Former Carillion chief fined by FCA for role in misleading investors
The former boss of the construction company Carillion has been fined by the UK’s financial watchdog for his role in misleading investors before its collapse eight years ago,The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Richard Howson £237,700 after Carillion’s ex-chief executive withdrew his challenge to the regulator’s punishment,The watchdog ruled that Howson was “aware of serious financial troubles” in the group’s construction business but “failed to reflect this in company announcements or alert its board and audit committee, leading to poor oversight”,The FCA said the primary responsibility for communicating accurate financial information lay with the group finance director, but that Howson “acted recklessly” and “was knowingly concerned” in breaches of market abuse and listing rules,It comes eight years after the demise of the government contractor, which was one of the biggest construction and facilities management companies in the UK.
Carillion entered liquidation with £7bn of debts in January 2018, resulting in 3,000 job losses and causing chaos across 450 projects and public-sector schemes, including schools, roads, prisons and the expansion of Liverpool Football Club’s stadium.The disruption delayed the construction of two new hospitals – the 646-bed Royal Liverpool and 669-bed Midland Metropolitan in Sandwell – which were due to open in 2017 and 2018, respectively.The projects ultimately ran hundreds of millions of pounds over budget.Steve Smart, a director at the FCA, said: “Carillion’s failure was significant.Jobs were lost, public sector projects put at risk and investors, who trusted the company to give them accurate information, suffered large scale losses.
That’s why the FCA worked diligently to hold the company and its senior leaders to account,”Howson challenged the fine, which was first announced at a provisional sum of £397,800 in 2022, but withdrew his appeal before the court hearing,The fine against Howson follows penalties against two other former executives, Richard Adam and Zafar Khan, last month,The FCA fined them £232,800 and £138,900 respectively, after both men also dropped their appeals against the watchdog’s findings,Only months before its collapse, Carillion shocked investors by announcing a £845m writedown owing to problems in its construction projects.
The company’s former chair, Philip Green, was working towards an “upbeat announcement” to investors five days before it announced the charge, board minutes showed, and the FCA found the company’s previous trading update had given no indication that such a step was necessary.In 2023, the accounting group KPMG was fined £21m by the accountancy regulator for “exceptional” failures in its audits of Carillion between 2013 and 2017.Howson declined to comment on the fine.
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Dating apps exploit you, dating profiles lie to you, and sex is basically something old people used to do. You might as well consider it: can AI help you find love?For a handful of tech entrepreneurs and a few brave Londoners, the answer is “maybe”.No, this is not a story about humans falling in love with sexy computer voices – and strictly speaking, AI dating of some variety has been around for a while. Most big platforms have integrated machine learning and some AI features into their offerings over the past few years.But dreams of a robot-powered future – or perhaps just general dating malaise and a mounting loneliness crisis – have fuelled a new crop of startups that aim to use the possibilities of the technology differently
The problem with doorbell cams: Nancy Guthrie case and Ring Super Bowl ad reawaken surveillance fears
What happens to the data that smart home cameras collect? Can law enforcement access this information – even when users aren’t aware officers may be viewing their footage? Two recent events have put these concerns in the spotlight.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.A Super Bowl ad by the doorbell-camera company Ring and the FBI’s pursuit of the kidnapper of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, have resurfaced longstanding concerns about surveillance against a backdrop of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown
US military used Anthropic’s AI model Claude in Venezuela raid, report says
Claude, the AI model developed by Anthropic, was used by the US military during its operation to kidnap Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Saturday, a high-profile example of how the US defence department is using artificial intelligence in its operations.The US raid on Venezuela involved bombing across the capital, Caracas, and the killing of 83 people, according to Venezuela’s defence ministry. Anthropic’s terms of use prohibit the use of Claude for violent ends, for the development of weapons or for conducting surveillance.Anthropic was the first AI developer known to be used in a classified operation by the US department of defence. It was unclear how the tool, which has capabilities ranging from processing PDFs to piloting autonomous drones, was deployed
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AI is indeed coming – but there is also evidence to allay investor fears
The message from investors to the software, wealth management, legal services and logistics industries this month has been clear: AI is coming for your business.The release of new, ever more powerful AI tools has coincided with a stock market slide, which has swept up sectors as diverse as drug distribution, commercial property and price comparison sites. Advances in the technology are giving increasing credibility to predictions that it could render millions of white-collar jobs obsolete – or, at least, eat into the profits of established companies.Carl Benedikt Frey, the author of How Progress Ends and an associate professor of AI and work at the University of Oxford, says investors are reassessing the value of companies that rely heavily on selling software or specialist knowledge.“AI turns once-scarce expertise into output that’s cheaper, faster, and increasingly comparable, which compresses margins long before whole jobs disappear
Anthropic raises $30bn in latest round, valuing Claude bot maker at $380bn
Anthropic, the US AI startup behind the Claude chatbot, has raised $30bn (£22bn) in a funding round that more than doubled its valuation to $380bn.The company’s previous funding round in September achieved a value of $183bn, with further improvements in the technology since then spurring even greater investor interest.The fundraising was announced amid a series of stock market moves against industries that face disruption from the latest models, including software, trucking and logistics, wealth management and commercial property services.The funding round, led by the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and the hedge fund Coatue Management, is among the largest private fundraising deals on record.“Anthropic is the clear category leader in enterprise AI,” said Choo Yong Cheen, the chief investment officer of private equity at GIC
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