A lawyer for Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, released an audio recording of a conversation between Mr Trump and Mr Cohen in which they discussed paying for the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair with the US president.
The recording was played on CNN Tuesday night. Mr Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis told the network he released the recording to dispute an assertion by Mr Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani that tape would show that Mr Trump made clear that if there were going to be a payment, it should be done by check, which would be easily traced. Mr Giuliani has said the payment was never made.
According to Mr Giuliani, in his transcript of the recording displayed by CNN on Tuesday, President Trump says on the tape: "Don't pay with cash. Check."
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In the recording, Mr Trump can be heard saying "pay with cash." Mr Cohen counters by repeatedly saying, "No."
Reuters was unable to verify the entire exchange between the two men because of the poor sound quality of the recording. Mr Davis and Mr Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The discussion of any payment could support claims by President Trump's critics, including groups like Common Cause, that a payment benefited his presidential campaign and the failure to document it was a potential violation of US election laws.
Karen McDougal, the model, alleges she began a 10-month affair with Mr Trump in 2006. Mr Giuliani denies this.
Mr Davis said the tape is among audio recordings that were seized by the FBI in a raid of Mr Cohen's home and office in April.
It was turned over to federal prosecutors on Friday, according to a filing in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.
In the conversation, recorded in September 2016 at Trump Tower in New York, Mr Cohen discusses setting up a company to make a payment apparently involving David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI) and a close friend of Mr Trump's.
Mr Cohen was proposing to pay AMI, which owns the National Enquirer, for the rights to Ms McDougal's story. AMI had bought them from Ms McDougal for $150,000 but AMI did not publish her story.
"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, so that I'm going to do that right away," Mr Cohen says in the recording.
AMI acknowledged holding those rights when it relinquished them in April after Ms McDougal had filed a lawsuit against AMI. The company could not be immediately contacted for comment on whether it held any discussion about the transfer of the rights to President Trump.
Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Mr Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violations linked to a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other matters related to the president's campaign, a person familiar with the investigation has told Reuters.
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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER
Results
UAE beat Nigeria by five wickets
Hong Kong beat Canada by 32 runs
Friday fixtures
10am, Tolerance Oval, Abu Dhabi – Ireland v Jersey
7.30pm, Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi – Canada v Oman
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
