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Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
FBI Probes Detroit Pistons' Malik Beasley Over Wire Fraud and Illegal Gambling
Federal authorities are investigating former Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley's alleged involvement in wire fraud, gambling, and illegal prop betting, according to ESPN. The allegations stem from Beasley's time playing for the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2023-2024 season, sources told the outlet, with the focus on 'unusually heavy betting interest on Beasley's statistics' starting in January 2024. A gambling industry source shared that one or more prominent U.S. sportsbooks noticed the activity. Advertisement The 18-month investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, Beasley's lawyer Steve Haney told The Detroit News. 'It's a gambling investigation involving Malik. No criminal charges have been issued. It's nothing but an investigation and Malik is entitled to the presumption of innocence,' Haney said, per the outlet. The investigation has reportedly resulted in the Pistons withdrawing a three-year, $42 million contract offer to Beasley. While on the court, it appeared Beasley was fairing well. The free agent has played for six teams throughout his nine-career in the NBA and has earned nearly $60 million, including his recent one-year, $6 million deal with the Pistons, according to Spotrac. However, behind the scenes, a different story unfolded. Advertisement In April 2025, Hazan Sports Management Group Inc. sued Beasley, alleging he failed to repay a $650,000 cash advance for marketing revenue from using his name, image, and likeness. Hazan made 'a substantial investment of time, effort, and resources in a player with known issues (including and especially financial issues)…when they took him on as a client and provided him with a substantial marketing advance in anticipation of helping Beasley become one of the premier players at his position,' the lawsuit reads, per The Detroit News. The company added that when Beasley allegedly fired the firm, '…(Hazan) made several attempts to collect the full amount of the marketing advance but received little more than drips and drabs of sporadic payments and vague promises to repay the balance over time.' The firm is now seeking a minimum of $2.5 million, alleging that he failed to uphold their contract agreement. Advertisement Additional claims against Beasley include a lawsuit from The Stott apartments, stating he owes $7,355 in unpaid rent, as well as a $26,827 judgment won by a celebrity barbershop, Cairo Cuts, that provided him with a loan. Dentist Hassan Alshehabi of Delicate Smiles also won a $34,390 default judgment against Beasley related to a loan. The Detroit News reports Beasley's financial troubles total more than $8 million. 'I have been with Malik for a long time, I have seen a lot of people around him come and go, but I have stayed away from any of his financial management or mismanagement or decisions he would make with money,' Haney told the outlet. Haney clarified that he doesn't handle his client's finances and noted that while his goal is to connect his clients with top business experts, it's ultimately the client's decision to seek guidance. Advertisement The post FBI Probes Detroit Pistons' Malik Beasley Over Wire Fraud and Illegal Gambling appeared first on AfroTech. The post FBI Probes Detroit Pistons' Malik Beasley Over Wire Fraud and Illegal Gambling appeared first on AfroTech.
New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
Can Barcelona really return to the Camp Nou next month?
In just over a month, Barcelona will return to the Camp Nou for the first time since starting a €1.5billion (£1.3bn; $1.8bn) refurbishment project two years ago. At least, that's what the club is hoping. Work on Barca's stadium has already suffered several setbacks, with an original return date of November 2024 long since passed. Now the club is targeting August 10 — when Barca play their traditional season-opening friendly match, the Joan Gamper Trophy — for the big day. Advertisement That date represents a fifth rescheduling of the team's expected return. Delays to the project have already forced Barca to play at the city's Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys much longer than expected, but the option of starting a third consecutive season there appears to have been ruled out. They no longer have permission to play at the ground, nor do they intend to apply for it. Barca sources — who, like all those consulted for this article, preferred to contribute anonymously in order to speak freely — insist the club has no Plan B. They are confident the 2025-26 campaign will be spent back at the Camp Nou. But even with such little time left before their return, question marks remain over exactly when they can be expected back there, and under what kind of circumstances. Work on the Camp Nou began in June 2023, with the aim of modernising the ground while increasing its capacity to 105,000, which would be the largest in European football. The stadium was initially scheduled to reopen at about 60 per cent capacity in time for Barca's 125th anniversary in November 2024 (with full completion in June 2026), but that date has been put back several times. The November 2024 target was mentioned by Ebru Ozdemir, president of Limak, the construction company in charge of the works, in an interview with El Periodico in March 2023. But in July 2024 came the first public signs of slippage. Barca vice-president Elena Fort said in an interview with the EFE news agency that work was 'going according to plan', but added: 'As of today, we can confirm that the stadium will be ready for play by the end of the year.' The following September, Barca president Joan Laporta said the club 'didn't want to set dates' for a return 'because it might happen later or it might even happen earlier'. Advertisement 'I believe that by the end of the year, we will be able to come back,' he added, speaking at a news conference. That was still the message a month later in October. At another press conference, Fort repeated that construction was 'on the right track', but a Barcelona statement released a week earlier said the team was now expected to return 'in the second half' of the 2024-2025 season. Then, in an interview with Catalan radio station RAC1 in January 2025, Fort said: 'There is no exact date, but we will return this season. It will be when we can, but before the end of this season.' A bird's-eye view of heaven on earth: Spotify Camp Nou. 🚁 — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 28, 2025 While work on the Camp Nou went on, Barca made a temporary home at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys across the city on Montjuic, a ground that has about 40,000 fewer seats than the old Camp Nou. Barca had always planned to spend the entirety of the 2023-24 season there, but in early 2025, they had to apply to the local authorities to allow them to finish the 2024-25 campaign in the stadium. That change of plan meant a Clasico with Real Madrid was now set for the same weekend as a Rolling Stones concert scheduled at their temporary home. Barca sources at the time said they considered the Camp Nou as a potential option for the May 11 fixture. In the event, the Rolling Stones cancelled plans for a European tour, leaving Barca free to play at Montjuic. In 2023, the club estimated that playing one season at Montjuic would cost them about €90m (£77m; $106m at current rates) in lost revenue. They ended up staying for two. Cargando: Spotify Camp Nou — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) July 4, 2025 Last week, Barca announced they would return to the Camp Nou just over a month from now for the Joan Gamper Trophy on August 10, an annual friendly match that kicks off the new season. Speaking in early June, before the fixture was arranged, club sources said they expected the capacity for Barca's Camp Nou return to be limited to 25,000. Advertisement However, as things stand, they do not have the necessary permits to do so, according to Barcelona's deputy mayor, Laia Bonet. 'The work must be completed on time and in the proper manner in order to apply for the provisional first occupancy licence for the opening of the first and second stands,' she said at a news conference last week. 'We are not there yet and we need time to check that the stadium is in a condition to welcome spectators.' In an interview with La Vanguardia published on Wednesday, Fort said the club remained 'focused' on obtaining the required permits. As for when the stadium is scheduled to be completely finished, she said: 'I think we'll be able to say the stadium is finished by the summer of 2026. Visually, it won't be 100 per cent finished; the roof will still need to be closed. But everything will be there.' Laporta said when announcing the Limak deal that there were 'guarantees' the team would be back playing at the stadium in November 2024. He said these could include penalty charges of €1m that Limak would have to pay for each day past the November 2024 deadline. However, no such penalty charges have been made, and in January this year, Fort said any potential penalty charges could only be assessed after construction was completed in 2026. Barca sources say the club has not made any alternative plans to playing the Joan Gamper at the Camp Nou. However, in her interview with La Vanguardia, in reply to a question about whether there was a Plan B and whether that might see the Joan Gamper played at the club's Johan Cruyff stadium near the training ground instead, Fort replied: 'Yes. Life isn't 100 per cent predictable, there's always the possibility of something happening.' Fort also mentioned a 'load test' the club plans to carry out and said its results would determine the capacity at which the Camp Nou could re-open. She said this would be conducted without any spectators, with 'suppliers, the media and the city council, which obviously has to give its approval' attending instead. Local police and emergency services will also have to check access, while validation from UEFA and La Liga will be needed. 'The first half of July, or the first 10 days of July, will determine everything,' Fort added. In terms of the new La Liga season, Barca asked for their first matches to be scheduled away from home and the competition body has granted this. Barca's first three games are away trips, with their first home fixture scheduled for the weekend of Saturday, September 14, when they host Valencia (the exact date will be confirmed closer to the time). The first round of the Champions League league phase is due to be played from September 16. Advertisement With so many issues still up in the air, though — including the missing permits and the uncertainty around what capacity the ground can open at — Barca have not been able to start any ticket sales for matches. Usually, season ticket sales begin in the first weeks of June, but the process has still not started. Nor have any tickets gone on sale for the Joan Gamper friendly next month. Barca sources remain confident all will be well, but in terms of alternatives, Barcelona city council sources say it would not be possible for Barca to return to playing at Montjuic because a series of concerts are already scheduled there that cannot be cancelled. City council sources also confirmed that Barca have made no request to further use the stadium, but added that the stadium could, in theory, be re-adapted to football use within a week, so long as it did not mean disruption to concert dates. As for the Johan Cruyff stadium mentioned in Fort's La Vanguardia interview, this is the 6,000-capacity stadium used by Barcelona's women's team and the men's reserves team. It is difficult to see how the ground could be used by the senior men's side. Media reports suggest Italian side Como, managed by former club midfielder Cesc Fabregas and with Sergi Roberto among their number, will be Barca's opponents for the Joan Gamper. The Athletic approached Como for confirmation, but they declined to comment. The initial November 2024 return date — at reduced capacity — held huge symbolic value for Barca, but several problems have contributed to the delays seen since. Senior figures at the club have tended to explain these by referring to 'unforeseeable circumstances' — Laporta being the most recent to do so at a May press conference. Barca have pointed to the discovery of an unknown high-voltage line on the site, the company that was set to supply the iron for the stadium going bankrupt, bureaucratic problems in bringing in skilled labour from outside the European Union, and various problems that Limak had with several suppliers trying to increase raw material costs. Limak, in a June press release, said the Camp Nou project was 'progressing on schedule, with completion expected in 2026'. Complaints from local residents about noise and light also restricted the working patterns constructors had planned to follow. A timetable of permitted works was agreed upon at a meeting between the Camp Nou neighbours' association, Barcelona city council, and FC Barcelona. It allowed work to continue until midnight as long as it did not involve the most disruptive aspects in terms of noise and light. According to residents, there were several breaches of this, and after several incidents in which the police were called, the timetable was altered so that work had to stop by 10pm. Then it was agreed that work could continue until midnight, but only if it was internal work that did not involve noise or light pollution. In March, the city council granted special permission allowing work to continue 24 hours a day (except for weekends), which is currently valid until August 2. Advertisement Meanwhile, a report published in April by local media outlet Ara claimed further delays had been caused by a decision to prioritise the construction of a section of VIP seats, which had important implications for the club's finances, as further explained below. Having the Camp Nou ready to host games won't just provide the club with a bigger source of income and put an end to the rent they pay to play at Montjuic, it will also have a direct impact on their capacity to sign and register new players. The Catalans are currently above the salary limit that La Liga set for them, which means the competition forces them to offload current salaries before registering new ones. A major reason they are above their salary cap is that Barcelona's latest asset sale — VIP seating at the revamped Camp Nou — could not be included in their current budget. Crowe, an audit company that currently works with Barcelona, assessed that the €100m the Catalans received from Middle Eastern investors for the sale of the VIP seats can't be counted as an asset because the actual seats had not been built yet. Club sources say that builders at the Camp Nou are focused on building all of those VIP seats before the end of summer. They believe that as soon as the VIP seats are built, auditors will allow the inclusion of that €100m in the club's accounting, and that would enable Barcelona to return to a stable financial position regarding their salary limit. The budget for the entire Espai Barca — the name for the extensive renovation project, which also includes the Palau Blaugrana multi-sport arena, the campus and the urban development of the area — is €1.5bn. The price that Limak committed to complete the new Camp Nou was €990m, but during the process, a green light was given for the construction of a Skywalk, a viewing platform from which the whole of Barcelona will be visible. The cost of this was not included in the agreed budget and will be added as an extra. Advertisement On Wednesday last week, Fort told La Vanguardia that the original budget would be met, and that 'there's no red line that makes us think it will become more expensive'. She added: 'This year we already have some advance payments, but everything is under control. Furthermore, we've secured the debt refinancing we wanted because people believe so strongly in the project. The estimates are that we'll triple the operating income we had at the previous Camp Nou.'
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The stock-market rally is broadening beyond Big Tech. Will consumer stocks bounce back in the second half of the year?
After months of leadership by megacap technology stocks, Wall Street kicked off the second half of 2025 with a powerful, yet potentially healthier, shift in the U.S. stock market, as the rally has broadened. From cyclicals to small caps, more stocks have been joining the charge that has sent the S&P 500 SPX and the Nasdaq Composite COMP to new all-time highs, suggesting that this market's recovery from April lows may have deeper roots than many anticipated. 'Today is my 61st birthday': I have my ex-spouse's Social Security benefits. Should I retire at 65 and travel? 'I'm single': At 70, I have $500,000 in stocks and $220,000 in savings. How do I invest my $130,000 windfall? 'She's in a shaky marriage that could soon end': Will my daughter's husband get my IRA when I die? My wife and I are in our late 60s. Do I sell stocks to pay our $30,000 credit-card debt — or do it gradually over 3 years? I put my $500K inheritance into a joint account with my husband. Can I leave half of it to my son from a previous marriage? Investors have begun rotating out of richly valued technology names and into cyclical sectors when the calendar turned to the second half of the year. The S&P 500's materials sector XX:SP500.15 was the best performer among the large-cap index's 11 sectors last week, up 3.6%, while the S&P 500 only rose 1.7%. The financials XX:SP500.40 and energy XX:SP500.10 sectors also gained 2.4% and 2.1% in the same period, respectively, according to FactSet data. Small-cap stocks also have shown signs of rebounding in the second half. The benchmark Russell 2000 index RUT has popped 3.5% so far this month, outperforming other major large-cap equity indexes. The small-cap index on Thursday also closed in the green for 2025 for the first time since Feb. 20, according to Dow Jones Market Data. 'While the 'buy everything' approach worked really well off the April lows, and part of that was simply just a mean reversion trade after tech got asymmetrically punished … so going forward, stock selection is going to be more important and other areas of the market are starting to catch a bid,' said Talley Leger, chief market strategist for the Wealth Consulting Group. The broadening of the tech rally beyond the so-called Magnificent Seven cohort is a sign of 'a broader, healthier market,' he said. Meanwhile, some sectors that lagged in the year's first half could be poised for a meaningful rebound in the rest of 2025. The S&P 500's consumer-discretionary sector XX:SP500.25 was at the bottom of the large-cap index's 11 sectors in the first six months of 2025, off 4.2% to log its worst first-half performance in three years, according to FactSet data. However, a look beneath the surface shows the story wasn't so bleak: Many consumer-related stocks have held steady, and U.S. consumers might be in better shape than sector performance suggests. The S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary Index XX:SP500EW.25 — which gives equal value to all 51 stocks that are included in the sector, regardless of the size of the company — has actually risen 2.5% this year, according to FactSet data. Of course, Tesla Inc. TSLA — one of the largest-weighted stocks in the S&P 500's consumer discretionary sector — has been largely to blame. Comprising 18.6% of the total assets within the market-cap-weighted sector index, shares of Tesla have tumbled nearly 22% this year, as weak EV sales, lower demand, intensifying competition from other automakers and Elon Musk's political involvement have rattled investors. See: Opinion: Elon Musk takes us for fools as he renews his verbal assault on Trump Another megacap tech name — Inc. AMZN — accounts for roughly 42% of the weighting in the discretionary sector, but its shares have remained relatively steady, rising 1.8% year to date, according to FactSet data. To be sure, Tesla and Amazon stand on their own perch within the consumer-discretionary sector, which also includes restaurant chains, apparel, luxury goods and travel stocks. Among those are McDonald's Corp. MCD, Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU and Airbnb Inc. ABNB, which all can rise in a resilient economy and labor market when consumers tend to spend more, but fall when unemployment rises. See: The June jobs report is grimy under the hood. Here's the down and dirty. The U.S. economy added a stronger-than-expected 147,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1% from 4.2%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday. Meanwhile, the University of Michigan's closely watched gauge of U.S. consumer sentiment rose to 60.5 in a preliminary June reading from 52.2 in the prior month. This was the first improvement in six months. The Wealth Consulting Group's Leger sees the previously negative consumer sentiment as a potential buying opportunity for the consumer-discretionary sector (see chart below). 'The connection between the University of Michigan consumer-sentiment index and the performance of the consumer-discretionary sector fell into the contrarian buy zone on our radar when everything was at its worst [in April]. Now they are rebounding off those lows, and sentiment or morale is improving,' he told MarketWatch via phone on Wednesday. In Leger's view, the surging stock market also adds to 'the wealth effect,' which could increase consumer spending power. That, along with the improving consumer sentiment, falling oil prices, cooling headline inflation and potential interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve later this year 'should release more money for spending on discretionary items,' and 'help brighten the earnings outlook' for the sector, he said. However, Marta Norton, chief investment strategist at Empower, said it's still too early to 'make heads or tails' of consumers' emotions, as even the potential tariff threat doesn't feel as concerning as it did when it first made headlines a few months ago. Americans cut spending in May after buying lots of new cars and other goods earlier in the year to beat U.S. tariffs, underscoring how ongoing trade wars are disrupting the economy. Personal spending fell 0.1% in May, the government said in a June 27 report. It was the first decline since January. 'I wouldn't describe the consumer as unhealthy at all,' Norton said, but added there has been a marginal deterioration this year. 'There is still a certain measure of uncertainty around what that trade policy ultimately looks like,' she said. That also casts a shadow over the long run for earnings of discretionary stocks. Yet despite recent weakness, the consumer-discretionary sector remains expensive on a price-to-forward-earnings (P/E) basis. The forward P/E multiple of the discretionary sector, calculated by dividing its current price by Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate for its earnings per share (EPS) for the next 12 months, was pegged at 29.07 as of Wednesday afternoon, up from around 22.56 on April 8. Furthermore, the equal-weighted version of the discretionary index was trading at 17.57 times forward P/E, compared with 13.7 in early April, according to FactSet. When you add in that the sector's not necessarily cheap, and that tariff headwinds remain, Norton said it looks tough to see a catalyst for meaningful moves higher for consumer-discretionary stocks. U.S. stocks finished higher on Thursday as investors digested the June employment report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA jumped nearly 0.8%, ending only 0.4% off its prior record. The S&P 500 ended up 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1%, with both scoring fresh record closes, according to FactSet data. Major U.S. stock exchanges were closed on Friday for the July 4 holiday. 'I do all the yard work, cooking and cleaning': I live with my daughter and her lazy boyfriend. She wants me to buy her house. Do I say yes? The stock-market rally is broadening beyond Big Tech. Will consumer stocks bounce back in the second half of the year? My job is offering me a payout. Should I take a $61,000 lump sum — or $355 a month for life? 'Finance makes me break out in hives': I inherited $240K from my parents. Do I pay off my $258K mortgage and give up my job? My life partner is 18 years my senior. He wants to leave his $4.5 million fortune to me — not his two kids. Do we tell them? 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