Commerce Archives - US Finance Review

Mozes Victor Konig Launches MVK Ventures SARL

Oftentimes, when an innovator has a great, financially sound business plan, getting to the next step of acquiescing needed funds shuts them down. In other words, many start-ups don’t start up as they fail at the first hurdle.

Mozes Victor Konig launched MVK Ventures SARL in 2011 precisely for this reason. He understood what it was like to be turned away from business bank loans and thus decided to put his investing and VC experience into MVK Ventures SARL.

MVK Ventures SARL today acts as the connecting guiding force between potential start-ups and banks such as HSBC. With the experience of working with these financial entities, MVK Ventures SARL is able to work on the fiscal side, leaving potential entrepreneurs and their teams with time to focus on developing a solid business plan and product.

Konig sits with each client and discusses what option is best for them. From borrowing money from friends and family (not advisable) to trading services, bootstrapping (for those with enough capital, again not the best idea unless one has a huge cashflow), a business incubator or the various bank loans such as term or SBA lines or even a microloan.

Federal Judge Says Cryptocurrencies are Commodities

The ruling by US Federal Judge Jack Weinstein labeling cryptocurrencies as commodities paves the way for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to classify and regulate them as such, according to a report from Reuters.

The Brooklyn-based judge’s decision, which stated that the CFTC has standing to proceed with a fraud lawsuit against New York resident Patrick McDonnell. The complaint was filed by the CFTC against McDonnell and his company Coin Drop Markets two months ago, in January 2018.

The lawsuit states that McDonnell allegedly sold fraudulent investment advice, or more accurately, was selling something non-existent. Customers simply did not get the advice that they paid for. In addition Coin Drop was not registered with the CFTC.

The ruling came officially on March 6 after a hearing during which Judge Weinstein stated that the CFTC found “a reasonable likelihood that without an injunction the defendants will continue to violate the CEA [Commodity Exchange Act].”

The ruling, found in the Memorandum and Order, declares that “the court finds the plaintiff has made a preliminary prima facie showing that the defendants committed fraud by misappropriation of investors’ funds and misrepresentation through false trading advice and promised future profits.”

Weaker Loonie Luring Tourists North

Canadian Gold Maple Leaf. 1 troy ounce. Reverse. Photo by Basketbread

Despite an exchange rate that only pays 70 Canadian cents on every US dollar, Canadians will still travel to the US twice as much as Americans heading north to Canada.

That declaration comes from a study conducted by the Toronto-Dominion Bank in which economist Derek Burleton analyzed travel between the two countries. The study was focused on how the weak Canadian dollar is effecting travel between the world’s longest undefended international border.

Last year, as most Canadians know quite well, the loonie lost 16 percent of its value last year compared to the US dollar. The Toronto-Dominion Bank believes this figure should remain stable for most of this year, 2016. Therefore, all of the study’s conclusions are based on this assumption.

Burleton found that the weaker Canadian dollar has indeed persuaded Americans to head north. Total visits by Americans to Canada went up by 1.6 percent during the first 11 months of 2015, compared to the same period the year before.

“American visits to Canada are finally picking up,” Burleton said. “With a similar momentum likely to carry over in 2016, American spending in Canada is poised to rise to $9.6 billion Canadian,” Burleton said, “the highest level in over a decade.”

Canadians also will spend much more in the USA than Americans will in Canada.

“Canadian visits south will continue to overshadow American visits north, and Canadians are expected to spend in the U.S. at least double the aggregate amount that Americans will spend in Canada,” Burleton noted.

Cars: The Latest in Personalization for the Rich

Just when you thought there was nothing else left to personalize, Dany Bahar of Ares Performance started to make customized cars. Instead of spending £2m on a Rolls-Royce or Bugatti, that a ton of other people also own, Bahar is now letting the customer design their very own set of wheels.

Up until now there has been the option for customers to engage in some level of customization with a car. Drivers can find these at car shows (one recent example was the Central Nebraska Auto Club’s Indoor Car Show Saturday at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds organized by Jerry Erikson). In addition, Toyota will soon enable people to print 3D parts for vehicles in Japan with the Open Road Project. But what Bahar – who has held leading roles at some of the top auto-stores including Lotus, Ferrari and RedBull – is now offering, is something quite different.

Through Ares Performance, potential customers will be able to come in and choose everything in their car, from the color, to the upholstery. In other words, they will “take everything off” and redesign a car to the client’s specific needs and desires. Bahar said: “The client is fully involved and that is something really exciting. [They] are wealthy people, important people but you touch them on an emotional level, where they become like children. They say, ‘I want the rear lamp, like this, not like this’.”

U.S. Credit Card Issuers Embrace Microchip Security

In the aftermath of several data hacks during the holiday season, credit card issuers throughout the United States are rushing to follow in the footsteps of most European countries. In the U.S., credit cards use a magnetic strip which is swiped by a machine; a process which poses a security threat to card owners. However, in the U.K. and Kenya, the microchip, or EMV, cards are equipped with smart chip security and are encrypted.

National Retail Federation general counsel Mallory Duncan explained: “Fraud is rising too quickly not to make progress. Banks are going to do the right thing. The risk has gone up.”

This is already proving true, with Virginia Credit Union announcing that it will be sending out MasterCard credit cards with microchips for increased security.

“Our plans have been underway since last summer to reissue cards,” said Deb Wreden, senior vice president of product and delivery strategy, adding that the decision was not the result of security compromises at retailers.”

Similarly, Bank of America began offering cards as early as 2012 and has recently updated its cards for customers who travel abroad. JP Morgan recently announced that it will be following suit this year.

Disgruntled Honda Owner Suing in Small Claims Court

Heather Peters, disgruntled owner of hybrid Honda Civic, is taking the unusual step of suing the mega-company in small claims court instead of participating with thousands of others in a class action lawsuit, the more traditional way of getting justice from large corporations.

Peters is unhappy because she was told that her car would give her about 50 miles to the gallon and she gets nowhere near that figure. She says that if she had known that the hybrid would only get about 30 mpg she would not have bought the car.

There are several reasons Peter took her complaint to small claims: her chances of winning her claim are higher in small claims where “The judge will have a lot of discretion, and the evidentiary standards are relaxed in small-claims court,” according to Richard Cupp Jr., who is a teacher of product-liability law at Pepperdine University; she does not need to hire a lawyer- in some states lawyers are not even allowed; if she wins her payoff will be higher- in a class-action suit that Peters declined to join on behalf of hybrid Honda owners about the car’s fuel economy, a proposed settlement will give each of the thousands of participants and estimated $500 to $1,000 towards the purchase of a new Honda, and the trial lawyers will get about $8.5 million. Peters is suing Honda for $10,000, and if she wins, she gets the entire amount.

Peters has a website, DontSettleWithHonda.org, in which she encourages others to bring their complaints to small claims court. She said that over 500 people have contacted her, including a few Honda owners living in Australia, about how to proceed with their claims against Honda.

Cyber Monday Huge Success for Retailers

Cyber Monday is the first day after Thanksgiving when employees are back in the office, where they make purchases for the holidays using their work computers. This year Monday proved to be an astounding success, with online sales reaching $1.251 billion. According to comScore Inc, an important web tracking firm, that number represents a 22 percent increase from last year’s Cyber Monday.

Another tracker, IBM Benchmark, said the increase was closer to 33 percent compared to the same day last year.

Department store and home goods retailers saw a huge surge in online business, with a 60 percent increase from last year for department stores and a 68 percent upward climb for home goods, as compared to Cyber Monday 2010.

Even last year Cyber Monday was worth over $1 billion in sales, the biggest online spending day in history. With the increase in the number of mobile devices with easy access to the internet, the expectation that Cyber Monday 2011 would top that mark was high.

“Cyber Monday was the biggest day of the year and the biggest day ever for online retailing in the U.S.,” said John Squire of IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative.

Department stores such as Nordstrom, Macy’s and JC Penny have spent much time, effort and money on making their websites user friendly and reaching out to potential customers with online advertising and emails. It is clear these efforts have paid off well, according to Squire.

Four Clyfford Still Paintings Sell at Auction for $114 Million

Clyfford Still, born in 1904 in North Dakota, first arrived in New York after World War II and joined with the city’s most important Abstract Expressionist painters like Mark Rothko. Whereas Rothko’s canvases display resonant rectangles, Still choose jagged splotches of brilliant colors to express himself.

Before passing away in 1980 Still asked his wife to hold on to some of his earlier paintings just in case one day there will be built a museum for his works. This month, over 30 years since his death, Denver will open a Clyfford Still museum, opening day set for November 18.

clyfford still museum — Denver's Clyfford Still Museum

Those paintings which Patricia Still kept were sold on Wednesday at Sotheby’s for $114 million, the proceeds of which will be given to the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. Still’s works are rarely auctioned- only 11 works in the past ten years. When compared to Rothko’s works, which have come up for sale more than 100 times in the last decade it is easy to see why buyers pounced at this rare opportunity to purchase these paintings.

Four bidders at least were after Still’s painting entitled, “1949-A-No. 1,” but finally a telephone bidder won it for $61.6 million, about $25 million more than its pre-auction high estimate. This sale price surpassed the highest ever paid in the past for a Still painting, which was $21.2 million.

The other three paintings sold for $19.6 million, $31.4 million, and $1.2 million, totaling $114 million for the group of four.

Harry Potter Gives Much Needed Boost to Time Warner Earnings

Time Warner’s outlook for the end of the year has taken on a rosier hue as ticket sales from the eighth and final film in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” reached 1.3 billion dollars in international box office sales since the film’s July, 2011 release.

Time Warner, which has major holdings in Warner Brothers Studios, Time Inc, HBO, CNN Money and Turner Broadcasting announced that it is optimistic that it will see annual earnings for 2011 reach into “the high teens” on a percentage basis. Only three months ago the media conglomerate was expecting growth closer to “the low teens.”

The first Harry Potter film was released in 2001. The last film ranks as the third highest grossing film in history, with only “Avatar” and “Titanic” outperforming the teenage wizard’s popularity.

Boosting Shopping After Thanksgiving

Sometimes things in life are free. Some companies like to give away stuff for free to encourage you to use their services. And that is exactly what American Express Open is doing by giving out a bunch of free digital marketing tools in preparation for Small Business Saturday, the first Saturday after thanksgiving. In an effort to boost shopping two days after Thanksgiving, AmEx’s campaign is really going to helping small stores in its biz retail-fest at the end of next month, November 26, 2011.