sanctions

U.S. Treasury gives green light to Russian default insurance payouts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Treasury issued a special waiver on Friday to allow investors with insurance against a Russian default, known as Credit Default Swaps, to receive their payouts.

The normally straightforward process of CDS payouts was thrown into chaos in June when Washington said its sanctions on Russia represented a total ban on buying Moscow’s debt.

An investor who buys a CDS contract usually hands over the underlying bond to the bank or fund that sold them the CDS when a default happens. It traditionally involves an auction to determine the price, but under the sanctions that exchange effectively became illegal.

The license authorizes U.S. persons to purchase or receive Russian bonds starting two days before the announced date of the auction, and up to eight business days after the auction takes place.

The committee that sets the auction date has a scheduled meeting on Monday at 1300 GMT after having met three times this week.

“OFAC has issued two General Licenses (waivers) to help U.S. and other global investors more cleanly exit their exposures to Russia,” a Treasury spokesperson said, referring to the Office of Foreign Assets Control which enforces U.S. sanctions.

The move also authorizes financial

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Google Ordered to Pick Up Boies Legal Fees at $2,000 an Hour (4)

A California federal judge has ordered Alphabet Inc.‘s Google to pay nearly $1 million for discovery misconduct after the company concealed employees and other relevant data in a lawsuit alleging web browser privacy violations.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan represents Google in the case, while Boies Schiller Flexner represents the class-action plaintiffs.

Quinn Emanuel lawyers had urged Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen not to levy sanctions against Google, saying the company had “concealed nothing.” She ruled against them in May.

Boies Schiller’s lawyers had requested more than $1 million, but van Keulen ordered Google to pay just over $970,000 after deducting fees incurred by timekeepers billing less than 10 hours, time spent producing documents and computer research.

Though much of the original sanctions motion is redacted, Boies Schiller said Google failed to produce data that included “identifiers” associated with the named plaintiffs and their devices. The judge’s order granting the monetary sanctions is sealed.

The sanctions request from Boies Schiller earlier revealed David Boies, the famous lawyer, billed $1,950 an hour in the case.

“Google failed to comply with its discovery obligations, misled the plaintiffs and the Court, concealed the identities of key personnel, and concealed, and then destroyed,

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