Walmart closing four Kentucky stores
Walmart Inc. on Wednesday announced plans to close four stores in Kentucky in August.
The Bentonville-based retailer notified affected staff, leasing agents, and elected officials in Louisville, Ky., on Wednesday that it will close two of its Neighborhood Market stores and a Supercenter by Aug. 10, affecting almost 400 workers, a company spokesman said in an email. A store in Lexington, Ky., will also close that same day, spokesman Anne Hatfield said.
"The decision to close stores is not an easy one, but, as a company, we are committed to continuing our growth and investment in Kentucky," Hatfield said. "We look forward to continuing to serve them at our other Louisville area locations."
There are 21 Walmart stores within a 25-mile radius of Louisville, according to Walmart's online store locator. Using the same parameter, there are 12 stores near Lexington.
Last month, Walmart said it will close its Corning, Ark., store in northern Clay County near the Missouri border, by July 20. Hatfield said she knows of no other stores in Arkansas closing this summer.
-- Nathan Owens
Broadcom to pay $19B for software firm
Broadcom Inc., a semiconductor-maker whose acquisitions have reshaped the chip industry, reached an agreement to purchase CA Technologies for about $19 billion, according to a person familiar with the process, branching out into software to diversify its business.
Broadcom offered $44.50 per share in a transaction valued at $18.9 billion, said the person, who asked not to be identified. Broadcom and CA representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Under Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan, Broadcom has transformed itself through a string of acquisitions into one of the world's largest chip makers. Last year, Tan launched an ambitious attempt to grow even bigger -- through the purchase of rival mobile-chip maker Qualcomm Inc. That hostile takeover bid was blocked in March by the U.S government on national-security grounds. With a deal for CA, Broadcom is seeking to move into software used to manage business planning and other processes.
After the rejection of its Qualcomm bid, the San Jose, Calif.-based company -- which relocated its headquarters to the U.S. from Singapore earlier this year -- had said it would probably avoid large purchases and concentrate on returning cash to shareholders in the form of stock buybacks and dividends.
-- Bloomberg News
Treasury's Exxon-ruling appeal heard
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a Texas judge that Exxon Mobil Corp. doesn't have a right to see privileged documents related to a $2 million fine assessed against the energy company for violating sanctions related to Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which issued the penalty in July 2017, asked U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle in Dallas on Tuesday to overturn a magistrate judge's June decision ordering Treasury to hand over more documents. The agency said it's already given the company a 23,000-page administrative record that includes all nonprivileged material. Exxon has said it provided the vast majority of the documents in that record.
Exxon signed legal documents in May 2014 related to oil and gas projects in Russia with Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft OAO, who is on the Treasury's list of sanctioned Russian nationals, the U.S. said. The alleged violations, which Exxon denies, occurred while President Donald Trump's former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson led the Irving, Texas-based company.
-- Bloomberg News
Crypto crime on consumer panel agenda
In forming a new task force to protect consumers from fraud, the Trump administration made clear that one of the greatest threats to the public is just emerging: red-hot markets for crypto coins.
The inclusion of virtual tokens -- along with traditional crimes like money laundering and investment schemes targeting the elderly -- as a focus of a panel announced Wednesday is the latest sign of Washington's concern over digital currencies.
The Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are increasingly focusing their resources on scams tied to bitcoin and other tokens, and government officials have frequently warned investors about potential dangers.
The new task force is led by the Justice Department and consists of agencies including the SEC, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. It cited "cyber fraud" and "digital currency fraud" as targets of the group's work.
-- Bloomberg News
Mine officers indicted in coal-dust fraud
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Eight former supervisors and safety officers at a Kentucky coal company were indicted Wednesday on federal charges that they rigged dust monitoring in underground mines, forcing miners to work in the kind of dirty conditions that can lead to black lung disease.
The eight officials who worked at the now-bankrupt Armstrong Coal in western Kentucky were charged with one count each of conspiracy to defraud the government by "deceit, trickery and dishonest means," according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that company officials ordered workers to remove dust sampling equipment and place it in clean air portions of the mine to get desirable readings, or they moved workers without dust monitors into the dirtiest jobs. The indictment says the offenses happened at Armstrong's Parkway and Kronos mines between 2013 and 2015.
Company officials fabricated and submitted dust sampling test results on days the mine was shut down or not in operation, and one mine superintendent twice mandated a safety official take whatever action necessary to ensure that the company passed dust sampling tests, according to the indictment.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 07/12/2018