US attorney general Jeff Sessions was questioned last week by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office investigating potential collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the justice department revealed on Tuesday.
The interview marked the first time that Mr Mueller’s team is known to have interviewed a member of the president’s cabinet, and is another milestone in an investigation that has hung over Mr Trump’s year-old presidency.
Mr Mueller’s office also interviewed former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey shortly after the president sacked Mr Comey in May last year, a person familiar with the matter said. The FBI director's removal led to Mr Mueller’s appointment to take over the Russia investigation.
Mr Sessions was the first US senator to endorse Mr Trump’s candidacy and served as a campaign adviser before the Republican president appointed him as the top US law enforcement official. The two have an uneasy relationship: the president openly criticised Mr Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation last March after media reports that the attorney general had failed to disclose 2016 meetings with Moscow’s then-ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak.
The special counsel’s team is expected to be interested in meetings between Mr Sessions and Mr Kislyak during the campaign, as well as the attorney general's involvement in the president’s sacking of Mr Comey, an episode central to the question of whether Mr Trump may have committed an obstruction of justice.
When asked about Mr Sessions’s interview, the president said: “I’m not at all concerned.”
Ian Prior, a justice department spokesman, confirmed a report in the New York Times that Mr Sessions was quizzed for hours last week but did not provide details. A lawyer representing Mr Sessions declined to comment, nor could Mr Comey be reached for comment.
The source familiar with Mr Comey’s interview said it was part of his handover to Mr Mueller of the Russia investigation and questions whether the president sought to obstruct justice by sacking him. The handover, the source said, also included the special counsel’s team collecting all the material that the former FBI director had gathered during the initial stages of the investigation.
In a memo. Mr Comey wrote about his meetings with Mr Trump, recounting how the president asked him to end an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has since pleaded guilty to a charge brought by Mr Mueller of lying to the FBI.
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 campaign using hacking and propaganda to attempt to tilt the race in favour of Mr Trump. Russia has denied it. The president has denied any collusion with Russia, and has called the investigation a “witch hunt” and “hoax”.
Asked about Mr Mueller’s investigation, White House spokesman Raj Shah told Fox News, "We believe it will end soon and find what we've known all along, which is that there was no collusion during the 2016 campaign and no findings of wrongdoing".
Mr Sessions was the latest high-level current or former Trump administration figure to be interviewed by the investigators. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has also agreed to speak to Mr Mueller’s investigators.
Mr Trump this month refused to commit to being interviewed, saying “I’ll speak to attorneys” about the matter.
Mr Mueller has charged four people in his wide-ranging investigation. In addition to Trump campaign associate George Papadopoulos and Mr Flynn, Mr Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Mr Manafort’s business partner, Rick Gates, have been charged with counts including failing to register as foreign agents and conspiracy to launder money.
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
If you go
The flights
Return flights from Dubai to Santiago, via Sao Paolo cost from Dh5,295 with Emirates.
The trip
A five-day trip (not including two days of flight travel) was split between Santiago and in Puerto Varas, with more time spent in the later where excursions were organised by TurisTour.
When to go
The summer months, from December to February are best though there is beauty in each season
MATCH INFO
Austria 2
Hinteregger (53'), Schopf (69')
Germany 1
Ozil (11')
Porsche Taycan Turbo specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
Transmission: two-speed
Power: 671hp
Torque: 1050Nm
Range: 450km
Price: Dh601,800
On sale: now
The biog
Name: Samar Frost
Born: Abu Dhabi
Hobbies: Singing, music and socialising with friends
