policy. In addition, markets were roiled by fears over the tariff policies coming out of the White House. Those fears turned out to be correct, with the Trump administrations' tariff policies unveiled April 2 being significantly worse than was contemplated, even by market skeptics. During the month, the entire technology sector plunged, especially digital advertisers. So, the incremental short-seller report only added to the downbeat mood for Applovin. It should be noted that short-sellers have an obvious incentive to "muddy the water" so to speak, to reap fear, uncertainty, and doubt in their target companies. Moreover, stocks that have gone up a lot in a short amount of time may also be especially good targets. Applovin certainly fits that description, as it had rallied nearly 60% to begin the year. In addition, management came out after the first short report, stridently refuting its claims. After the Muddy Waters report, Applovin CEO Adam Foroughi wrote another blog post once again refuting the report, saying, "It's easy to discredit a short report like this in minutes." Foroughi even pasted a Grok AI query in the blog post regarding Applovin's pixel ad engine, and how it compares with other industry-standard targeting methods. Applovin also retained law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to thoroughly investigate the short-seller claims, likely with the objective of putting the claims to rest once and for all. In addition, in more recent days, Applovin has put itself out there as a potential bidder for Tik Tok U.S., which Chinese parent Bytedance may be forced to divest. So, either management is highly confident its AI-powered ad software doesn't "cheat" or run afoul of app store rules, or the executives have an awful lot of lot of chutzpah. Amid the short-seller claims and the absolute wrecking of the tech sector recently, it may be time for investors to take another look at Applovin. Before you buy stock in AppLovin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and AppLovin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $461,558!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $578,035!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 730% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 147% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of April 5, 2025 Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AppLovin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Applovin Plunged in March was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
