Word: tycoons
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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That message has been a centerpiece of the campaign run by Piñera and his conservative coalition, the Alliance for Chile. The Chilean right is known less for open minds than for Opus Dei, the ultra-conservative Roman Catholic society. But Piñera, 60, a Harvard-educated tycoon whose brother was a government minister under Pinochet, has deflected charges that he's a right-wing lapdog by embracing progressive causes like gay rights - a stance that has scandalized the country's Catholic Church. As an economist in the 1970s and '80s, Piñera followed Chile's free...
...Confused? Here's the background. After Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 bloodless military coup and sentenced in absentia to two years' imprisonment for a conflict of interest conviction - a verdict he disputes - the exiled billionaire tycoon maintained some friends in high places. One of those mates is Hun Sen, the quixotic Cambodian Prime Minister. The current Thai government is fiercely allergic to Thaksin - and Hun Sen's move last month to offer refuge to the controversial former leader drew strenuous criticism from Bangkok, both from government and local press circles. (Read a TIME interview with Thaksin...
...went on trial in Johannesburg on Oct. 5 after nearly two years of court delays. A close ally of former President Thabo Mbeki, Selebi is the most senior member of the governing African National Congress (ANC) to go to trial on corruption charges, accused of accepting bribes from a tycoon murder suspect, Glenn Agliotti, and his associates in 2004 and 2005. The case is being seen as a critical test of South Africa's judicial system. Since being elected President in April, Jacob Zuma has vowed to clean up South African politics, firing and disciplining a number of senior civil...
...Agliotti said he was given introduction fees when he took other questionable businessmen to meet Selebi, including Zimbabwean tycoon Billy Rautenbach, who two weeks ago pleaded guilty in a Pretoria court to 326 counts of tax evasion. In return for the money and gifts he gave to Selebi, Agliotti testified, Selebi tried to influence police cases involving him and his associates and tipped him off about investigations and surveillance operations the government had launched against him. Selebi denies all charges. (Read "South Africa's Succession Fight...
Megabank HSBC has been as much a part of Hong Kong history as Victoria Harbor, high tea at the Peninsula Hotel and martial-arts movies. Founded in 1865 as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, HSBC backed some of city's most important businessmen, including tycoon Li Ka-shing, and remains Hong Kong's No. 1 bank. But for much of the past 20 years, HSBC has expended a lot of its energy striving to be more than an Asian institution. With major acquisitions in the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere, HSBC grew into one of the world's largest...