Shares of India’s private lender fell for a second session in a row, now down 5% in two sessions after a newspaper report said that the lender’s Audit Committee had ordered a formal “Internal Vigilance Investigation” into payments totalling Rs 45 crore to a PSU disguised as marketing spend.

The lender issued a clarification stating: We wish to state that in line with the highest corporate governance standards of the Bank, the Internal Audit function conducts reviews, identifies and presents its observations from time to time. As such, the observations of Internal Audit function are comprehensively addressed by the Bank and that applies to the matter in question.

“HDFC Bank continues to maintain sound financial and risk management practices, with robust systems of internal control and oversight. We remain committed to the highest standards of corporate governance and regulatory compliance,” the regulatory filing added.

A report in The Indian Express said the payments were allegedly made to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), a state government agency, just days before former chairman Atanu Chakraborty resigned on March 18.

This order came after an internal audit of the bank’s marketing department, covering the FY25 period, flagged these payments and rated the department’s performance as “unsatisfactory,” the report said.

The Indian Express investigation, based on internal records, found that the payments were intended for Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation as “differential interest”, or interest paid above the specified rate on its deposits. However, instead of being directly credited to MSRDC’s account as interest income, the funds were allegedly routed through the bank’s marketing department and shown as contributions towards a road safety awareness campaign via four local vendors.

Records reviewed during the probe also indicate that the payout was approved during senior-level discussions attended by Sashidhar Jagdishan. According to testimonies by several officials in the internal investigation, Jagdishan participated in calls convened to examine ways the bank could compensate MSRDC and was part of the decision to route the differential interest through the marketing budget as a one-time arrangement.HDFC Bank Chief Marketing Officer Ravi Santhanam acknowledged in his testimony during the Vigilance probe that the marketing department acted as a “facilitator to camouflage differential interest reimbursement as marketing spend”.

Significantly, the Vigilance probe report was sent to two top committees: Audit Committee of the Board (ACB) on April 10, and the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the board a week later, the media report said.

On March 18, part-time Chairman and independent director Atanu Chakraborty tendered his resignation. In his letter, Chakraborty pointed to certain developments and practices within the bank over the past two years that did not align with his personal values and ethics. “This is the basis of my aforementioned decision,” he wrote.

Since the development, HDFC Bank shares are down nearly 8%. The stock has slipped 23% in 2026.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The National Organizer of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa, has responded to accusations related to the Easter Sunday attacks’ probe stating that it is no secret that he visited Sivasathurai Chandrakanthan, alias ‘Pillayan’, while the latter was in prison during the 2018/2019 period.

Rajapaksa made this statement in a post on his ‘X’ account, after his name was mentioned during today’s court proceedings when the progress of investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks was reported to the court by the Attorney General’s Department.

Former Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS), Suresh Sallay, who is currently being detained by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), was produced before the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court today.

Sallay was arrested by the CID in February in connection with investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks and has since been detained and interrogated under the PTA while investigations continue.

Appearing on behalf of the CID before the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court, Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris stated that the Easter Sunday terrorist attack had been carried out under the direction of Suresh Sallay with the aim of targeting an election, and claimed that he is the actual ‘mastermind’ of the attack.

He further presented the progress of investigations to the court and stated that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Minister Basil Rajapaksa, and MP Namal Rajapaksa had visited the Batticaloa Prison after the Easter attacks and met with ‘Pillayan’.

In response to this claim, MP Namal Rajapaksa posted on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) stating that it is no secret that he visited Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) leader Sivasathurai Chandrakanthan alias ‘Pillayan’ while he was in prison in 2018/19, adding that prison records of his visits are available. 

He further stated that at the time Pillayan was part of the political alliance contesting both the 2015 Presidential Election and the 2018 Local Government Elections.

Namal Rajapaksa also questioned reports that the CID allegedly travelled to France to investigate the Easter Sunday attack, stating that this raises concerns about the government’s priorities, and added that if officers travelled there only to confirm his visit to meet Pillayan, it is clearly “a waste of public funds”. 

He further stated that, to his knowledge, Pillayan is not currently being detained in connection with the Easter attacks and questioned who the government is trying to convince with such “media spectacles”.

Namal Rajapaksa added that the NPP has presented different narratives about the Easter attacks at different times and warned that if the government is using the tragedy to target political opponents, it would be “deeply unfair to the victims and their families, who still deserve genuine answers and justice.”

He further stated that they are ready to face any fair inquiry and will fully cooperate with the CID to clarify any doubts openly and transparently, adding that the government should focus on delivering meaningful results for the people of the country instead of “political drama and media headlines.”

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao pushed back after a screenshot showing bitcoin at roughly $24,111 on Binance went viral on X, arguing the move was a microstructure glitch on a thin, newly listed BTC/USD1 pair rather than a broader market crash and that the exchange itself “is NOT involved in trades.”

Did Bitcoin Really Crash To $24,000?

The sharp wick appeared isolated to BTC/USD1, a market quoted in USD1, a stablecoin launched by Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial. Within seconds, the pair snapped back toward prevailing bitcoin prices above $87,000, according to exchange data cited by traders sharing the screenshot.

CZ’s explanation was straightforward: on an illiquid order book, a single aggressive order can print an extreme price before arbitrage closes the gap. “This actually shows the exchange is NOT involved in trades. Low liquidity on new pairs means one large market order can spike prices, but arbitrageurs quickly corrected it. No liquidations occurred, as this pair isn’t included in any index.”

The Binance founder shared a breakdown from Head of Business Development of Solv Protocol Catherine Chan who said the move was “a liquidity event,” not a bitcoin collapse. She tied the dislocation to a Binance-and-USD1 promotion offering a 20% fixed APY deposit deal that, she claimed, pushed users to swap USDT into USD1 and briefly drove USD1 to a premium.

“Many users swapped USDT → USD1, pushing USD1 to a 0.39% premium: huge for a stablecoin. Smart money borrowed USD1 on @lista_dao against SolvBTC or SolvBTC-BTCB smart lending markets (~0.5% APY). They either deposited USD1 directly or sold it slowly on spot to meet demand. Then someone thought: ‘Why not just sell via BTC/USD1?’ They used a market order. Problem: BTC/USD1 has very thin liquidity. That market order wiped out most buy orders, briefly causing a very low price,” Catherine explained.

“Arbitrage bots instantly bought it back,” she wrote. “No fundamentals changed. No mass liquidations.”

The episode also picked up a familiar edge of crypto paranoia. One user, Bera (@doomsdart), framed it as a coordinated signal: “Cz and Trump family are telling us what they’re gonna do to our coins. Get ready.” CZ’s reply, by contrast, suggested the opposite — that the speed of arbitrage, and the absence of cascading liquidations, is evidence the venue wasn’t “printing” a market-wide price at all.

For traders, the takeaway is less dramatic than the screenshot implied, but still relevant: new quote-asset pairs can be structurally fragile, and promotions that rapidly concentrate flow into a single stablecoin can leave unusually thin order books in their wake. In that kind of market, a single market order can create a headline before it creates a trend.

At press time, Bitcoin traded at $89,298.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

Hours after the documents circulated widely online, Trump took to Truth Social with a sweeping demand: he said he will ask Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice, and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s ties to “Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions,” claiming that “all arrows point to the Democrats.”

Bondi quickly agreed, posting on X Friday afternoon that she had assigned Attorney Jay Clayton to the case. Clayton is a high-profile figure among Republicans, having chaired the SEC during Trump’s first term and now acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. 

Clinton has strongly denied that he had knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. In the emails, Epstein mentioned several times that Clinton was “never on the island.” However, the two knew each other in the early 2000s. Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

On the other hand, Summers had a seemingly close and unusually personal relationship with the disgraced financier who at times acted as his informal relationship coach. Newly released emails from 2017 to 2019 show the former Treasury secretary corresponding with Epstein regularly, sometimes multiple times a day, seeking advice about his interactions with a woman in London.

In one exchange, Summers lamented that the woman had grown distant: “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy.’ I said awfully coy u are,” he wrote. Epstein replied within minutes, offering reassurance and strategy: “she’s smart. making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy … annoyed shows caring, no whining showed strength.”

Other emails show Summers forwarding Epstein notes from the woman and asking whether he should respond. “Think no response for a while probably appropriate,” Summers wrote in one case. Epstein encouraged the silence, replying, “She’s already begining to sound needy nice.”

Summers has previously said he regrets his past ties to Epstein. Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, billionaire investor and major Democratic donor, had an established relationship with Epstein, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Schedules show Epstein planned multiple trips with him—including two visits to Epstein’s island, Little St. James in 2014—and arranged for Hoffman to stay overnight at his Manhattan townhouse before attending a “breakfast party” with Bill Gates and others the next morning.

Hoffman now says he deeply regrets the interactions. “It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors,” he told the Journal. “Ultimately I made the mistake, and I am sorry for my personal misjudgment.”

Hoffman could not be reached for comment.

Trump’s inclusion of JPMorgan comes after the bank paid out more than $450 million in 2023 across multiple settlements related to its historic relationship with Epstein — including a $290 million agreement with a class of victims and a $75 million deal with the U.S. Virgin Islands. The bank has repeatedly said it “deeply regrets any association” with Epstein and would not have kept him as a client had it known of his crimes.

JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Epstein repeatedly described Trump in blunt, often hostile terms

The release of the files — which Trump framed as an effort to expose an “Epstein Hoax” that he claims Democrats are weaponizing to distract from the shutdown– show Epstein repeatedly discussing Trump. They contradict Trump’s own account of their split, and Epstein offers his private, often caustic assessments of the man who would become president.

Across messages with lawyers, acquaintances, reporters, academics, and political figures, Epstein invoked Trump constantly, often bragging that he possessed insider insight into Trump’s private world. In one 2017 exchange, Epstein dismissed him sharply: “your world does not understand how dumb he really is. he will blame everyone around him.” A year later, he described Trump as “evil beyond belief, mad… nuts!!!” 

The emails also directly challenge one of Trump’s most frequently repeated claims: that he expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for inappropriate behavior. 

In a 2019 message to author Michael Wolff, Epstein flatly rejected the story: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.”In another email, Epstein claimed a woman who worked at the club had been involved with him and wrote, “Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period.” The documents do not substantiate these assertions, and the White House has denied them.

One of the most explosive lines appears in a 2011 note to Ghislaine Maxwell: “that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.” During a press conference, the White House pointed to the testimony of Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who committed suicide earlier this year and said Trump did not participate “in anything.”

Epstein also imagined himself as holding leverage over Trump. In a December 2018 exchange, after someone suggested Trump’s critics were simply trying to “take down” the president, Epstein replied: “yes thx. its wild. because i am the one able to take him down.” 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The Sri Lanka Navy has issued a response regarding the protest held in Kalpitiya earlier today (10).

The protest was staged by residents of the Daluwa village against two individuals allegedly from the Sri Lanka Navy assaulting a villager, and also in response to accusations that the Navy and Police are supporting drug trafficking.

During the protest, tensions escalated when two individuals dressed in civilian clothing—suspected to be from the Navy—arrived and began recording video footage of the event.

The Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Norochcholai Police, who arrived at the scene, stated that an investigation would be conducted into the alleged assault.

According to the Navy, it denies all allegations made against its personnel, including accusations of assaulting a villager and supporting drug trafficking in the area.

The Navy maintains that it is not involved in any such misconduct and that investigations into the incident should proceed through the appropriate legal channels.