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Bybit Hack, Crypto’s Biggest Ever, Spoils Coinbase’s SEC Victory Party.  The ensuing whiplash in market prices — not to mention the moods in the crypto trading trenches – served as yet another stark reminder of the unique and ever-present risks lurking in this market. Bloomberg

SEC Replaces Crypto Enforcement Team with Smaller ‘Cyber’ Unit Bloomberg

Tens of thousands could be held in illegal scam compounds in Myanmar Guardian

🎙️ Have you ever gotten one of those text messages, out of nowhere, from a number you don’t know…? DESIGNATED

Russia could concede $300B in frozen assets as part of Ukraine war settlement Reuters

How has Russian economy dodged Western sanctions? DW

🎙Sanctions Diplomacy and Economic Security COERCIVE CAPITAL

Trump orders use of CFIUS to restrict Chinese investments in strategic areas Reuters

Notorious crooks broke into a company network in 48 minutes Ars

Green Berets and Reaper Drones: Trump’s Shadow War in Mexico TNR

Mexico Plans Constitutional Reforms After US Labels Cartels as Terrorists Newsweek

FATF Global Financial Crime Watchdog Removes Philippines From ‘Grey’ List Reuters

Gretchen Whitmer Forges Business Deal With Iran-Linked Emirati Sheikh Implicated in Hacking Schemes Free Beacon 

U.S. Sanctions Key Ally of Rwandan President Over War in Congo Bloomberg

Why Influencers Say Honey Is Stealing Their Money WSJ

📘 Illicit Finance: Treasury’s Initial Safeguards for Allowing Access to Information on Corporate Ownership GAO

🚩 RUSSIA & CHINA

Trump is playing a dangerous game with Russian energy Semafor

China’s London mega-embassy will put security at risk Telegraph

U.S. Treasury’s Bessent says Russia could win sanctions relief in war talks Reuters

Russia Is Unmoved by Trump’s Sanctions Threats and Offers on War Bloomberg

NSA emphasizes ‘strong defensive posture’ as it responds to report it hacked China Wash Times

How Norway Fed Russia’s War Machine Despite EU Sanctions RFE

Russian mafia money-laundering ring broken up in Spain BBC

Russia-linked fake videos spread German election fraud claims Politico

💸 CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME 

Georgia’s richest man said to be moving funds to avoid U.S. sanctions BBC

South African Firm to Amass Bitcoin Hoard in First for Continent Bloomberg

DOGE Finds $2B in Taxpayer Funds Earmarked for Stacey Abrams-Linked Group Free Beacon

UK regulator fines four banks £100m over traders’ sharing of information Guardian

Synapse Executive Alerted Accountants Before $100M Missing Funds Scandal WSJ

New Delhi says it is looking into ‘deeply troubling’ information about USAID activities in India Reuters

🔐 CRYPTO & CYBER

A huge trove of leaked Black Basta chat logs expose the ransomware gang’s key members and victims TC

Nigeria Sues Crypto Exchange Binance for $81.5B Following Hostage Crisis Decrypt

Stalkerware apps Cocospy and Spyic are exposing phone data of millions of people TC

SEC’s Coinbase Reversal Is Only the Latest Pro-Crypto Shift Under Trump Decrypt

SEC drops investigation into NFT marketplace OpenSea Cointelegraph

🚚 TRAFFICKING

The Case Against Designating Cartels as Terrorists WSJ

🎙Roughly 200 people per day, more than 75,000 Americans per year, lose their lives due to fentanyl use COERCIVE CAPITAL

Mexico reviewing request from cartel leader jailed in the US to be sent back AP

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyer steps down ahead of sex trafficking case NBC

Border Patrol sees uptick in egg smuggling on southern border amid skyrocketing prices Fox

Tri-Cities Based Drug Traffickers Caught with More Than 100,000 Fentanyl Pills, 50 Pounds of Methamphetamine, and a Kilo of Cocaine Sentenced to Federal Prison DOJ

 


ILLICIT EDGE PODCASTS

🎙 Designated with Yaya Jata Fanusie

🎙 Coercive Capital with Elaine Dezenski

 


VIDEOS

 


INFLUENCERS

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

 


RESOURCES

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 /

 


IN OTHER NEWS

How Dirty Money From Fentanyl Sales Is Flowing Through China.  Chinese money brokers are teaming up with Mexican cartels, greasing the wheels of the fentanyl trade. WSJ 

Infamous Sinaloa Cartel is deeply entrenched in American communities Fox

CIA using drones to surveil drug cartels, labs in Mexico UPI

Rubio Says Sanctions to Stay for Now as Trump Eyes Putin Summit Bloomberg

Inside the Bloody Battle Over the DOJ’s Crown Jewel Vanity Fair

Texas judge clears way for anti-money laundering law’s enforcement Reuters

Jair Bolsonaro charged over alleged far-right coup plot to seize power in Brazil Guardian

Milei Crypto Scandal Widens With Allegations Against His Sister Bloomberg

Chokepoint 2.0: An Investigation Promises the Truth About Crypto’s Biggest Conspiracy Wired

Trump Vowed to Clean Up Washington, Then His Team Hired a Man Who Pushed a Scam the IRS Called the “Worst of the Worst” ProPublica

Taxpayer-Funded Immigration Group Works To ‘Disrupt Trump’s Deportation Machine’ Free Beacon

Art Adviser. Friend. Thief. NYT

JPMorgan set to relive ‘huge mistake’ at Javice fraud trial Fortune

Eric Adams and Equality Under the Law Free Press

Five Iraqi banks to be banned from U.S. dollar transactions.  A rare ally of both the United States and Iran with more than $100B in reserves held in the U.S., Iraq relies heavily on Washington’s goodwill to ensure that its access to oil revenues and finances are not blocked. Reuters

Brazen Canadian ‘coyotes’ smuggling migrants across the northern border – even advertising on TikTok NYP

148 pounds of crystal meth found in stone landscaping pavers in North Carolina USAT

Will Trump’s Crypto Cops Still Police Fraud? This Flashy Startup Poses a Test. WSJ

Argentine lawyers charge President Milei with fraud over cryptocurrency promotion AP

UK tracks Russian ships carrying ammunition from Syria Reuters

New Sanctions for Putin’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ Are on the Horizon WSJ

Maduro Submits Constitution Reform to Reshape Venezuela Politics Bloomberg

Metals Crucial to Clean Energy Are Getting Caught Up in the US-China Trade War Wired

Lloyds Bank urged to publish Rachel Reeves’s expenses files over claims made before she left HBOS bank Daily Mail

Binance Moved Fast, Broke Things – and Paid the Price. After Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao went to prison, Richard Teng set out to show that the crypto exchange is now on its best behavior. Wired

Russia Targets Tycoons With Foreign Ties in Wartime Assets Grab Bloomberg

Trump fires USAID’s top watchdog after reports of billions wasted on educating al Qaeda terrorist NYP

DOJ announces lawsuit against New York, Hochul and state AG James over ‘sanctuary’ status ABC

🚩 RUSSIA & CHINA

China’s Private Berths Emerge as Hotspots for Russia, Iran Oil Bloomberg 

Turkey’s top refiner Tupras stops Russian crude purchases after sanctions Reuters

American arrested in Moscow on drug smuggling charges is freed ahead of Russia-US talks CNN

The (Un)Intended Consequences of Oil Sanctions Through the Dark Shipping of Sanctioned Oil AEI

💸 CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

Will Donald Trump Make Money Laundering Great Again? Mother Jones

How the U.S. Government Controls Ukrainian Media Free Press

Is Al Jazeera Providing Material Support to Hamas? RCW

SEC seeks India’s help in Adani fraud probe Reuters

Ex-Guatemalan congressman gets 18 years for trafficking conspiracy AP

🔐 CRYPTO & CYBER

AI Fake May Have Scammed Firms for Millions in FTX Claims CoinDesk

Collapsed Crypto Exchange FTX Begins Repaying Billions Decrypt

Indian Authorities Seize $190M Tied to BitConnect Scam Decrypt

DeepSeek ‘shared user data’ with TikTok owner ByteDance BBC

How Phished Data Turns into Apple & Google Wallets Krebs

Chase will start blocking Zelle payments over social media Verge

VC giant Insight Partners confirms January cyberattack TechCrunch

🚚 TRAFFICKING

The New War on Drugs Foreign Affairs

Homeland Security budgets $200M for new border ad campaign Semafor

Mexico announces major meth seizure in cartel heartland amid pressure from Trump CBS

Judge accused of trafficking woman to UK ‘told police she had diplomatic immunity’ Independent

Endangered spider monkeys settle in at Brookfield Zoo Chicago after rescue from wildlife trafficking CST

Thousands of DHS agents shift to deportation instead of drugs, weapons and human trafficking USAT

Mexico threatens to escalate U.S. gunmakers lawsuit with terror charges Guardian

Prominent Miami defense lawyer charged in DEA bribery scheme AP

 


COMPLIANCE TOOLBOX

🔑 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

Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)

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State Department

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Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

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Federal Reserve

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Department of Justice

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Commerce Department

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Securities and Exchange Commission

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Federal Bureau of Investigation

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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

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Federal Trade Commission

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Commodity Futures Trading Commission

HM Treasury

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Interpol

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