Bloomberg (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG executives ignored warnings from colleagues about troubled steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta as they channeled $1.2 billion of client funds to his businesses, according to people familiar with the matter.Bankers in Credit Suisse’s commodity trade-finance unit blacklisted Gupta’s Liberty Commodities Ltd. in 2016 because they suspected some of its deals weren’t legitimate, the people said. When they learned about two years later that the bank was lending to his companies through a suite of investment funds, which eventually grew to $10 billion, they flagged their worries to leaders in compliance and the division that housed the loans, one of the people said.The disclosure that Credit Suisse may have put clients at risk despite internal concerns over Gupta’s businesses adds a new twist to the debacle stemming from the March implosion of Greensill Capital, the finance firm at the center of the three-way relationship.Investigations, LawsuitsThe U.K. Serious Fraud Office is now investigating Gupta’s group of companies for suspected fraud, including in its financing deals with Greensill, according to a May 14 statement. Credit Suisse has sued to force Gupta’s Liberty Commodities into insolvency and has since shut the funds that made the loans and launched an internal investigation. Investors are staring at losses as the bank confronts embarrassing lawsuits.“We are currently focusing our efforts on recovering our investors’ money,” Will Bowen, a spokesman for Credit Suisse in London, said in an emailed statement, adding that the bank’s internal probe will focus on “all of the issues” linked to the funds. “We are committed to learning the lessons and will share the relevant lessons learnt at the appropriate time.”Andrew Mitchell, a spokesman for the Gupta Family Group Alliance, or GFG Alliance, a collective of businesses linked to Gupta including Liberty Commodities, denied any wrongdoing.The Greensill saga represents just one of the two disasters that rocked Credit Suisse in the first half of 2021. Since Greensill began unraveling, the bank has announced a $5.5 billion hit from the blowup at Archegos Capital Management.ApologiesFormer Chairman Urs Rohner apologized to shareholders and his successor, Antonio Horta-Osorio, who arrived at the end of April, has promised a sweeping strategy review.Chief Executive Officer Thomas Gottstein, who was head of the division that oversaw trade finance, wasn’t aware of the internal concerns about Gupta that had prompted the bank to cut him off, according to a person familiar with the matter.Employees at the trade-finance unit, which lends money for the buying and selling of commodities, cut ties with Gupta in 2016 after becoming skeptical toward his Liberty Commodities, the people said. They distrusted the documents the company provided, triggering doubts about its transactions, they said. In one example reported by Bloomberg, the company had presented another bank with what seemed to be duplicate shipping receipts. A spokesman for Gupta has denied any wrongdoing.Banking TiesLiberty Commodities pledged assets to Credit Suisse as security for borrowings in 2013 but by early 2016, all such commitments had been extinguished, indicating that the financing relationship had ceased, U.K. Companies House filings show. And while Gupta’s company listed the Swiss bank as one of its lenders in its 2014 annual report, it didn’t in the following year’s report, which is dated May 2016, according to the filings.Their counterparts at other banks, including Macquarie Group Ltd. and Sberbank PJSC, halted trading with Liberty Commodities around the same time because of similar concerns; Goldman Sachs Group Inc. also stopped in 2016, Bloomberg has reported.Nevertheless, executives at Credit Suisse’s asset-management division -- which creates investment products for clients and charges a fee for overseeing them -- began arranging a suite of funds focused on supply-chain finance in 2017. The entities bought securitized loans packaged by Greensill, a firm created by Australian businessman Lex Greensill. Much of the debts were linked to Gupta’s businesses.WarningsOfficials at the commodity trade-finance unit were concerned when they found out about the funds’ links to Gupta and took their fears to Thomas Grotzer, general counsel for the bank’s Swiss division. They also warned Luc Mathys and Lukas Haas, the bankers who helped oversee the trades at the asset-management unit.Grotzer was promoted last month to interim global head of compliance at Credit Suisse. He didn’t respond to requests for comment. Mathys, head of fixed-income at the asset-management division, and Haas, a portfolio manager, were put on temporary leave in March. Neither responded to requests for comment.The bank pushed ahead with the funds and marketed them to investors as being made up of short-term debt secured on invoices, assets considered so safe that Credit Suisse gave the largest vehicle its lowest rating for risk. Yet part of the loans were linked to mere possible future revenues.Other parts of the bank continued working with Gupta as well. Credit Suisse’s investment bankers were due to lead an initial public offering for Liberty’s U.S. steel arm, which was ultimately pulled, according to a statement from the company. Gupta also announced that the Swiss bank would finance his planned acquisition of Thyssenkrupp AG’s steel unit, which fell apart earlier this year.Credit Suisse has so far recouped about $5.9 billion of the $10 billion in these supply-chain funds, but it remains unclear how much will be returned ultimately to investors. Loans to Gupta’s businesses are among a batch of debts that are the “principal sources of valuation uncertainty,” the bank said earlier this month.Liberty Commodities’s external legal advisors investigated “alleged rumors concerning the paperwork” it used in 2019, according to Mitchell, the spokesman for GFG Alliance. They found no evidence to substantiate the rumors, nor was the company “ever subject to further complaints or proceedings,” he said.“LCL has ongoing banking relationships with separate financial institutions,” Mitchell said, referring to Liberty Commodities. “The trade-finance market has been hugely challenging for all but the very largest commodities traders in recent years. Nevertheless, no financial institution has been left out of pocket as a result of lending money to LCL. On the contrary, they have received substantial commercial returns.”More stories like this are available on bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.<doc-sep>Many comedians will attempt to do an impression of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but few will ever succeed. Thankfully, we finally found someone who has mastered the art. Comedian Alyssa Limperis recently posted her impression of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to YouTube and Twitter on Thursday. Limperis imagines how Ocasio-Cortez might respond to Tan France, the stylist from Queer Eye, and his infamous French tuck (France's preferred method of tucking shirts). The cast of Queer Eye, sans Karamo Brown, recently visited Ocasio-Cortez and other Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill. The impression is terrifyingly spot-on. Limperis captures Ocasio-Cortez's emphatic way of announcing her syllables and characteristic hand movements. She knows exactly where she places her gaze and just how often she twists her neck in a mini-fit of irritation. Kudos to Limperis for further addressing one of the show's greatest injustices — the excessive amount of labor Bobby Berk performs compared to others on the show. People on Twitter felt similarly. Had to watch this a few times to make sure it wasn’t actually AOC holy shit https://t.co/fbE8SYX9nQ — Shivani Raina (@ItsRainaMen) April 4, 2019 This is without uncertainty the only AOC impression History will remember — Matt RATIO HOWARD SCHULTZ ON EVERY TWEET Negrin (@MattNegrin) April 4, 2019 When the fingers came out to tick off the list.......... I said THIS is biopic level — Natalie Walker (@nwalks) April 4, 2019 @nbcsnl y’all need to get on the Alyssa Limperis bandwagon — Audrey (@birdiejane23) April 4, 2019 Killing 👏🏾 it 👏🏾 — Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) April 4, 2019 I had to literally hold my phone 2 feet away from my face to double check this wasn't actually AOC. pic.twitter.com/D8wKZzavJr — Nina Bonina LG6IsComingForOurEdges Brown (@CallMeJoanneXO) April 4, 2019 JUSTICE FOR BOBBY https://t.co/c2M1hWO7Ah — Matt Gehring (@mattryanx) April 4, 2019 Shining a spotlight on the Bobby erasure through humour and class. — 🌊 Hours Left 🦈 (@HoursLeft) April 5, 2019 We need to have more political impressions like Limperis'. Alec Baldwin has nothing on her.<doc-sep>
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., faced backlash Friday after seeming to develop a new accent while speaking to a predominantly black audience in New York City. In an appearance at the annual convention of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, the freshman congresswoman responded to those who’ve invoked her past employment as a bartender in what she said were attempts to delegitimize her status as an elected official. “I'm proud to be a bartender. Ain't nothing wrong with that,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “There's nothing wrong with working retail, folding clothes for other people to buy. There is nothing wrong with preparing the food that your neighbors will eat. There is nothing wrong with driving the buses that take your family to work. There is nothing wrong with being a working person in the United States of America and there is everything dignified about it." ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ PROMOTES 'ANTI-CAPITALIST' STREAMING SERVICE “I'm proud to be a bartender. Ain't nothing wrong with that.” — U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. She added that she feels “encouraged” when people remind her of her past because it shows that if she can “work in a restaurant and become a member of the United States Congress, so can you.” Many on Twitter, however, said they detected that Ocasio-Cortez seemed to be speaking with a different “accent.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Some even compared the self-described Democratic socialist to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose dialect also seemed to shift on the campaign trail when spoke to different audiences. Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to respond to the criticism, pointing to her upbringing in the Bronx and explaining that she talks differently when she’s “fired up.” “As much as the right wants to distort & deflect, I am from the Bronx. I act & talk like it, *especially* when I’m fired up and especially when I’m home,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “It is so hurtful to see how every aspect of my life is weaponized against me, yet somehow asserted as false at the same time.”