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🌎 Trafigura hunts missing $500M in Mongolian fuel fraud. Trafigura made provisions of $1.1B after discovering what it described as “misconduct” at its Mongolian unit. Reuters
🌎 Singapore says launderers who surrendered $1.4 billion are free to go – but can’t return. Much of the illicit funds came from illegal gambling and unlicensed money lending in China. Bloomberg
🌎 BIT Mining to pay $10M fine for bribing Japanese politicians in former life. BIT Mining paid $2.5M in bribes to Japanese officials between 2017 and 2019. Cointelegraph
🔐 Heather ‘Razzlekhan’ Morgan sentenced to 18 months in prison Record
🌎 Hacker Gains Access to File With Damaging Testimony About Gaetz. The computer file contains testimony from the woman who said she had relations with Trump’s AG pick when she was 17. NYT
🌎 U.S. defense agencies, industry expands AI use with tech companies’ backing. AI models made by the biggest US tech companies are increasingly being used for military purposes. Semafor
🔥 Illicit Edge Originals: Watch the latest episode of Coercive Capital with Elaine Dezenski for a deep dive into the Defense Department’s financial crime combat with China.
🌎 We Can’t Give Up Paper Checks, and That’s a Gold Mine for Scammers. Fraudsters congregate anonymously on message boards and social media, figuring out which banks to target with altered checks. WSJ
🌎 Andrew Tate claims ‘monumental victory’ in human trafficking trial. Prosecutors have been given five days to decide if they will withdraw the case. Independent
🌎 Russian man accused of being connected to multimillion-dollar ransomware gang is extradited to US. 42-year-old Evgenii Ptitsyn is accused of administering the sale, distribution and operation of Phobos ransomware. CNN
🚩 Treasury Issues Final Regulations to Sharpen CFIUS Procedures to Protect National Security FinCEN
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💥 U.S. sanctions companies that build settlements in occupied West Bank Axios
💥 Treasury Targets Key Hamas Leaders and Financiers U.S. Treasury
💥 Israel Finds Large Troves of Russian Arms in Hezbollah’s Hands WSJ
💥 Hamas political office in Doha has not been permanently closed Reuters
💥 I Saw How Georgetown’s Prestigious School of Foreign Service Coddles Violent Anti-Semites Free Beacon
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📌 Can Trump’s Hardball Tactics on China Ease America’s Fentanyl Crisis? WSJ
📌 UK Sanctions Russians Over ‘Forcible Deportation’ Of Ukrainian Kids AFP
📌 UK hits Iran with new sanctions for supplying missiles to Russia AP
📌 Huawei’s advanced chips are taking a hit from U.S. sanctions Quartz
📌 Russia Sanctions – No Time to Wobble CEPA
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💸 Wall Street’s Top Cop Plans to Exit Before Trump Takes Power Bloomberg
💸 Brazil police arrest ex-Bolsonaro aide, 4 others, in plot to kill Lula in coup Reuters
💸 Footage of $50M seizure falsely linked to Indonesia gambling case AFP Fact Check
💸 Bombardier UK Probe Dropped as SFO Defers to US, Canada Bloomberg
💸 Vietnamese Member Of Multinational Media Company Charged With Scheme To Launder $67M DOJ
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🚚 Tren de Aragua has already set up shop in these 16 states NYP
🚚 Trump Confirms He Plans to Use Military for Mass Deportations Bloomberg
🚚 Treasury Targets Fentanyl Traffickers U.S. Treasury
🚚 ICE Can Already Sidestep Sanctuary City Laws Through Data-Sharing Fusion Centers Wired
🚚 Pakistani National Pleads Guilty To Drug-Trafficking Charges DOJ
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📘 Ecuador’s Risky War on Narcos New Yorker
📘 New $72K Migrant Smuggling Routes to the U.S. Start With Charter Flights Reuters
📘 Money Laundering National Risk Assessment Singapore MAS
📘 A better anti-corruption machine Brookings
📘 Ransomware Victim Insights RUSI
📘 Standards and interoperability: The future of the global financial system Atlantic Council
📘 U.S. Foreign Extortion Prevention Act: New Tool in the Fight Against Global Corruption TI
📘 How We Uncovered the Modus Operandi of Criminals Smuggling Illegal Gold out of Venezuela Pulitzer Center
📘 Illicit Drugs Are Undermining Pacific Security USIP
📌 China’s Oppression of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang
📌 How Are U.S. Financial Sanctions Developed?
📌 Top 10 Ways Iran Supports and Empowers Hamas
📌 Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program: A Dangerous Evolution
📌 Top 10 Ways Money Launderers Are Caught Red-Handed
📌 What are the Top 10 Books on Corruption, Kleptocracy, and Illicit Financing?
📌 What Are 10 Ways China Is Stealing Intellectual Property?
📌 These are Mexico’s Most Powerful Drug Cartels
📌 The Hypocrisy of Labeling Terrorists as ‘Militants’
📌 Sanctions and the IRGC: How Iran’s Paramilitary Group Profits from Economic Hardship
📌 What are the Arguments For and Against ESG?
Kim Zetter / Brian Krebs / Nicole Perlroth /
Josh Rogin / Ellen Nakashima / Matt Levitt /
Clarissa Ward / Gary Kasparov / Joseph Cox / Mark Dubowitz
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya / Bill Browder / Jen Easterly /
Zack Kopplin / Laura Shin / Dmitri Alperovitch / Tom Keatinge
Catherine Belton / Nazanin Boniadi / Chris Krebs /
Kevin Hall / Farnaz Fassihi / Kevin Collier / Patrick Howell O’Neill /
Michael McFaul / Jonathan Schanzer / Catalin Cimpanu /
Liza Lin / Enes Kanter FREEDOM / Bianna Golodryga
Financial Action Task Force /
Egmont Group /
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project /
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists /
Money Laundering Watch/
C4ADS /
Combating Terrorism Center /
Royal United Services Institute /
🎙️ Conversation with an Exiled Venezuelan Opposition Leader Lawfare
🎙️ Hezbollah’s Secret Missile Cities, Russia Advances In Ukraine, & Hamas Chief Fears For Life President’s Daily Brief
🎙️ Fox News, defamation, and our new information reality Click Here
🎙️ Deep Cover: George Santos Pushkin
🎙️ Conversation with Former FATF President RUSI
🎙 ️The problem with the Nigerian economy has nothing to do with crypto Click Here
🎙 ️Crypto ATMs, a Senator Convicted, AUSTRAC Report, Timeshare Fraud, etc. AML Conversations
🎙 ️Sanctions and Russia’s Nuclear Diplomacy RUSI
🎙 ️Partnering with terrorists to fight terrorists Generation Jihad
🎙 ️Allen Stanford: The Lord of the Lies Scamfluencers
🌎 Trump’s New Oligarchy Is About to Unleash Unimaginable Corruption. The elevation of Elon Musk to a key role suggests that right-wing elites are set to embark on a spree of sordid self-dealing. TNR
🚩 Iranian official met with Musk in a possible step to ease tensions with Trump AP
🌎 US says MetLife unit reached settlement over Iran sanctions violations. MetLife agreed to settle its potential civil liability for over 2,300 apparent violations of sanctions against Iran. Reuters
🌎 How a Corruption ‘Carousel’ Got Fugitives Off Interpol’s Red Notice List. Suspects sought on various charges, including drug trafficking, paid officials to exploit a mechanism intended to protect asylum seekers. NYT
🌎 T-Mobile hacked in massive Chinese breach of telecom networks. Carrier joins growing list of known victims, including AT&T and Verizon, of the major Chinese spying operation. Reuters
🌎 China’s Dream of ‘Powerful Currency’ Runs Into Trump’s Return. The yuan risks years of downward pressure during the second Trump presidency, and the threat of another trade war is already fueling bets against the currency. Bloomberg
🌎 At Columbia’s Gates, Anti-Israel Activists Recruit Classmates To ‘Get Involved’ With Designated Terror Financier Samidoun. The U.S. sanctioned Samidoun calling it a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the PFLP terrorist organization. Free Beacon
🌎 U.S. targets Syrian conglomerate with sanctions for funding IRGC-QF, Houthis. 26 companies, people and vessels linked to the Al-Qatirji Company were blacklisted. UPI
🌎 Man who stole and laundered roughly $1B in bitcoin is sentenced to 5 years in prison. Ilya Lichtenstein masterminded one of the largest-ever thefts from a virtual currency exchange. AP
🔐 Indian police arrest suspect in $230 million WazirX crypto exchange hack Record
🌎 Russian sales of Chinese cars surge after western sanctions hit. Purchases of vehicles from Asian nation’s automakers reach fresh records as Russians ‘vote with their wallets’. FT
🌎 Man sentenced to 30 months in prison for evading US sanctions on Venezuela. The case against George Semerene Quintero, 61, marks a significant enforcement action against efforts to bypass sanctions on the Venezuelan regime under Nicolás Maduro. CBS
📕 The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and Tariffs: Historical Background and Key Issues CRS
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🇷🇺 Russia Takes Aim at US Nuclear Power by Throttling Uranium Bloomberg
🇷🇺 Senators Call for Probe of Musk’s SpaceX Contracts Over Russia Hill
🇷🇺 British Army and UK police using drones made by sanctioned Kremlin supplier Telegraph
🇷🇺 EU Readies More Sanctions on Russia’s Shadow Fleet by Year’s End Bloomberg
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🇨🇳 China opens huge port in Peru to extend its reach in Latin America WaPo
🇨🇳 China’s Asymmetrical Tools for New Trade War Carry Global Peril Bloomberg
🇨🇳 Former TuSimple co-founder urges courts to block asset transfer to China TechCrunch
🇨🇳 Chinese Teapot Opts for African Crude Over Iranian, Russia Flows Bloomberg
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💸 Clashes, confusion and secrecy consume the Harris campaign’s finances NBC
💸 House Ethics chair reiterates he does not plan to release Gaetz report CNN
💸 Detroit nonprofit CFO admits to stealing $44 million in decades-long scheme AP
💸 Corruption looms over Ukraine’s massive reconstruction effort AFP
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🔐 Ohio man behind Helix cryptocurrency mixer gets 3-year sentence Record
🔐 An Interview With the Target & Home Depot Hacker Krebs
🔐 White Supremacist, Nazi Content Spread on Steam Game Service Bloomberg
🔐 Suing to recover billions, FTX’s receiver discloses the stunning scale of its grift LAT
🔑 Cryptocurrency Regulation Tracker Atlantic Council
🔑 COMTRADE: Using Trade Data to Uncover Fraud and Smuggling OCCRP
🔑 2022 Rule of Law Index World Justice Project
🔑 Global Organized Crime Index Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
🔑 Anti-Corruption Helpdesk Transparency International
🔑 Flight Intelligence for Investigators Icarus Flights, C4ADS
🔑 Global Legislative Map: Violent Extremist and Terrorist-Related Online Content Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism
🔑 Basel AML Index Map Basel Institute on Governance
🔑 Scorched Earth: Using NASA Fire Data to Monitor War Zones Bellingcat
