The Week in Business: Steve Bannon Charged With Fraud

Not for the Wall, After All

Stephen K. Bannon, a former top adviser to President Trump, was charged with fraud, accused of lining his pockets with donations that were supposed to go toward building a wall on the Mexican border. According to a federal indictment, Mr. Bannon and three other men solicited money from private donors for We Build the Wall, which pledged to put the funds exclusively toward constructing the barrier that Mr. Trump promised during his 2016 campaign but didn’t deliver. The organization raised more than $25 million, but court documents say that Mr. Bannon used more than $1 million of it for himself.

What’s Next? (Aug. 23–29)

Your Ride Is (Still) Here

Uber and Lyft got a temporary break in their battle against a California law that requires them to treat their drivers as employees and give them benefits like sick days and unemployment insurance. The two companies had said the law would make their operating costs too high and threatened to shut down service in California as a result. An appeals court gave them a temporary reprieve at the last minute, and their case will be heard (again) in mid-October. Until then, their drivers will keep their classification as independent contractors. And the companies are mulling a way to sidestep the law by restructuring their drivers under a franchise model.

The Office Isn’t Dead

All those “we’ll never go into an office again” converts have clearly never tried to work in a Brooklyn apartment with broken air conditioning for the month of August (I would know). If they did, they’d understand why Amazon is moving forward with plans to expand its offices in several cities, including New York. The company is also growing its office-going work force, hiring 3,500 white-collar employees across the country. Some of them will someday be based in the former Lord Taylor flagship in Midtown Manhattan, which Amazon bought from WeWork (remember co-working?) in early March.

About That Trade Deal

China and the United States were expected to chat last weekend about the progress of their six-month-old trade agreement. But the call was postponed and a new date has not been announced. It may be just as well: China is lagging far behind its targets to buy farm and energy products from the United States, and its ability to make good on those promises is questionable (the deal was made before the pandemic plundered the global economy). Tensions between Beijing and Washington are also running high over Hong Kong. The United States cut off more special trade relations with the territory this week as China continued to stifle political dissent and assert dominance there.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/business/the-week-in-business-steve-bannon-charged-with-fraud.html