Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges

WASHINGTON POST

A former investment manager alleges in a whistleblower complaint to the Internal Revenue Service that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has amassed about $100 billion in accounts intended for charitable purposes, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Washington Post.

The confidential document, received by the IRS on Nov. 21, accuses church leaders of misleading members — and possibly breaching federal tax rules — by stockpiling their surplus donations instead of using them for charitable works. It also accuses church leaders of using the tax-exempt donations to prop up a pair of businesses. read more »

Unable to Retrieve Money, Cryptocurrency Investors Want Dead Executive Exhumed

NEW YORK TIMES

Gerald W. Cotten, the C.E.O. of Quadriga CX, was the only one who knew crucial passwords, the company said. When he died, users could not recover millions in their accounts. Now they want proof he is actually dead. read more »

$7 Million Insider Trading Probe Charges IT Staffer At $22 Billion Cybersecurity Company

FORBES

An IT staffer at one of the hottest cybersecurity companies in the world, Palo Alto Networks, is at the center of a $7 million insider trading investigation, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

Janardhan Nellore, a 42-year-old software engineer who was employed by Palo Alto Networks from 2012, is accused of making illegal stock trades based on confidential information he had gleaned about company performance. read more »

How the race for cobalt risks turning it from miracle metal to deadly chemical

THE GUARDIAN

If the prophets of technology are to be believed, the best hope for solving the climate crisis is ever more efficient batteries. But the race to produce enough materials for this energy-storage revolution is creating a host of other environmental problems, as cobalt-producing nations like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Cuba are discovering.

Lung disease and heart failure have been linked to high levels of this element, while the mines that produce it are blamed for devastated landscapes, water pollution, contaminated crops and a loss of soil fertility. Scientists are also investigating a possible link to cancer. read more »