investigates

Published on 06/11/2025 – 20:47 GMT+1
•Updated
20:56

The Commission launched on Thursday an investigation into a potential collusion between the two stock exchange groups, Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq, in the market for derivative financial products.

At the heart of EU antitrust enforcer’s concerns is the potential coordination of their conduct in the listing, trading, and clearing of those derivatives, which, if proven, would be in violation of EU’s competition rules.

EU law encourage competition between different economic operators to ensure that prices are set fairly by the market, free from any collusion or abuse of dominant position.

In September 2024, the Commission carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of both financial groups, as permitted under EU rules.

It targeted their practices around financial derivatives, which are contracts whose value changes depending on the price of another asset, such as stocks or commodities.

“Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq entities may have entered into agreements or concerted practices not to compete,” the Commission said in a statement, “in addition, the entities may have allocated demand, coordinated prices and exchanged commercially sensitive information.”

A deal made in 1999

Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq are among the world’s largest stock exchange groups.

According to EU competition commissioner Teresa Ribera, such behaviours could also affect “the proper functioning of the Capital Markets Union – a cornerstone for innovation, financial stability and growth.”

The completion of the European Capital Markets Union — a barrier-free market for capitals aimed at reducing their costs for listed companies and improve investment conditions — is one of the priorities of Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen.

If there was a collusion between Deutsche Börse and Nasdaq, it would constitute “an artificial barrier” on the EU market, Commission’s spokesperson Thomas Regnier told Euronews.

Deutsche Börse reacted in a statement saying : “We are engaging constructively with the European Commission.”

The stock exchange group explained that the Commission’s investigation concerned a 1999 deal, which Deutsche Börse considers “pro-competitive”.

“It aimed to build deeper liquidity in the respective Nordic derivatives markets and create efficiencies,” it argued, adding: “It provided clear benefits for market participants and was public.”

The 1999 deal was made between Deutsche Börse’s derivatives branch Eurex and the Helsinki Stock Exchange, which was acquired by Nasdaq in 2008, for the Nordic derivatives markets, it said.

Aug. 28 (UPI) — In Minneapolis, people of all faiths have united in mourning after Wednesday’s church school shooting that killed two children.

Minneapolis officials have added another victim to the total from yesterday’s mass shooting at the Church of the Annunciation.

Current totals now are two children, ages 8 and 19, who were killed by shooter Robin Westman, who died by gun suicide at the scene, according to Minneapolis officials.

Another 15 children and minors between ages 6 and 15 were injured, along with three adult parishioners who were attending the morning school mass at the church in south Minneapolis.

Hundreds of people gathered at Lynnhurst Park in the city on Wednesday evening to mourn the two children who were killed. Many left flowers and candles.

A memorial prayer was held at the Academy of Holy Angels at 8:58 p.m. after starting late to accommodate hundreds of attendees, the Star Tribune reported.

“I was very moved to see how many churches were having prayer services this evening, how many of our Protestant brothers and sisters [attended],” Archbishop Bernard Hebda told those in attendance.

“I received messages today from the Jewish community, from the Muslim community,” Hebda added. “I know there are representatives from both of those groups who are here.”

Hebda read a message from Pope Leo, as written by Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“He sends his heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy,” Hebda said.

The Minneapolis Police Department increased its patrols near the school, and city officials are coordinating with the St. Paul Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement to provide added security at all schools in the city’s metro area for the next couple of weeks.

A news conference was scheduled at 1 p.m. CDT at Minneapolis City Hall and was to include local officials, law enforcement and members of Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action.

Westman, 23, legally purchased the rifle, shotgun and pistol used to carry out the attack at the religious school for children in pre-K through eighth grade.

Westman once attended the Annunciation Catholic School, and Westman’s mother formerly was a teacher.

Westman was born Robert Westman but, according to Fox News, changed his name to Robin in 2019. CNN reported that Westman graduated from Annunciation’s grade school in 2017, based on a yearbook photo.

Local officials say Westman acted alone, and local police obtained four search warrants for the church and three other locations in Minneapolis, which led to the recovery of several more firearms.

A motive remains unknown, but Westman had posted a manifesto online, along with photos of firearms and ammunition magazines upon which he had written various statements.

The online content has been removed, and the FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X.

A bipartisan congressional committee is investigating whether California’s High-Speed Rail Authority knowingly misrepresented ridership projections and financial outlooks, as alleged by the Trump administration, to secure federal funding.

In a letter sent to Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chair James Comer (R-KY) requested a staff briefing and all communications and records about federal funding for the high-speed rail project and any analysis over the train’s viability.

“The Authority’s apparent repeated use of misleading ridership projections, despite longstanding warnings from experts, raises serious questions about whether funds were allocated under false pretenses,” Comer wrote.

Comer’s letter copied Congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee who has also voiced skepticism about the project. Garcia, whose districts represent communities in Southern California, was not immediately available for comment.

An authority spokesperson called the House committee’s investigation “another baseless attempt to manufacture controversy around America’s largest and most complex infrastructure project,” and added that the project’s chief executive Ian Choudri previously addressed the claims and called them “cherrypicked and out-of-date, and therefore misleading.”

Last month, the Trump administration pulled $4 billion in federal funding from the project meant for construction in the Central Valley. After a months-long review, prompted by calls from Republican lawmakers, the administration found “no viable path” forward for the fast train, which is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. The administration also questioned whether the authority’s projected ridership counts were intentionally misrepresented.

California leaders called the move “illegal” and sued the Trump administration for declaratory and injunctive relief. Gov. Gavin Newsom said it was “a political stunt” and a “heartless attack on the Central Valley.”

The bullet train was proposed decades ago as a way to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours by 2020. While the entire line has cleared environmental reviews, no stretch of the route has been completed. Construction has been limited to the Central Valley, where authority leaders have said a segment between Merced and Bakersfield will open by 2033. The project is also about $100 billion over its original budget of $33 billion.

Even before the White House pulled federal funding, authority leaders and advisers repeatedly raised concerns over the project’s long-term financial sustainability.

Roughly $13 billion has been spent so far — the bulk of which was supplied by the state, which has proposed $1 billion per year towards the project. But Choudri, who started at the authority last year, has said the project needs to find new sources of funding and has turned focus toward establishing public-private partnerships to supplement costs.

1 of 4 | Officials with the Office of Special Counsel are launching an investigation into Jack Smith, who oversaw criminal probes into President Donald Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 2 (UPI) — Officials with the Office of Special Counsel are launching an investigation into Jack Smith, who oversaw criminal probes into President Donald Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The investigation into Smith is related to alleged violations of the Hatch Act, NBC News reported, citing sources within the agency.

Investigators have not yet disclosed any specific evidence against Smith, who headed two criminal investigations, one into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and a second into his handling of classified documents following his first term in the White House.

“I appreciate the Office of Special Counsel taking this seriously and launching an investigation into Jack Smith’s conduct. No one is above the law.

“Jack Smith’s actions were clearly driven to hurt President Trump’s election, and Smith should be held fully accountable,” said Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told the New York Post in a statement.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, which also operates as a secure channel for federal whistleblowers.

The Hatch Act was passed in 1939 and “limits certain political activities of federal employees,” while ensuring “that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion.”

Smith’s role as special prosecutor is not related to the Office of Special Counsel.

Smith in January resigned from the Justice Department, days before Trump took office for his second term as president.

He initially announced his intention to resign following Trump’s victory in the November 2024 election.

Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired nine former members of Smith’s former team of federal prosecutors and assistance.

That brought the number of firings of employees involved in prosecutorial efforts of Trump to 20.

June 27 (UPI) — The Department of Health and Human Services has opened a civil rights investigation into the Minnesota Department of Education over a transgender teenager competing on a girls’ softball team.

The investigation, announced Thursday, is the latest from the Trump administration connected to the teenager from Champlin Park High School competing in the girls’ Minnesota State High School League. The team earlier this month won the 2025 State Tournament.

HHS said in a statement Thursday that it is investigating the Minnesota Department of Education and the MSHSL under Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities of HHS funding recipients. It is seeking see if the state’s policies violated federal civil rights laws.

“The investigation will examine whether Minnesota engaged in discrimination on the basis of sex by allowing male athletes to compete on sports teams reserved for females,” the statement said.

The federal Department of Justice and the Department of Education have already opened investigations related to the transgender teenager’s participation in the sports league.

The effort to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports teams has been a Republican effort for years and part of a larger movement targeting the LGBT community, which gained a federal partner under the Trump administration.

In early February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports to ensure transgender women and girls do not play on women or women’s or girls’ sports sports teams.

Proponents of the ban argue that allowing transgender females in girls’ and women’s sports gives them an unfair advantage while being discriminatory to athletes who were born female. Critics, meanwhile, contend that the science does not support claims that transgender girls have an unfair advantage, that this is a non-issue given how few transgender athletes there are and that transgender athletes have the right to compete alongside their peers.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has also voiced support for transgender athletes participating in sports competitions that align with their gender identity, stating it “helps youth develop self-esteem, correlates positively with overall mental health, and appears to have a protective effect against suicide.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo smiles as he announces New York State’s lifting of all COVID restrictions at One World Trade Center on June 15, 2021. On Tuesday, the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the former governor — and New York City mayoral candidate — over last year’s Congressional testimony on nursing home deaths, a person briefed on the matter told The New York Times, CNN and NBC. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

May 21 (UPI) — The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his testimony last year to Congress, according to a report Tuesday.

House Republicans have accused Cuomo, who is currently a mayoral candidate for New York City, of lying to the House Oversight Committee about nursing home deaths in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, two people briefed on the matter revealed that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation in response, according to The New York Times — which was the first to report — as well as CNN and NBC.

The Justice Department’s inquiry comes after it recently withdrew a separate corruption prosecution of current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election against Cuomo.

Following last year’s testimony, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., claimed there was “overwhelming evidence” that Cuomo, 67, undercounted the total number of deaths in New York senior care facilities by 46%, during an audit in July 2020.

Cuomo insisted during the hearing that he had not drafted, reviewed or consulted on the nursing home report, which was published by the New York State Department of Health.

Comer referred Cuomo for prosecution last year, but was denied by former Attorney General Merrick Garland. The House GOP-led panel renewed that prosecution effort last month.

“Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political,” Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said Tuesday in a statement as he denied knowledge of the investigation.

“We have never been informed of any such matter, so why would someone leak it now? The answer is obvious,” Azzopardi said. “This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple — something President Trump and his top Department of Justice officials say they are against.”

On Tuesday, Voices for Seniors applauded the investigation, in a post on X, adding it was “overdue.”

“After years of silence, deflection and political spin, the wheels of justice are finally beginning to turn,” the group said. “This investigation is not just justified, it’s overdue. The evidence paints a damning picture of a leader more concerned with image than integrity. Grieving families have waited long enough.”

“We call on the DOJ to pursue this case with relentless urgency. Voices for Seniors stands prepared to cooperate fully.”

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is carrying out a criminal investigation into UnitedHealth Group for possible Medicare fraud.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) first broke the story on Wednesday.

UnitedHealth said it had not been notified by the DOJ about the “supposed criminal investigation reported”, and the company stood by “the integrity of our Medicare Advantage program”.

The DOJ’s healthcare-fraud unit is overseeing the criminal investigation, which focuses on the company’s Medicare Advantage business practices, WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

While the exact nature of the potential criminal allegations against UnitedHealth is unclear, it has been an active probe since at least last summer, the newspaper said.

A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment to the WSJ about the fresh criminal probe. The department did not immediately respond to requests for comments from the Reuters news agency.

Last week, UnitedHealth said in a regular filing that it had been “involved or is currently involved in various governmental investigations, audits and reviews”, without disclosing further details.

 

The new investigation follows broader scrutiny into the Medicare Advantage programme, in which Medicare-approved plans from a private company supplement regular Medicare for Americans age 65 and older by covering more services that the government-only plans do not, such as dental and vision services.

In February, the WSJ reported a civil fraud investigation into UnitedHealth’s Medicare practices. The company had then said that it was unaware of any new probe.

In the same month, US Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa launched an inquiry into UnitedHealth’s Medicare billing practices, requesting detailed records of the company’s compliance programme and other related documents.

The DOJ earlier this month filed a lawsuit accusing three of the largest US health insurers of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to brokers in exchange for steering patients into the insurers’ Medicare Advantage plans.

Nearly half of the 65 million people covered by Medicare, the US programme for people aged 65 and older or with disabilities, are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans run by private insurers.

The insurers are paid a set rate for each patient, but can be paid more if patients have multiple health conditions. Standard Medicare coverage is managed by the government.

Brewing turmoil

The health insurer has been under pressure for months. On Tuesday, UnitedHealth Group’s CEO, Andrew Witty, stepped down unexpectedly, and the company simultaneously suspended its 2025 financial forecast due to rising medical costs, triggering an 18 percent drop in shares to a four-year low.

Stephen Hemsley, who led the company for more than a decade until 2017, is taking back the reins following setbacks including the December murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of its insurance unit, which catapulted UnitedHealth into the public consciousness.

On Thursday, after the news of the probe broke, UnitedHealth Group shares plunged 18 percent to hit a five-year low.

“The stock is already in the doghouse with investors, and additional uncertainty will only pile on,” James Harlow, senior vice president at Novare Capital Management, which owns shares in UnitedHealth, told the news agency Reuters.

If losses hold, UnitedHealth will be the worst-performing stock on the S&P 500 index in two of the last three days.

The past month’s selloff has wiped out nearly $300bn from UnitedHealth’s market capitalization, or more than half of its value since its shares hit a record high in November.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, a state program that provides monthly cash benefits to aged, blind, and disabled non-citizens who are ineligible for Social Security benefits due to their immigration status.

The investigation began in Los Angeles, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles field office issuing a Title 8 subpoena to California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release.

According to the department, the subpoena requests all records from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, the agency that administers the state program, to determine if ineligible immigrants received supplemental security income from the Social Security Administration over the last four years.

“Radical left politicians in California prioritize illegal aliens over our own citizens, including by giving illegal aliens access to cash benefits,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

“The Trump Administration is working together to identify abuse and exploitation of public benefits and make sure those in this country illegally are not receiving federal benefits or other financial incentives to stay illegally,” Noem added. “If you are an illegal immigrant, you should leave now. The gravy train is over. While this subpoena focuses only on Los Angeles County — it is just the beginning.”

According to Homeland Security, its Los Angeles investigations field office is subpoenaing records including applicants’ name and date of birth, copies of applications, immigration status, proof of ineligibility for benefits from the Social Security Administration and affidavits that supported the application.

The investigation comes after President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on April 15 to stop immigrants lacking documentation from obtaining Social Security Act benefits in what he called a bid to stop incentivizing illegal immigration and protect taxpayer dollars.

The memorandum directed the secretary of Homeland Security to ensure unauthorized immigrants do not receive funds from Social Security programs and prioritized civil or criminal enforcement against states or localities for potential violations of Title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.

It also expanded the Social Security Administration’s fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 U.S. attorney ofices and established a Medicare and Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. attorney offices.

This is a developing story and will be updated.