Latest news with #lobbying
Times
an hour ago
- Business
- Times
French minister and fugitive tycoon face trial over ‘corruption pact'
Rachida Dati, France's ambitious culture minister, and Carlos Ghosn, the fugitive car tycoon, have been sent for trial over an alleged €900,000 corruption pact. The move will cast a shadow over Dati's campaign to become mayor of Paris next year and add to the legal woes besetting Ghosn, the former chief executive of Renault and Nissan who fled to Lebanon in 2019 after being charged with financial misconduct in Japan. Both deny wrongdoing. Prosecutors allege that when Ghosn, 71, headed the Renault-Nissan alliance, he paid Dati, 59, then an MEP, €900,000 to carry out lobbying work on the companies' behalf in the European parliament between 2010 and 2012. MEPs are not allowed to engage in such lobbying work. However, Dati and Ghosn say the payments were consultancy fees to help with the group's expansion in the Middle East and north Africa, which was legal. The 175-page indictment says investigators could find no trace of Dati's consultancy activities, however. Dati has been charged with corruption, influence peddling, breach of trust and receiving the proceeds of abuse of power. Ghosn is accused of breach of trust, abuse of power, corruption and influence peddling. Le Monde said a preliminary hearing was due in September and the trial is likely to be scheduled next year, after March's council elections. The timing leaves Dati facing the prospect of having to campaign in the mayoral race against a background of corruption allegations. Polls suggest that the centre-right minister is an overwhelming favourite to succeed Anne Hidalgo, the socialist incumbent, who is her longtime rival. A political street fighter, Dati will almost certainly seek to shrug off the case, but internal opponents are waiting to pounce if her campaign is derailed. Foremost among them is Michel Barnier, the EU's former Brexit negotiator who was a short-lived prime minister last year. • The fugitive CEO Carlos Ghosn on how he escaped jail in Japan Although, like Dati, a member of the centre-right Republicans, Barnier wants to stand in a by-election in the wealthy Paris constituency that is her backyard. His initiative, seen as a stepping stone to the mayoral race, has infuriated Dati, who has indicated that she will run against him. The trial is a fresh setback for President Macron, who lured Dati into his centrist government in January 2024 although she had previously been critical of him. With her tough-talking style she is one of the few ministers well known to voters in what is otherwise widely viewed as a weak, ramshackle cabinet.
Bloomberg
2 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Crypto Industry Boosted Lobbying to Pass Coveted Stablecoin Bill
Crypto companies and advocates of digital assets boosted their lobbying this year to ensure passage of landmark legislation, delivering the nascent industry its first major policy victory in Washington. The firms reported spending $6.9 million in the second quarter, congressional disclosures show, a 21% increase over their outlays in the previous three months. The expanded spending came as Congress advanced industry-backed bills, including stablecoin legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law last Friday.
Skift
5 hours ago
- Business
- Skift
Travel Companies Spent Big in Q2 on Lobbying — Here's What They Want
Just about all the travel companies want lower taxes and they've got their own initiatives where they want to see more spending. From April through June, the tourism and travel industries grappled with several political challenges at once: President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff turbulence. Messy debates over the 'One Big Beautiful Bill.' U.S. travel bans and declining tourism from abroad. In response, many of the nation's biggest airlines, hotels, travel service companies, and associated trade associations spent bigger-than-usual amounts to lobby Congress and the Trump administration, according to a Skift analysis of new federal lobbying disclosure documents filed Monday. This government influence spending, which includes money spent on both in-house and for-hire lobbyists in Washington, D.C., is designed to defend industry and corporate interests and advocate for favorable policies and legislation. Among the notable revelations: Where Spending Rose Trade Groups: The U.S. Travel Association reported a spike in its lobbying activity during the second quarter ($1.03 million) versus a year earlier ($900,00). It was also well beyond what it spent during the same period in 2021 during Joe Biden's first year as president ($840,000) and in 2017 during the first year of Trump's first term ($640,000). 'Lobbying expenditures during the first year of a new presidential administration or new Congress typically increase — along with legislative and regulatory action — compared to the previous year,' U.S. Travel Association spokesperson Spencer
France 24
9 hours ago
- Business
- France 24
France's culture minister to be tried on corruption charges
Dati, a 59-year-old who holds ambitions to become Paris mayor next year, was charged in 2019 on suspicions she lobbied for the Renault-Nissan carmaking group while at the European Union institution. She denies the allegations. Dati is accused of accepting 900,000 euros ($1.06 million at current rates) in lawyer's fees between 2010 and 2012 from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, but not really working for them, while she was an MEP from 2009 to 2019. Investigations have sought to determine whether she was in fact lobbying in the European Parliament for the carmaker, an activity that is forbidden. French investigating magistrates also ordered that Carlos Ghosn, the ex-tycoon of Renault-Nissan, be tried, the judicial source said. The 71-year-old, who has been living in Lebanon for years after escaping arrest in Japan, has also rejected the charges against him. A hearing on September 29 will decide on the date of the trial, the source said. According to another source following the case, the trial could be held after the Paris municipal elections, which will be held in March next year. Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, has repeatedly sought without success to have the charges against her quashed. Ghosn, the former chairman and chief executive of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct, before being sacked by Nissan's board in a unanimous decision. He jumped bail late the following year and made a dramatic escape from Japan hidden in an audio-equipment box, landing in Beirut, where he remains as an international fugitive. Both Japan and France have sought his arrest. © 2025 AFP
The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Australia pressed Tony Blair to avoid meeting ‘troublemaker' 1999 Indigenous delegation, archives reveal
Tony Blair's government was privately lobbied by Australia not to meet representatives of Indigenous communities who were described as 'troublemakers'. Papers released from Britain's National Archives shed light on the behind-scenes-discussions about a delegation that came to the UK in late 1999. It was led by Patrick Dodson, a Yawuru elder who was to become an Australian Labor party senator and has been referred to as the 'father of reconciliation'. During the same trip, he met Queen Elizabeth II as part of a larger effort to foster reconciliation. Dodson has spoken about the significance of that meeting. However, files including a memo written by Blair's foreign affairs adviser, John Sawers, reveal the level of angst within government circles about the trip, and refers to an apparent intervention by the then Australian high commissioner, Philip Flood. 'The Australians are pretty wound up about the idea of you seeing the Aborigines at all,' Sawers wrote in a note to Blair. 'Their high commissioner rang me to press you not to see them: they were troublemakers – it would be like [the then Australian prime minister] John Howard seeing people from Northern Ireland who were trying to stir up problems for the UK.' The memo suggested: 'Can't we plead diary problems?' while the word 'yes' is written in answer to this, in handwriting that resembles that of Blair. The same memo reminded Blair that he would be 'pressed' to see the Chinese human rights activist Wei Jingsheng a week later, adding: 'It will be harder to avoid seeing Wei if you're seeing Australian dissidents next week.' A separate British government memo recorded that the Australian High Commission had made several points, including that Australian media reports suggested the delegation would be seeking an apology from the Queen and would be raising the 'historical failure of the British government to consult Australia's Indigenous population during colonisation'. 'We are not certain of the message it will deliver, but it is unlikely to be welcome,' it added, recommending that Blair not meet them and that there was a risk the UK could be drawn in 'domestic Australian debate on indigenous issues'. Other files reveal angst inside Blair's government about Australian relations, including the potential scenario of Australians voting to become a republic during a referendum in 1999. 'We don't want a rejection of the Queen to equate to rejecting all things British,' Sawers told Blair in a note advising that new legislation would be needed in the UK if Australians voted yes. Files from the following year include a briefing for Blair before a visit to him by Howard in July 2000 during Australia Week. Howard would be 'very aware of domestic Australian media criticism' of it as a 'backward-looking junket' and would try to use the visit to Blair to emphasise serious political aspects, a senior UK civil servant wrote. A pen portrait of Howard described him as having a 'sometimes didactic but nevertheless effective speaking manner'. There was considerable anxiety in the British government about the eagerness of Howard's government to hold an England v Australia cricket match featuring teams selected by him and Blair. It was expected that the Australian team would comprise high-quality professionals and the Australian High Commission had informally approached the England and Wales Cricket Board, but British civil servants feared it would clash with another event and that English county teams would not be prepared to release players for a match between the prime ministers' XIs. After Howard wrote to Blair to propose the match, Blair's private secretary, Philip Barton, noted in a memo to the UK prime minister: 'I suspect the last thing you will want to do is go to a cricket match on the Saturday. But if we just say no, this would no doubt come out and you would look unsporting.' Barton came up with options including getting John Major, a cricket fan, to raise an XI on Blair's behalf, 'but it may not be enough to stop the prime minister having to go to at least the start of the match'. A third option was to 'turn it into a charity match'.
