Two charged with Nemtsov murder, time for Apple Watch and the Pigeon Ponzi scheme

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

A Moscow court yesterday charged two men with involvement in the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. Three other suspects were arrested.

A judge said Zaur Dadayev, the deputy commander of a unit of the Chechen security services, had admitted his involvement in the crime. His cousin Anzor Gubashev was also indicted but said he was not guilty. (FT)

In the news

Cracks in the Greek agreement European officials said Greece’s latest reform proposals fell far short of those tabled two weeks ago and it probably won’t receive an aid disbursement this month. The Greek government floated the prospect of a referendum if its creditors ask for reforms that are deemed unacceptable. (Bloomberg)

Euribor questioning UK fraud investigators have called in former Barclays and Deutsche Bank traders as suspects in their criminal investigation into whether the key borrowing benchmark was rigged. The interviews raise the prospect of several more years of investigations for the banks. (FT)

Swiss banks drawn into Petrobras scandal Documents released by a Brazilian courts have outlined the alleged use of Swiss bank accounts for bribe payments in Brazil’s biggest graft case. Pedro Barusco, a former Petrobras executive, said he laundered an estimated $100m in bribes partly through accounts in Switzerland. (FT)

Tony Blair’s £30m proposal The former UK prime minister’s team negotiated a contract to advise the United Arab Emirates, promising the “intense involvement of Tony Blair” who is a Middle East peace envoy. A Blair spokesman denied that there was a conflict of interest. (Sunday Times $)

Selma commemoration Tens of thousands of people paraded across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to commemorate the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march, when 600 peaceful civil rights activists were attacked by white state troopers. (Reuters)

Tough competition ahead in Europe There could be a fight ahead for Google and Gazprom. European antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager says she is willing to take the confrontational route of fines and court battles rather than settliements when it comes to enforcing competition. (FT)

It’s a big day for

The Apple Watch Tim Cook will pitch the smartwatch as Apple’s next revolutionary device after the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The device, which goes on sale next month, has divided pundits: Tim Bradshaw outlines the bull and bear case. (FT)

European foreign policy President of the European Council Donald Tusk meets with Barack Obama today. Although he is eager for Europe and the US to take a more robust stance against Russian efforts to redraw Ukrainian borders, he has said that Europe is not yet ready to tighten sanctions against Russia. Meanwhile Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, has called for the creation of an EU army to show Russia “that we are serious about defending European values. (NYT$, FT)

The ECB begins its quantitative easing programme today. Chinese companies have beenditching the renminbi and flocking to the euro to raise new offshore debt as funding costs for euro debt have tumbled. (FT)

Food for thought

The Pigeon Ponzi scheme Arlan Galbraith’s company sold pairs of breeding pigeons to farmers with a guarantee to buy back their offspring at fixed prices for 10 years. When he bought them back he resold them on as breeding pairs, continually recruiting new investors. By the time his scheme fell apart he had almost a thousand breeders under contract, had taken nearly CAD42m from farmers and had walked away from CAD356m of obligations to buy back baby birds. (NYT$)

Calling the end of Chinese communism David Shambaugh, a professor of international affairs and Brookings Institute fellow, argues that the endgame of Chinese communist rule has begun and progressed further than many thnk. The economic elites have one foot out the door, political repression has intensified and even regime loyalists are just going through the motions. (WSJ$)

The foundations of corporate debt The corporate bond market has a long history of Wild West behaviour but it has rarely captured the attention of resource-strapped regulators. Bankers, managers and traders say the market is characterised by chronic opacity and dominated by giant asset managers. (FT)

From Chinese propaganda to papal portraits Shin Jiawei’s painting of Chinese soldiers during the Cultural Revolution were so popular with the Mao regime that 250,000 copies of his most famous work were distributed across the country. Now he’s getting commissions from the Vatican. (AP)

Video of the day

Building a supersonic car Tanya Powley visits the team of British engineers building a car that they hope will set a land-speed record of 1,000 miles an hour and inspire the next generation of engineers. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.

Image: A general view shows the Moscow International Business Center and the Mercury City Tower. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin.