Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio

news.

This is the Boombe podcast. Good

morning. It's Thursday the 12th of

February. I'm Caroline Hetka in London

>> and I'm Steven Carol in Brussels. Coming

up today, another investor cuts ties

with the global ports giant DP World

over the CEO's alleged ties to Jeffrey

Epstein as the fallout from the release

of documents grows. The UK Prime

Minister Kier Stalmer calls on

Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe

to apologize after he said Britain has

been colonized by immigrants. Plus, a

rare and detailed view into the

mechanics of an alleged multi-million

euro insider deal revealed in the trial

of two traders in Paris.

>> Let's start with a roundup of our top

stories. A UK government-owned

investment firm has halted its

relationship with global ports giant DP

World over the CEO's alleged ties to

Jeffrey Epstein. It comes after Canada's

second largest pension fund also

suspended future investment plans with

DP World. With more, here's Bloomberg's

Chris Pit. Both firms took the decision

after emails released by the US Justice

Department and others obtained by

Bloomberg News last summer showed that

DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Salam

corresponded with Epstein for more than

a decade after Epstein's jail sentence

in 2008 on charges that included

procuring a minor for prostitution. A

spokesperson for DP World wasn't

immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, neither bin Salam nor

representatives for DP World responded

to repeated requests for comments on a

Bloomberg News investigation about the

email exchanges in London. Chris Pit,

Bloomberg Radio.

>> The latest revelations come as the

fallout from the release of the Epstein

files continues to reach across

governments, companies, and

universities. US Attorney General Pam

Bondi yesterday revealed that there are

pending investigations by the US Justice

Department related to the probe of the

late disgraced financia Jeffrey Epstein.

During a congressional hearing on

Wednesday, Bondi said in a response to a

question about whether there were any

additional Epstein related prosecutions

planned that we have pending

investigations in our office, but did

not elaborate. And during that same

hearing, New York Congressman Jerry

Nadler tried to ask Bondi how many men

connected with Epstein have been

indicted.

>> How many perpetrators are you even

investigating?

>> First,

you showed it. I I find it.

>> How many have you

>> Excuse me. I'm going to answer the

question.

>> I answer my question.

>> No, I'm going to answer the question the

way I want to answer the question. Your

theatrics are the question the way I

asked it. Chairman Jordan, I'm not going

to get in the gutter with these people,

but I'm going to answer the question.

>> How many of you invited?

>> The exchange between Nadler and Palam

Bondi came as Colombia University said

that it admitted a student to its dental

school via what it called irregular

process that coincided with fundraising

solicitations by former faculty and

alumni to disgrace financia Jeffrey

Epstein. That revelation came after

Bloomberg reported on a years'sl long

chain of communication between Epstein's

camp and senior members of the Colombia

Dental Faculty.

The Republican led US House of

Representatives has passed legislation

aimed at ending President Trump's

tariffs on Canada. The move signals

growing anxiety over the White House's

economic agenda ahead of midterm

election campaigns that are expected to

focus on affordability issues. President

Trump can still veto the bill, meaning

the vote was largely symbolic and a way

to get lawmakers on the record regarding

their support for tariffs on Canadian

goods. Here's our senior US government

editor, Derek Walbank. These votes sort

of represent an increase in political

pressure on the president to change

course just months before the midterm

elections. They also though represent a

big uh difficulty for some swing

district Republicans whose districts may

be heavily affected by tariffs but who

have to face a very real question about

whether or not they want to cross the

president on his signature issue.

>> Derek Wbank was speaking as sources have

told Bloomberg President Trump is

privately considering quitting the US

Mexico Canada trade pact that he signed

during his first term.

Now, the British Prime Minister has

labeled comments on immigration made by

Manchester United's co-owner Jim

Ratcliffe as offensive and wrong. A

spokesperson for number 10 also called

on the billionaire boss of Inos

Chemicals to apologize for the remarks

made during an interview with Sky News.

During the conversation, Ratcliffe said

that the UK couldn't sustain its current

population growth. You can't have an

economy with 9 million people on

benefits and um huge levels of

immigrants coming into. I mean, the UK

is being colonized. It's costing too

much money. It will cause the UK is

being colonized by immigrants, really,

isn't it? I mean, the population of the

UK was 58 million in 2020. Now, it's 70

million.

In that interview with Sky News, Jim

Ratcliffe went on to argue that Karma

needs to make difficult decisions to get

the UK back on track. Data from the

Office for National Statistics estimates

the UK population in mid2025 was 69.4

million uh almost 3 million higher than

in 2020. Several Manchester United

supporters clubs have condemned the

comments as well as the kick it out

campaign against discrimination in

sport. The leaders of France and Germany

are at odds over a made in Europe push

across the EU. They say European leaders

are gathering in rural rural Belgium to

discuss their economic challenges.

Bloomberg's TA Adabio has more. We have

to preserve and define by design

European content. Those were the words

of French President Emanuel Macron to a

summit of business leaders as he's

urging EU countries to prioritize buying

from within the block in strategic

sectors. But his made in Europe agenda

has a significant opponent. Germany's

chancellor has warned the approach could

be too narrow, arguing that European

preference rules should only be used as

a last resort. Friedrich Mertz's remarks

at the same event illustrate the

divisions going into today's European

leaders retreat on competitiveness.

Meanwhile, the UK's Rachel Reeves has

appealed for any made in Europe law to

be broadened to include like-minded

countries outside the EU. In London, Ta

Adabio, Bloomberg Radio,

WhatsApp says that Russia has tried to

fully block its encrypted messaging

service in the country. WhatsApp, which

is owned by Meta, said in a statement on

Wednesday that it's trying to keep more

than 100 million Russian users

connected. The Russian government is

trying to drive the adoption of a new

state sponsored app called Max modeled

on China's WeChat while it is also

trying to choke off access to other

foreignowned services including

Telegram. Those are some of our top

stories for you this morning. In terms

of the markets, Asian equities have had

a hugely impressive start to the year in

terms of the rally that we've seen. The

Cosby continues that today up by 2.7%.

The topics also climbing by 8/10en of

1%. The Japanese yen strengthening

against the dollar. There's a real sort

of buy Japan moment, it seems.

Meanwhile, AI taking a bite out of more

industries, including US real estate

names uh and do systems yesterday in

Europe. Very hot US jobs report

yesterday means that traders are pricing

in a rate cut from the Fed now in July.

So, not until then. And a number of

earnings out today. AB Imbe, uh Zemens

and MercedesBenz. See actually raising

its outlook. Uh so a sort of validation

for Roland Bush's uh push uh to reshape

the company. Mercedes-Benz expects

margins to remain under pressure this

year. Those are the markets.

>> In a moment, more on the latest on how

revelations in the Epstein files are

reverberating across the corporate

world. Plus, a court case in Paris

reveals rare insight into the mechanics

of an alleged multi-million euro insider

trading scheme. But another story that

we've been reading first this morning on

the question of imitations, copies,

counterfeits. Is it flattery or is it

frustrating? Felix Salmon has been

writing about this for Bloomberg

Pursuits. He points to the long

tradition of artists copying slash being

inspired by one another through history

and the value that we now place on

reproductions that are very old. And he

says that as we transition from a

century that was dominated by the US to

one dominated by China, the world will

have to start grappling with its

attitude toward copies and fakes.

They're far more accepted in the uh in

Asia than they are necessarily in the

West. Perhaps that's the attitude we

should be adopting. I don't know.

>> Yeah. I mean, I'm more interested in

handbags, I'm sorry, than art. uh and

that apparently if you have fake

handbags that uh according to professors

who've done research into this luxury

knockoffs actually mean that consumers

want to spend more on the original which

I hadn't realized.

>> Yeah. And like I don't have a problem

with having prints of artwork on my

walls at home rather than necessarily

everything being original either. I mean

if you like the picture you like the

picture which is sort of the element of

it too. Um I Felix always very

intellectual in the way that he of

course looks at these issues as well. He

quotes the artist Eric Durer as well who

who notes that the word copy comes from

the Latin copia which is the root of

cornucopia. So uh take from that what

you will. Uh you can read Felix's piece

at bloomberg.com. We'll put a link to it

in our podcast show notes as well.

Now let's bring you more on the fallout

from the Epstein files. The UK's

development finance bank, British

international investment, has suspended

dealings with Dubai logistics giant DP

World over alleged ties between the firm

CEO and Jeffrey Epstein. Around the

world, politicians and business leaders

are having to respond to revelations

found in the millions of documents

released by the US Justice Department.

Joining us now is Harry Wilson, the

Bloomberg reporter at the center of our

investigation that first uncovered the

extent of Epstein's ties to the UK's

former ambassador to the US, Peter

Mandlesson. Harry, good to speak to you.

You've also been reporting on the story

around DP World this week and those

revelations around the chairman and

CEO's contact with Epstein having

consequences really far beyond Dubai.

Tell us what's happened.

Yes. Well, it's been a quite a familiar

story now, hasn't it? uh with all the

release of the these documents uh what

we're seeing is uh a whole host of

people around the world often very

wealthy very influential people being

caught up in in this I I guess ever

growing scandal which is that they in

some way have either had uh linked

connections were close friends

associates of Jeffrey Epstein and those

relationships now are getting exposed in

a very uh public and a very uh I guess

um sort damaging way for them at the

moment.

>> Harry, this is part of a deluge of

documents released now more than a week

ago. Why, just on the mechanics of this,

why are we still learning significant

new details each day and should we

expect that to continue?

>> Um, I I suppose the the the answer to

that is is pretty simple, which is that

uh there's three and a half million

documents that have been released. Quite

a few of those documents will be

hundreds, maybe thousands of pages long.

So we're talking about potentially I

think probably upwards of tens of

millions of of pages of uh information

here and quite simply just going through

the process of uh sifting through that

takes a long time. you know, even with

all the the technology we have at our

fingertips today, that's access to to AI

systems and such like, it's still a very

very labor intensive process. And I

think that we're probably only, you

know, uh about maybe 5 10% of the way

into into this. Um, you know, there's

there's just a simply a huge amount of

information to go through. Uh quite

often as well, uh documents require a

lot of context. You know, uh you can see

an email that looks pretty innocuous.

Um, but it can only reveal its true

significance quite often in in in a

wider context of what was happening at

the time when the the email was sent.

And that's just a very laborinttensive,

timeconsuming process. So my my guess is

that this is going to go on for at least

several more weeks, probably months, and

who knows, we could still be uh a year

or so out from this learning new things

from from this cash.

>> Yeah. And and some of the allegations

are much more serious than others. what

has stood out to you most in terms of

what has emerged so far?

>> Um I I I think probably what um stands

out to me, probably what stands out to a

a lot of um our listeners as well. Uh

probably is the unguardedness and the

sheer I guess sort of vulgarity maybe um

is is the word. But um the what what I I

think a lot of people find it surprising

is just simply the the the way in which

people communicated so openly about such

uh often uh terrible things with with

Jeffrey Epstein. you you might have

expected, you know, at least by I guess

sort of uh the mid sort of 2010s or

something, people to be more guarded in

their electronic communications, but

what we actually see is people sending

incredibly um I guess sort of coarse or

uh unwise uh communications to to and

from Epstein. And I I think that that to

me has been a a a huge surprise that

people were, you know, quite openly

sending this type of uh stuff to

Epstein, you know, years after he was

convicted of um soliciting sex uh from a

from a minor. Um and I think, you know,

I think a lot of other people probably

find that very surprising, too.

>> Okay, Harry, thanks so much for joining

us. Harry Wilson there, a reporter who's

been covering uh the Epstein files and

indeed broke many of these stories

before the delage of documents that came

from the US Justice Department as well.

Thank you very much for joining us this

morning.

Stay with us. More from Bloomberg

Daybreak Europe coming up after this.

Now, the trial of two traders in Paris

is offering a rare view into the

mechanics of an alleged multi-million

euro insider deal. It follows a decadel

long investigation into trades that were

made before French chemical producer

Leid announced plans to acquire American

rival Air Gas. Our Paris legal reporter

Gaspar Sebag joins us now for more. Good

to talk to you Gaspar. What has stood

out during this trial?

>> You know what was uh really

extraordinary during this trial is that

some of the suspects were using what's

uh known as burner phones. uh they were

they were using these prepaid cell

phones that you typically discard to

avoid being detected by authorities. But

uh but despite these uh precautions, cop

managed to trace their movements and

somehow actually wiretapped these secret

lines. And uh and so in court, there was

this this moment where the judge

actually played the tapes. And so

instead of surmising that uh these

traders uh who had been making millions

uh over the past year summising that

maybe they'd got a tip from somewhere.

Well, actually we were listening to them

as they appeared to get leaks from a

banker of uh details uh about a yet

unannounced multi-billion dollar

acquisition. Um it was really really

quite extraordinary. Um you you could

hear the suspects laugh at times. Um in

court I I really sensed unease uh from

the defendants. Um and what was uh

really quite amazing was the wealth of

details that this gang had. Um they

didn't just know the names uh of the

companies that you just cited. Uh they

also appeared to gain information about

the price the acquire was going to pay

which was basically a 40% premium. They

seem to know the date uh the deal was

going to be announced. Uh they seem to

know how it was going to be financed.

Basically they kind of seemed to have

everything in hand.

>> One of the unusual characters in this

case has been a paintball executive. Can

you tell us more about about him and and

how he was embroiled in this?

>> Yes. Uh absolutely. Um in fact, you

know, beyond these burnones that I

mentioned, what what what makes uh in

cracking inside a trading cases very

difficult is uh when you have these

unusual intermediaries,

uh you know, it's essentially people

that there's no real objective reason to

suspect. And that I believe was the case

uh in many ways with uh this paintball

executive uh Mr. Thomas Celigman uh who

who'd started his career running uh a

hair salon family business for several

years and then set up uh as you said a

paintball supply firm. He he he didn't

carry any stock trading himself. So you

know he never raised any red flags with

market regulators. Um but as it seemed

to turn out he was the connector. He was

the essential node in this alleged

scheme. You know independently over the

years he'd met a banker and then at

another occasion he'd met a solo trader

and thereafter using these secret lines

he was phoning one to collect

information then calling the other to

share what he'd learned. And you know

that was uh the person that eventually

authorities

started tailing you know they started to

follow what he was doing and they

finally managed to um place a wire tap

on on on his phone.

>> So then what was in it for him since he

wasn't himself trading on the Intel

allegedly.

>> That's where it gets really really quite

interesting too. Um, you know, obviously

you can imagine that according to

investigators, he wasn't doing this for

free. Um, he expected uh seemingly a

kickback uh on the proceeds and um the

authorities alleged that he and his

co-conspirators

were using these quite roundabout ways

to make payments, right? they weren't

just like you know making a wire tra

transfer like this you know and um and

so in one one instance uh Mr. Seligman

had um received a Regency period console

when he'd got married several decades

earlier and he was desperately trying to

get rid of it in the in the years

preceding uh this this case and uh he

he'd had Christies auction it several

times but you know no one was a buyer.

The price kept on dropping and still no

one was a buyer. And then one day um

actually it was on Christmas Eve uh just

after a protagonist had made a mint on

air gas um this fellow selling man uh

got a big wire transfer worth at least

three times the value of this furniture

piece from one of the trader friends

who'd uh who who'd made a fortune. You

know this was just one of the alleged

kickback schemes. There were other which

were seemingly disguised in a a

distribution contract for paintball

ammo. But but I do think this Regency

one is is is perhaps the the most

telling.

This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your

morning brief on the stories making news

from London to Wall Street and beyond.

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I'm Caroline Hepka.

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Bloomberg Daybreak Europe.