The beautiful Greek island where shipping billionaire, Aristotle Onassis married JKF’s widow, Jackie, has been sold for $100 million. The island, Skorpios, was sold by the heir to his fortune, Athina Onassis Roussel, to a very wealthy Russian.
It won’t be long before your mother starts asking questions about Bitcoins – that’s how big this thing has blown up in recent weeks. So best you prepare to answer all her questions, with this handy guide.
Virtual currency, Bitcoin is now valued at over $1 billion (R9,25 billion), and unlike traditional currency , you “can download every Bitcoin transcation that’s ever taken place and, more interestingly, tap into those transactions in close to real time.” University student Maximillian Laumeister created the “Listen to Bitcoin” website, which produces a sound for every transaction […]
The Brics nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are aiming to establish a new development bank during the annual conference which began yesterday in Durban. The leaders of each of the five developing countries will discuss bringing together foreign currency reserves to ward off balance of payments or currency crises. Martyn Davies, […]
Banking Giant, HSBC has a fresh set of allegations of illegal activity in Argentina to answer to. The Argentinian government alleges HSBC used “fake receipts” to facilitate money laundering and tax evasion to the tune of $77 million (R706 million) in that country. Argentina’s tax authority has filed criminal charges against HSBC. HSBC said they […]
The National Prosecuting Authority said on Monday that the Pretoria High Court had granted an order to seize the assets of suspected rhino poaching ring leader, Joseph Nyalunga. Spokesman, Medupe Simasiku said the order was granted in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. Simasiku said: The application was launched by the Asset Forfeiture […]
What’s a few billion dollars between friends? A lot, according to Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, who is challenging Forbes’ ranking of his wealth. Forbes reported the prince’s wealth to be a staggering $20 billion (R181 billion), ranking him at 26 on the Forbes Richest List. But Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal said he has a […]
Paypal has launched a chip and pin machine for European markets. The new machine will allow small businesses in Britain to transact with credit card, debit card and paypal payments, with what is essentially a European retro-fit of the already awesome PayPal Here card swiper, used extensively in the US. Of coure, cards with chip […]
The F-35 is one of the 2 457 jets the Pentagon has ordered for the world’s most expensive weapons program in history. The jet will set you back $600 million. The F-35 has been, designed as the U.S. military’s lethal hunter for 21st century skies, has become the hunted, a poster child for Pentagon profligacy […]
Bill Clinton, former President of the United States of America, reportedly raked in an amazing R115 million from his speaking engagements in 2011 alone. Clinton is represented by the Harry Walker Agency. Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Joe Lieberman, Howard Dean, and Karl Rove are among the other political figures part of the agency. Harry Walker Agency […]
Michael Jordan celebrated his half-century this last Sunday. And $80 million more in the bank. After his retirement 10 years ago, Forbes reports that the Jordan brand (a division of Nike) still scores him $80 million a year, along with his corporate partners Gatorade, Hanes, Upper Deck and the Bobcats, to name a few. In […]
Thirty year old Lynsi Torres is thought to be America’s youngest woman billionaire since becoming president and owner of the popular West Coast burger chain In-N-Out Burger. After her uncle died in a plane crash, her father died of a drug overdose and her mother’s death in 2006, Lynsi fell next in line to inherit […]
White beggars make between R50 to R500 a day, according to a trade union Solidarity study carried out last year. But 78% of beggars would like to work but do not have the education to back them. Almost 60% of the beggars interviewed in November and December – in the Western Cape, Kwa-Zulu Natal and […]
We were mucking about with the new SA bank notes yesterday and noticed that the reserve bank seemingly purposefully lined up Mandela’s eyes on the one side, with the lion’s eyes on the other. They have the same distance between the eyes and are exactly aligned. Hold it up to the light and it looks very cool. Pics inside..
Earlier this year, it was announced that the iconic face of Nelson Mandela would be replacing the animal pictures on South Africa’s bank notes – next week that becomes a reality.
A Brazilian woman who is trying to raise funds for her village has sold her virginity online for $780,000. The 20-year-old phys-ed student will be deflowered by a Japanese businessman. She argues that she is not a prostitute as she will only do this once. Follow link for full story, video and pics.
Over the past few weeks the government departments financial results have been doing the rounds in Parliament and, amongst other findings, it was revealed that local goverment has spent R4,67 billion on food, entertainment and travel and accommodation.
Well this is embarrassing, Robert Kiyosaki has filed for corporate bankruptcy after being ordered to pay out almost $24 million following a US court ruling.
Africa’s largest social network already has MXit Moola as part of its mobile payment infrastructure, but they just got a little bit cleverer by partnering with Standard Bank and introducing MXit Money.
Billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, has expressed his interest in buying back the business that started it all, Virgin Records.
Big banks just continue to let us down. In the latest scandalous development in the world of banking, the global bank HSBC has been used by Mexican drug cartels looking to get cash back into the US, and by Saudi Arabian banks that needed access to dollars.
In another financial blow that the company can’t afford, RIM has been found guilty of patent infringement and has been forced to pay out $147,2 million in damages.
The debate over whether Independent Newspapers took a money-received “discount” from Auction Alliance as part of a property auction last year left the media as quickly as it entered it.
Facebook may in the future be doing for your banking what it’s done for your online privacy in general. Who doesn’t want to be able to pay their bills while at the same time looking at photos of their friends at that braai that got a little out of hand?
Over the past few weeks we’ve brought you several reports regarding the increasingly worrisome LIBOR scandal. The investigation into interest rate-rigging debacle is quickly snowballing and analysts have now begun wondering if “16 of the world’s largest banks have perpetrated the biggest fraud in history.”
This is what happens when you couple shoddy detective work with a good legal team. Auction Alliance has won its third straight victory in line with exonerating itself from any penalty relating to the Appelbaum auction rigging scandal.
This is a great story, of a web comic author whose work was stolen by another website, who didn’t credit him. He took it personally. He’s also won the Internet.
On the back of numerous electricity price hikes comes the news that Eskom blew more than R36 million on staff parties and team building experiences last year. The parastatal has however come out and defended the expenditure saying fun days are used to commit workers to keeping the lights on.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA), the regulator of all providers of financial services in the UK, has today confirmed that Barclays was definitely not acting alone, nor was this an isolated case in the authorities’ probe of banks rigging a key interbank interest rate.
On the back of news that Barclays bank was punished with a record fine of £290 million by UK authorities for interest rate manipulation, comes the speculation that the crisis, said to involve numerous banks around the world, could help push investors toward South African shores.