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Barclays to pay $2B to settle suit
NEW YORK (AP) -- Barclays has agreed to pay $2 billion in civil penalties to the U.S. government to settle a lawsuit alleging that it was involved in a fraudulent scheme to sell residential mortgage-backed securities.
The announcement was made Thursday by the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn.
The Justice Department sued Barclays Bank and several of its U.S. affiliates in late 2016 over the sale of risky mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007.
Barclays CEO Jes Staley said in a statement that the settlement was "fair and proportionate."
Trump takes aim at Amazon
NEW YORK (AP) -- President Donald Trump took another shot at Amazon.com Thursday, tweeting that the online retailer pays "little or no taxes" and that it uses the U.S. Postal Service as "their Delivery Boy."
Trump's frustrations with Amazon are no surprise. He has accused the company of not paying enough taxes before, and in December tweeted that the U.S. Postal Service should charge Amazon more for delivering packages. His latest missive comes a day after Axios reported that Trump has wondered aloud if there was a way to "go after" Amazon with antitrust or competition law.
"I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election," Trump tweeted Thursday. "Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!"
Seattle-based Amazon has fought for years against collecting sales tax, but now collects it in states that have a sales tax. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Thursday that some Amazon users don't pay sales taxes, such as third-party vendors who sell their goods through the site.
Amazon.com Inc. did not respond to a request for comment.
As for the Postal Service, it has lost money for years, but online shopping has led to growth in its package-delivery business. And Amazon signed a deal in 2014 with the post office to deliver packages on Sundays.
A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service declined to comment.
Trump has targeted Amazon for other reasons in the past: its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos personally owns The Washington Post, and Trump has called the newspaper "fake news" and a "guardian of Amazon" after it published unfavorable stories about him or his administration.