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2016 has not been too kind to Elizabeth Holmes, the Steve-Jobs wannabe in charge of fraudulent Theranos. She has thus far been banned for 2 years from operating labs, removed from hosting fundraisers for Hillary and lost her entire net worth. And now, the Wall Street Journal has published the "tell-all" story of the whistle-blower, 26 year old Tyler Shultz, who brought the the whole Theranos farce crashing down. It's a sordid tale complete with all the expected twists and turns of a Jason Bourne thriller including intimidation, coercion and private detectives. Tyler Shultz is the grandson of George Shultz,...

This past April, Treasury's acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence spoke at a Washington, D.C. forum and delivered remarks that demonstrated what I long suspected: the politicization of the Department of Treasury's enforcement arm.  Recent developments have confirmed my fears.  As a former Treasury special agent, I am appalled at what has been happening. Reading a prepared statement, the under-secretary discussed the Iran sanctions program and described how it helped pave the way to the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" (JCPOA) or the long-running negotiations with Iran that will postpone Iranian nuclear weapon development.  Sitting in the audience that...

Leaked e-mails published by WikiLeaks show that the mainstream media are not the only media going out of their way to push the election to Hillary Clinton. While the collusion between the Department of Justice and the Clinton campaign/Clinton Foundation and between the mainstream media and the Clinton campaign/Clinton Foundation have done much to help Clinton, social media has played a big part in the game, as well.In the modern age, data is a more valuable asset than most realize. Those who decide what you see can — to a large extent — manipulate what you think, or at least...

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Thursday that the administration has not seen evidence that Iran's financial support for terrorism has grown since the U.S. paid the regime $1.7 billion in cash in January. "We have not seen an increase in terrorist financing by Iran," Lew told the House Financial Services Committee. But Lew also acknowledged that he wasn't aware if there was any way to trace how Iran uses the cash. Republicans pressed him on whether the U.S. recorded the serial numbers on the bills that were shipped to Iran, but Lew said he did not know. The U.S. arranged...

Believe it or not, the job may go to a former Clinton donor if Trump is elected. Donald Trump has told prospective donors that, if elected president, he plans to nominate former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin for U.S. Treasury Secretary. That’s according to Anthony Scaramucci, a high-profile hedge fund manager and Trump fundraiser. Mnuchin, who is a former donor to Hillary Clinton, spent 17 years with Goldman Sachs, where his father also had been a prominent executive. He later worked with investment groups affiliated with George Soros, including as chairman of controversial mortgage lender OneWest Bank Group (which would...

Henry Paulson, a Republican who was U.S. Treasury secretary during the 2008 financial meltdown, on Friday called a Donald Trump presidency “unthinkable” and said he will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton. Paulson joins a growing list of establishment Republicans who say they will not cast a ballot in the Nov. 8 election for Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee and a political neophyte whose populist rhetoric runs counter to many long-held Republican principles. […] “I’ll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment and...

UPS, and roughly 270,000 retired truck drivers, construction workers, and other service workers can breathe a collective sigh of relief... for now. As we previously reported, the Central States Pension Fund had submitted a plan to Treasury that if approved would have cut member benefits, and triggered UPS to take an estimated $3.8 billion charge. As the WSJ reports, Kenneth Feinberg (who was appointed by the Treasury to review all such applications) rejected the plan presented by the CSPF. Feinberg cited a few reasons for his decision, one being that it imposed cuts in a disproportionate manner, another was that...

The Treasury Department on Friday rejected an effort by the Teamsters Central States Pension Plan to cut benefits for 270,000 retired workers starting in July. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a letter to members of Congress that while the decision blocks the pending pension cuts, it does not resolve the issue because the pension plan remains severely underfunded and is projected to become insolvent within the next 10 years. …

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will make an announcement today about several changes to U.S. currency. Contrary to a suggestion last year, Alexander Hamilton will apparently be staying on the $10 bill but women’s rights leaders will be added to the back of the bill. The big change will be to the $20 bill according to Politico: Treasury will also announce that it plans to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, the sources said. There will also be changes to the $5 bill to depict civil rights era leaders. The Treasury Department announced last June...

arriet Tubman will replace President Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill, and Jackson will be moved to the back of the bill alongside an image of the White House, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said Wednesday. Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, will remain on the front of the $10 bill, but the back of that bill, which currently bears an image of the Treasury building, will feature leaders of the suffrage movement. The reverse of the $5 bill will be overhauled to include opera singer Marian Anderson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights leader...

The Treasury Department made it official this afternoon: Harriet Tubman is replacing Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20, and there are other bills getting big changes too.Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced today that in addition to Tubman, the $10 and $5 bills are getting makeovers. And don’t worry, Alexander Hamilton isn’t going anywhere.But the back will be changed to this: The new $10 will honor the story and the heroes of the women’s suffrage movement against the backdrop of the Treasury building… The new $10 design will depict that historic march and honor Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Susan...

Abraham Lincoln will not be the only person depicted on the $5 bill much longer. The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will overhaul the design of the $5 note, a move overshadowed by its decision to revamp the back of the $10 bill to include women and to feature Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20. Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., famed opera singer Marian Anderson and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt will be depicted on the back of the updated $5 bill.All three will be portrayed in historical moments in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which...

Presenting an artist's impression of what your new $20 bill will soon look like. It's official.Moments ago Politico reported that the U.S. Treasury will announce that it plans to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, the sources said. There will also be changes to the $5 bill to depict civil rights era leaders.Not every dead president is being scraped however: treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday will announce a decision to keep Alexander Hamilton on the front of the $10 bill and put leaders of the movement to give women the right to vote...

Harriet Tubman is going to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, according to a report. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is expected to make the announcement on Wednesday, according to Politico. Sources told the site that he has also decided to keep Alexander Hamilton on the front of the $10 bill.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is expected to announce this week that Alexander Hamilton's face will remain on the front of the $10 bill and a woman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill, a senior government source told CNN on Saturday. Lew announced last summer that he was considering redesigning the $10 bill to include the portrait of a woman. The decision to make the historic change at the expense of Hamilton drew angry rebukes from fans of the former Treasury Secretary. The pro-Hamilton movement gained steam after the smash success of the hip-hop Broadway musical...

Amid the discord ignited by Donald Trump’s idea to block money transfers to Mexico until it funds a wall it’s important to note that a U.S. government program is largely responsible for the billions in remittances flowing south of the border from illegal immigrants. The program is called “Directo a Mexico” (Direct to Mexico) and the Federal Reserve, the government agency that serves as the nation’s central bank, launched it nearly a decade ago. Judicial Watch investigated the outrageous taxpayer-subsidized initiative and obtained government records back in 2006. It was created by President George W. Bush following the 2001 U.S.-Mexico...

Get rid of the $100 bill. Heck, maybe get rid of the $50 bill, too. So says Lawrence Summers, a former economic adviser to President Obama and ex-Treasury secretary. Summers points to research showing that corruption is aided by paper currency in larger denominations, such as Uncle Sam’s $100 bill and the 500-euro bill ($557 U.S. equivalent). How so? It’s easier for criminals and terrorists to move lots of cash illicitly in large bills. A million dollars in €500 bills weighs just 2.2 pounds, Summers writes in a blog post on the Washington Post website. The same amount of money...

(English translation) United States Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew will visit Puerto Rico next Wednesday to meet with government and civic leaders. It was reported that they will discuss the island's fiscal and public-debt crisis. According to Treasury's spokesman, among the people Lew is scheduled to meet with are Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, and legislative, community, labor, and business leaders.

Facing accusations that it cannot adequately protect the White House, the U.S. Secret Service plans to hire 1,100 more officers and agents for an agency besieged by embarrassing scandals and security lapses, two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the plans said. The addition of 700 uniformed division officers and 400 agents over five years would expand its staff of 6,647 by nearly 17 percent, the biggest hiring increase in more than a decade at the 150-year-old agency whose job it is to protect the president, his family, and senior officials, along with fighting financial crime. The Secret Service...

Shortly after the PBoC’s move to devalue the yuan, we noted with some alarm that it looked as though China may have drawn down its reserves by more than $100 billion in the space of just two weeks. That, we went on the point out, would represent a stunning increase over the previous pace of the country’s reserve draw down, which we began documenting months ahead of the devaluation (see here, for instance). We went on to estimate, based on the projected size of the RMB carry trade unwind, how large the FX reserve liquidation might need to be to...