Latest news with #StephenLynch
Reuters
7 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Exclusive: US investors eye strategic Bulgarian storage filled with Russian gas
August 4 (Reuters) - Two American financiers, with support from a former campaign manager of U.S. President Donald Trump, have approached Bulgarian authorities to discuss a possible investment in a state-owned underground storage filled mostly with Russian natural gas, according to five people familiar with the matter. Led by Stephen P. Lynch, a Florida financier who has been trying to buy a gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany, and another U.S. investor, Fei Wang, the group is considering ways to participate in a multi-million-euro government plan aimed at doubling the capacity of Bulgaria's sole underground gas storage, known as Chiren, the people familiar with the matter said. Allied with Brad Parscale, who worked on Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, the group would like to harness additional storage capacity at Chiren to transform Bulgaria into a gas hub serving parts of Eastern Europe, the people said. Through a spokesperson, Lynch declined to comment for this article. Storage sites are strategic assets in the gas industry, allowing operators to manage big seasonal swings in demand and capitalize on price fluctuations: buying gas when prices are low and releasing it when they are higher. With or without U.S. investors, Chiren could play a critical role in the coming years as Greece, Serbia, Hungary, and other countries in Eastern Europe debate whether to keep buying gas from Russia or increase imports from other suppliers, including the United States. Lynch and Wang are scheduled to meet with top government officials in Sofia this week to discuss how they could obtain recent data on Chiren and conduct an evaluation, the people familiar with the matter said. An aide to Bulgaria's Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov did not respond to questions on the planned meeting and talks with the Americans. Industry sources described the talks as exploratory, saying no deal was certain. They also said Parscale had a backseat role in the preliminary phase of talks but would help provide connections to U.S. energy companies if the project materialized. Lynch stirred controversy in Europe earlier this year when, amid negotiations between Washington and Moscow to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, he sought to restore the flow of Russian gas through one of the Nord Stream pipelines running under the Baltic Sea into Germany. Both German and EU authorities have made clear they would oppose such an initiative. Lynch's new energy project in Chiren comes amid tension between the European Commission, which has announced plans to eliminate imports of Russian gas after 2027, and several East European countries that have been purchasing growing volumes of the Russian fuel in recent quarters and saying they intend to keep doing so. Bulgaria, a member of the EU and the North Atlantic military alliance, is expected to play a pivotal role in this debate because the last active pipeline transporting Russian gas to East European countries, known as TurkStream, crosses through its territory. In the spring, Bulgarian authorities approached a handful of U.S. investors with a proposal to buy a stake in the country's section of TurkStream, fueling speculation by opposition parties that Bulgaria was trying to protect the flow of Russian gas by giving it an American flavor. While the talks went nowhere, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, Bulgarian officials have kept mum on what they had sought to achieve with U.S. investors' support. Any additional storage capacity at Chiren will be coveted both by those who would like to keep importing Russian gas and those who would want to shift to new suppliers, said Martin Vladimirov an energy expert at the Center for the Study of Democracy, a Sofia-based think tank. "Bulgaria can play a key role in accelerating Europe's full decoupling from Russian gas but only if both EU and Bulgarian policymakers introduce specific stopgaps that make sure the facility is not used to launder indirect Russian gas supply coming from third countries such as Turkey," said Vladimirov, co-author of a study, opens new tab on the role of TurkStream. Lynch's associate in the project, Wang, said he had no involvement with Lynch's Nord Stream 2 endeavor, no involvement with TurkStream, and no connections to Russia. A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on how Chiren's potential expansion fits into their plans to ban Russian gas. Bulgaria's Energy Minister, Zheco Stankov, did not respond to questions on this issue. Lynch has a long history of Russia-related dealmaking. In the early 2000s, he led a consortium of investors to buy Yukos Oil assets. Three years ago, he put together an acquisition of the Swiss subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, after receiving a green light from the U.S. Treasury to purchase a sanctioned asset. More recently, Lynch's attempt to buy Nord Stream 2, the company that owns the only pipeline linking Russia to Germany that remains operational, elicited angry reactions in Europe, with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying in May that he would make sure Nord Stream 2 could not go into operation. (The other three Nord Stream pipelines were damaged in an undersea attack in 2022.) The Chiren storage was built inside a depleted gas field in the 1970s. A 285 million-euro plan to double Chiren's capacity was launched in 2021 but was halted in 2024 because of an investigation into the alleged misuse of EU funds conducted by European Prosecutors. The European Public Prosecutor's Office did not respond to messages seeking comment on where the investigation stands. Bulgarian authorities have said they may launch a new tender to conduct extension work at Chiren, depending on the outcome of the probe.
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Democrats push back on trio of Trump-backed crypto bills with ‘Corruption Week' blitz
House Democrats are launching a counter-campaign to the Republican-led 'Crypto Week,' accusing the GOP of enabling corruption and deregulation in service of President Trump's crypto agenda. Representatives Maxine Waters and Stephen Lynch announced 'Anti-Crypto Corruption Week' on Friday, vowing to oppose three digital asset bills set for House votes next week — the Clarity Act, Genius Act, and Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. 'These bills would make Congress complicit in Trump's unprecedented crypto scam — one that's enriched himself, his family, and the billionaire insiders in his cabinet,' Waters wrote in a statement. 'They're a brazen stamp of approval for the abuse of power we're witnessing in real time.' The Democrats argue the legislation lacks consumer safeguards, opens loopholes for decentralised finance, and would legitimise the president's crypto ventures. These include the TRUMP memecoin, World Liberty Financial, and American Bitcoin, an industrial-scale mining firm recently co-founded by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. in partnership with Hut 8. Lynch warned the measures would expose the US financial system to national security risks and foreign influence. Their pushback follows a tense Senate hearing on Wednesday, where Democrats voiced alarm over the Clarity Act's provisions on tokenisation and DeFi. Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that the bill could let companies like Tesla or Meta dodge SEC oversight simply by moving shares onto blockchains. 'It's a back door to destroy the securities laws that have protected our capital markets for 100 years,' she said. Senator Tim Scott, a Republican leading the Senate market structure effort, defended the bills as offering 'light-touch guardrails' for innovation. But scepticism runs deep across party lines. 'We let the last generation of tech draft its own rules,' said Senator John Kennedy. 'What we got looks like someone knocked over a urine sample.' Kyle Baird is DL News' Weekend Editor. Got a tip? Email at kbaird@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fox News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Border czar Homan demands Democrats stop comparing ICE to 'Nazis' after officer shot by detention facility
Border czar Tom Homan demanded Democratic politicians tone down their rhetoric against immigration officials after a Texas police officer was shot outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center over the weekend. "The rhetoric against the men and women of ICE is skyrocketing, especially by members of Congress," Homan told "America's Newsroom" on Monday. "We have senators, we have congresspeople [who] compare ICE to the Nazis, compare ICE to racists, and it just continues. So the public thinks, well, if a member of Congress can attack ICE, why can't we?" The rhetoric "has to stop," he warned, "or it's a matter of time one of the ICE officers goes down or a criminal goes down. We've already seen an officer go down." The officer was shot Friday night near the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas, authorities said. The Department of Homeland Security said that more than a dozen agitators slashed the tires of federal vehicles and damaged security cameras at the ICE facility. The attack follows ongoing protests outside a DHS detention facility in Portland amid backlash against President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agency. Homan said that attacks against ICE officers and federal agents conducting immigration enforcement are up nearly 700% compared to the same time last year. Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were criticized by conservatives in June after they compared federal immigration operations to "the Gestapo," a police force in Nazi Germany. Homan called on blue state politicians to be more responsible in their criticism of immigration officials, reminding them that these officers have families too. "We're talking about life and death here. These men and women of ICE, the men and women of border patrol, they're mothers and fathers too. They don't hang their heart on a hook when they go to work," he said. The Trump official also told protesters to "go protest Congress" if they don't like the country's immigration laws. The attack on law enforcement followed Trump signing his $3.3 trillion "big, beautiful bill" into law on Friday. The bill adds 10,000 ICE agents and directs $46.5 billion for border wall construction, $45 billion to expand immigration detention capacity, $30 billion for ICE hiring and training and $6 billion for border technology and surveillance. Homan said the additional funds will help immigration officials be more efficient in their operations and "make America safer." "We have less than 5,000 deportation officers at ICE. We have over 20 million illegal aliens in this country," he said of the challenge agents are dealing with.
E&E News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Robert Garcia elected to lead House Oversight Democrats
California Rep. Robert Garcia will be the next top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after beating Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch in a 150-63 caucus vote Tuesday. Garcia, 47, won a first-ballot majority after winning the backing of the caucus' powerful Steering and Policy Committee on Monday evening. Serving just his second term in Congress, Garcia has quickly risen through the ranks. He's currently a member of Democratic Caucus leadership and served as a co-chair of Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign. Advertisement In a contest that had tested House Democrats' desire to set aside its penchant to reward seniority in favor of promoting younger voices, Garcia had pitched himself to his colleagues as a consensus candidate with managerial experience as a former mayor of Long Beach.
Washington Post
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Rep. Robert Garcia elected top Democrat on Oversight panel, setting new path for party's opposition
WASHINGTON — Rep. Robert Garcia was elected the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, charting a new direction for the party's opposition to congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump's administration. Garcia, of California, won the job overwhelmingly in a closed-door vote of the House Democratic caucus. He beat out Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, 150-63.
