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Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Melbourne cafe supremo Rashid Alshakshir is, in many ways, the epitome of a small business success story. The one-time aspiring journalist and student filmmaker pivoted several years ago into marketing and hospitality and is now the co-owner of the newly opened, trendy Tickled Pink cafe in Canngu, in Bali, building upon the brand’s outlets in Thornbury, Elwood and Richmond. More recently, Alshakshir has been involved in a far more lucrative business, earning $35 million in 18 months providing investment “leads” to property developer and fund manager Paul Chiodo. Rashid Alshakshir (left) and Paul Chiodo and the branding for the Tickled Pink cafes. Credit: Monique Westerman Until June, Chiodo had overseen the massive $480 million Shield Master Fund managed investment scheme and the Keystone Asset Management investment house, as well as a development pipeline of exclusive, five-star resorts worth $1 billion in places such as Port Douglas, Fiji and Venice. Alshakshir’s side hustle with Chiodo appears to have been stymied by an investigation by the corporate watchdog into the affairs of Chiodo and the investments of the Shield Master Fund, which is now frozen, trapping the life savings of 6000 Australians. Part of the regulator’s probe includes reviewing the relationship between Chiodo and the cafe owner and the other 16 or so lead generators who were paid $65 million in total – or 13 per cent of the money raised from investors – for marketing services. An investigation by this masthead in early August revealed concerns at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) that a large proportion of the Shield Master Fund’s money had been improperly directed to another fund that then solely provided loans and mortgages to Chiodo’s property development business. ASIC alleges these investments may have been out of step with the fund’s stated investment intentions given it appears investors had believed they were investing in shares in listed companies and in a diversified portfolio of property developments and secured loans. This masthead also uncovered that several of the Chiodo developments invested in by the fund were for ambitious five-star hotel projects that had no planning approval and faced lengthy delays compared to the completion times touted in promotional material. This included $140 million of investor money being advanced to a property development in Port Douglas, which had no planning approval. It has since emerged that the fund, via its Quantum PE sub-fund, had invested in the Tickled Pink cafe business – which is owned by the man who was generating leads for new investors into the Chiodo investment empire. Chiodo has long described ASIC’s probe as unfair and “precipitous”, noting it had a disastrous impact on investors in the fund despite his efforts to work constructively with ASIC and receivers to his business. ASIC has made no formal charges against Chiodo and there is a chance the corporate watchdog’s investigation may result with no action being taken against the once highly flying property developer and fund manager who tried in vain to rescue the Shield Master Fund from entering administration before liquidators were appointed. There is also no suggestion that Alshakshir, who runs Bespoke Marketing, the business headquartered in Sydney Road, Coburg, as well as the cafes, has any involvement in the Shield Master Fund or Chiodo’s development business. The payments to Alshakshir’s business are, however, of interest to ASIC and to liquidators from Deloitte, Jason Tracy and Luci Palaghia, who are reviewing whether they can claw back the payments for the investors in the fund. The interior of the Tickled Pink cafe in Elwood before its closure in November. Credit: Instagram ASIC highlighted the relationship between one of Chiodo’s entities and Alshakshir’s business NOHAP in court documents filed by the regulator when obtaining freezing orders over Chiodo’s assets this year. “ASIC suspects that Keystone has been paying commissions to lead generators engaged to assist Keystone in promoting investments in the SMF [Shield Master Fund]. ASIC is particularly concerned with certain payments made to NOHAP,” the regulator said in the documents. Commission payments to financial advisers for product recommendations are banned in Australia under laws put in place to stamp out conflicted remuneration. However, payments for marketing services are permitted. There is also no suggestion that Keystone paid any commissions to financial advisers. ASIC acknowledged in its court documents that Keystone and related group CF Capital maintained a policy that explicitly stated that neither ever paid commissions for financial advice in explaining the relationship between Alshakshir and Chiodo. “The agreement [between NOHAP and Chiodo Corporation Operations] variously provided that NOHAP would provide Chiodo Operations with services variously involving the identification and encouragement of ‘potential clients’ (expressly not involving the provision of advice),” ASIC said in its court filing. “NOHAP was to be paid significant fees and commissions as to any resulting person who invested in any financial product promoted, offered or managed by Chiodo Operations or a related entity of Chiodo Operations (including any fund).” An artist’s impression of the Fiji resort being planned by Chiodo Corporation. Credit: Instagram Chiodo, when approached by this masthead for comment, said the payments were entirely above board and common in the industry. “Every fund undertakes marketing including the industry super funds via media, sporting sponsorships, radio and social media. There is nothing unusual about funds paying for marketing to gain more investors. The benefits to members are obvious as validated by large funds also using these forms of marketing strategies,” he said. Chiodo said that successful marketing resulted in leads for the business, and called it “marketing 101”. “The leads came from marketing consultants, which was approved expenditure by Keystone. Chiodo Corporation acted on instructions by Keystone to enter into contracts and to make marketing payments under the direction of Keystone,” he said. “Keystone engaged specialised marketing consultants under a fee-for-service arrangement that exists in this marketplace [which] provides these services a wide range of fund managers including the large industry funds.” Chiodo added that Alshakshir’s business was used by other leading fund managers for marketing to generate leads on prospective clients, and that doing so was common in the industry. Keystone’s other marketing activities also included paying $700,000 in corporate event appearance fees to big-name NBA players Allen Iverson and Josh Giddey, and boxers Tyson Fury and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Rashid Alshakshir’s Bespoke Marketing business in Sydney Road, Coburg. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui It’s not clear if Alshakshir was involved in those corporate events. But he does have a strong marketing background and an interest in marketing for financial services, which appears to have blossomed in the past two years. This includes three websites focused on helping Australians better plan for their retirement, according to company documents and searches of website ownership databases. Two of the websites – Superfinder.au an Australianlostsuper.com.au – help Australians find and consolidate their lost superannuation. Another, mysmsfaustralia.com.au, educates people about the benefits of self-managed superannuation. The websites, which listed a business email address associated with Alshakshir, were all closed on December 18, following an inquiry from this masthead to Alshakshir to that email address the previous day. Alshakshir did not respond to the inquiry. There is no suggestion the sites were tied to Chiodo’s business or were conducting any work that was not in line with the law, just that they show Alshakshir’s burgeoning interest in marketing services that help Australians save for their retirement. Before being shuttered, all the sites made it clear there is no provision of financial advice, which requires a licence. Instead, the two lost super sites offered a call line and the self-managed superannuation business said it was only “Connecting you with licensed financial planners and advisers for super and other personal investment advice”. The Australian Lost Super website before it was closed following an inquiry from his masthead on December 17. The website closure isn’t the only part of Alshakshir’s business that is in wind-down mode. In November, he and his business partners hung up closed signs at the Tickled Pink cafe outlets in Thornbury, Elwood and Richmond. The cafe in Canngu is also in hiatus, according to a post on its Instagram page which reads: “We are temporarily closed. And working on something exciting. Stay tuned.” Asked about the Tickled Pink business, including the closure of the Melbourne venues, Chiodo said: “Tickled Pink had three thriving businesses in Melbourne and their international strategy in Bali made for it to be a good investment. Tickled Pink upon completing the Bali restaurant fitout delivered a $15 million valuation. “I understand that that Bali business is still thriving, and they are about to complete the fitout of their second restaurant in Bali, which will only improve the valuation.” Hopefully for investors, that valuation uplift proves true. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter .
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NYT Connections: Game #568 hints and answers for December 30, 2024: If you are struggling to come up with something to say for today's Connections, you might want to review these concepts and recommendations. NYT Connections: Game #568 hints and answers for December 30, 2024: Are you having issues with NYT Connexions right now? Don’t worry, here are some tips to help you get through it! For this exercise, you have to select four groups of sixteen words each, each with a different level of difficulty. The procedure is gradual and cautious. Every step you take makes it a bit more difficult. Here’s how to make it happen: You may thus begin with the easier stages and progress to the more difficult ones. The green, blue, and purple ones are the hardest, while the yellow one is one of the easiest. Although today’s job isn’t very challenging, it does call for focus and a thorough comprehension of social dynamics. Avoid making hasty decisions without giving them enough thought. I won’t go into too much depth, but the following tips should help you get started. Have fun and keep in mind that travelling to a new place for a holiday is quite fine. NYT Connections hints today If you think you can handle it, keep reading. Try using one of the following words to start each category: YELLOW – CLUB GREEN – BEANS BLUE – ANTE PURPLE – AIRPLANE NYT Connections Clues for December 30 (#568): Yellow Category: LUNCH ORDERS Green Category: USED TO MAKE COFFEE Blue Category: PAY, WITH “UP” Purple Category: NAMES FEATURING “!” NYT Connections Hints for December 30 (#568): YELLOW – Popular types of lunch orders. GREEN – Objects involved in crafting the perfect cup of coffee. BLUE – Verbs or terms often paired with “up” when discussing payments. PURPLE – Proper names or titles featuring an exclamation point. Don’t give up if you’ve tried everything; there’s always another method to find the answers. Examples of contemporary solutions that utilise the NYT Connexions include the following: NYT Connections Answers for December 30 (#568): Yellow Category: CLUB, HERO, MELT, WRAP Green Category: BEANS, FILTER, GRINDER, WATER Blue Category: ANTE, COUGH, PONY, SETTLE Purple Category: AIRPLANE!, JEOPARDY!, PINK!, YAHOO! Click for more latest Gaming news . Also get top headlines and latest news from India and around the world at News9. Pragya is an accomplished journalist known for in-depth reporting and a keen eye for detail. Delivers insightful and well-researched content that informs and engages readers. Latest News
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13 ka entries sa SunStar media group finalists sa GMEAIn Gaza's crowded tent camps, women wrestle with a life stripped of privacyRussia has allowed the use of Bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments to counteract Western sanctions. Source: Reuters , citing Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, as reported by Mezha Media , a technology and IT news platform within Ukrainska Pravda’s holding company Details: Russia has experienced difficulties in trade with its main partners, such as China and Türkiye due to the imposition of economic sanctions. Banks in these countries are being cautious about conducting transactions to avoid attention from Western regulators. In 2024, Russia legalised the use of cryptocurrencies for foreign trade and legalised mining activities. The country is now among the world's leading Bitcoin mining countries. Quote from Siluanov: "As part of the experimental regime, it is possible to use the bitcoins we have mined here in Russia. Such transactions are already taking place. We believe that they should be expanded and developed further. I am confident that this will happen next year." Support UP or become our patron !
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Having concluded the nonconference portion of its schedule with four consecutive wins, No. 15 Houston will open Big 12 play with something of a clean slate. The Cougars (8-3) resemble the squad that claimed the regular-season Big 12 title in their first year in the league last season as they head to Stillwater, Okla., to face Oklahoma State on Monday. Their balanced offense was on full display in an 87-51 home victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 21, with Emanuel Sharp (18 points), L.J. Cryer (17), Terrance Arceneaux (13) and Milos Uzan (12) sharing the load as Houston made a season-high 14 3-pointers. The offensive display provided a complement to the Cougars' usual brand of stifling defense and tenacious rebounding, and Houston coach Kelvin Sampson found it worth celebrating for a team whose shortcomings are too often overanalyzed. "You can't always just focus on things you've got to get better at," Sampson said. "You'll never focus on the things you're good at." Oklahoma State will represent a step up in weight class, with the depth and athleticism to challenge the Cougars' emerging offense. That comes as no surprise for the Cougars, who quickly became accustomed to the rigors of the Big 12, especially when the stakes are highest on the road. "Being able to get shots at the goal and taking care of the ball in the hostile environment is always going to be a challenge when you go on the road in this league," Sampson said. "That's what we'll be challenged with." The Cowboys (8-3) improved to 5-0 at home with their 86-74 victory over Oral Roberts on Dec. 22. Senior forward Abou Ousmane paired a season-high 19 points with a team-high seven rebounds in the victory, further validating the need for Oklahoma State to run more of its offense through its second-leading scorer. Ousmane averages 12.2 points per game for the Cowboys, second to Marchelus Avery (13.0). "It helps when we get him the basketball," first-year Cowboys coach Steve Lutz said of Ousmane. "We don't throw him the basketball enough. To his credit, he runs in transition, he seals for the most part darn near every time and our guards have to do a better job as they come across halfcourt of getting their head up and reading where the big is and (determining) can we get him the basketball. "That's going to be our quickest and best opportunity to score. We've got to continue to focus on throwing the ball inside to him." Oklahoma State enters conference play with momentum, having won four of its last five games. And while nonconference losses to Florida Atlantic, Nevada and Oklahoma proved disappointing, the setbacks showed the Cowboys have room for improvement. "We still have a lot of work to do," Lutz said. "We still have a lot of growth. I don't ever like to look ahead at the beginning of the season and say our record should be X and X. I try to focus more on the day-to-day progress of our team, and there are days where I think we make progress and days where we slip back a little bit. "We've got to continue with the process and get better and better each day." --Field Level MediaDAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A few days after insurgents in Syria , his ruling Baath party announced it was freezing its activities, marking a stunning change in fortunes for the political group that had ruled for more than six decades. Many members of the party’s leadership have gone into hiding and some have fled the country. In a symbolic move, Syria’s new rulers have turned the former party headquarters in Damascus into a center where former members of the army and security forces line up to register their names and hand over their weapons. Calls are on the rise to officially dissolve the Arab Socialist Baath Party that had ruled Syria since 1963. Many Syrians — including former party members — say its rule damaged relations with other Arab countries and aided in the spread of corruption that brought the war-torn nation to its knees. “The party should not only be dissolved, it should go to hell,” said Mohammed Hussein Ali, 64, who worked for a state oil company and was a party member for decades until he quit at the start of Syria’s anti-government uprising in 2011 that turned into . He never left the country and said he is happy the Baath rule is over. An official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the group that led the insurgent offensive that overthrew Assad, said no official decision has been made on what to do with the Baath party. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, noted that Ahmad al-Sharaa has said that officials who committed crimes against the Syrian people over the past decades will be brought to justice and hinted that they include party members. The Baath party, whose aim was to unify Arab states in one nation, was founded by two Syrian Arab nationalists, Michel Aflaq and Salaheddine Bitar, in 1947 and at one point ruled two Arab countries, Iraq and Syria. A rivalry developed between the Syrian branch under Assad and his late father, Hafez, and the one in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, who was removed from power by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003. In Syria, the Baath party became inextricably associated with the Assad family, which took power in 1970. For decades, the family used the party and its pan-Arab ideology to control the country. Many senior military jobs were held by members of the family’s minority Alawite sect, and party membership was used as a cover to give it a nationalist rather than a sectarian nature. A former soldier and decades-long Baath party member who came to party headquarters to cut his military ties, Abdul-Rahman Ali, said he had no idea it was founded by Aflaq and Bitar. He had always thought that Hafez Assad was the founder. “I am happy. We have been liberated from fear,” said Ali, 43. “Even the walls had ears. We didn’t dare express opinions with anyone.” He was referring to the dreaded security and intelligence agencies that detained and tortured people who expressed criticism of Assad or government officials. Many Syrians were required to join the Baath Vanguards, the party’s youth branch, while in elementary school, where Arab nationalist and socialist ideology was emphasized. It was difficult for people who were not party members to get government jobs or join the army or the security and intelligence services. In 2012, a year after Syria’s uprising began, a paragraph of the constitution stating that the Baath party was the leader of the nation and society was abolished, in a move aimed to appease the public’s demand for political reforms. In practice, however, the party remained in control, with members holding majority seats in parliament and government. Another former soldier, who gave only his first name, Ghadir, out of fear of reprisals as a member of the Alawite sect, said he came from a poor family and joined the party so he could enter the military for a stable income. “You could not take any job if you were not a Baathist,” he said. While few are mourning the party’s fall in Syria, some are concerned that the Sunni majority that now controls the country could carry out a purge similar to the one in Iraq after Saddam’s fall. A de-Baathification committee was formed in Iraq and its main job was purging Saddam loyalists from government and military institutions. The Sunni minority considered it a means of sectarian score-settling by Iraq’s Shiite majority. The Sunni resentment and disenfranchisement that followed helped to drive the rise of extremist groups in the country including al-Qaida and the Islamic State in Iraq. In Syria, a Baath party statement issued three days after Assad’s fall called on all members to hand their weapons and public cars to the new authorities. On Dec. 24, party member and former army colonel Mohammed Merhi was among hundreds who lined up at the former party headquarters and handed over weapons. Merhi said the Baath party should be given another opportunity because its principles are good but were exploited over decades. But he said he might want to join another party if Syria becomes a multiparty democracy in the future. He handed over his Soviet Makarov pistol and received a document saying he can now move freely in the country after reconciling with the new authorities. “I want to become again a normal Syrian citizen and work to build a new Syria,” he said. Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press