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🌎 Foreign Aid Package Comes With New Sanctions Risks for Companies.  Prosecutors now have 10 years to investigate sanctions violations, and banks will be required to flag suspicious transactions that could be tied to fentanyl trafficking. WSJ

🌎 Notes from Princeton Activists Show Coordination Between Campus Radicals and Outside Groups Aimed at Outfoxing University Administrators.  Columbia University protesters are training and coordinating with their peers around the country. Free Beacon

🌎 Oil: ‘Mother of corruption’ in Venezuela.  Corruption in Venezuela’s oil industry is a many-headed monster that has devoured billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money in the past 20 years. AFP 

🌎 Chinese Nationals Arrested in U.S for Scheme to Illegally Export Semiconductor Manufacturing Machine.  The duo attempted to bypass export restrictions by using intermediaries to disguise the true end user, a blacklisted Chinese company. DOJ 

🚩 US wants allies to cut chip-related China exports amid Huawei alarm FT 

🌎 UK, US and Canada impose more sanctions on Iran after Israel attack.  In a coordinated announcement, the countries targeted Iran’s drone and missile industries by hitting key individuals and companies. Politico

🌎 Construction boss accused of bribing Russian minister as scandal widens.  Alexander Fomin suspected of paying bribes to Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov. NBC

🌎 Turncoat warlord at center of Myanmar drama.  Army headed by Saw Chit Thu said to earn $190M a year from Myawaddy gambling and crime hub Reuters

🌎 FBI warns Americans against using unregistered crypto money transmitting services.  Authorities included an official tool from FinCEN to let users look up if a company is registered as an MSB. Block

🌎 Health insurance giant Kaiser will notify millions of a data breach after sharing patients’ data with advertisers.  Kaiser is the latest healthcare organization to confirm it shared patients’ personal information with third-party advertisers by way of online tracking code. TechCrunch

🌎 A Chinese Firm Is America’s Favorite Drone Maker. Except in Washington.  U.S. authorities consider DJI a security threat while it dominates the commercial and consumer drone markets. NYT

🌎 How North Korea’s Man in the West Ran Afoul of US Authorities.  Alejandro Cao de Benós has been accused of violating sanctions in connection with a 2019 cryptocurrency conference. Bloomberg

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RUSSIA

🇷🇺 Russia embraces K-pop and anime as sanctions limit Western entertainment Semafor

🇷🇺 Russia Asset Seizure Law Spurs Yellen Praise, Dollar Angst Bloomberg

🇷🇺 Pro-Kremlin oligarch’s impounded yacht is being auctioned off to Ukraine BI

🇷🇺 Russia sanctions-busting? Big questions remain over UK car exports Sky

🇷🇺 EU Weighs Sanctions on Russian LNG Projects, Transshipments Bloomberg

🇷🇺 US and Russia are vying to build Ghana’s nuclear energy plant Semafor

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CHINA

🇨🇳 Huawei’s New Phone Sports Latest Version of Made-in-China Chip Bloomberg

🇨🇳 Huawei-led Chinese firms aim to make advanced memory chips by 2026 Reuters

🇨🇳 China harbors ship transporting North Korean munitions to Russia Telegraph

🇨🇳 States Take On China in the Name of National Security WSJ

🇨🇳 ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail Reuters

🇨🇳 Lidar: Another emerging technology brought to you by China Defense News

🇨🇳 China preps for clampdown on financial crimes with new AML law SCMP

🇨🇳 Agency bars Chinese telecom carriers from offering US broadband services Reuters

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CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

💸 ICC’s vicious smear tactics against America’s allies NYP

💸 Could NFL see next Saudi sportswashing controversy? Awful Announcing

💸 Vietnam soft drinks boss jailed for 8 years RFA

💸 Malaysia ex-PM Mahathir under investigation as probe widens SCMP

💸 South Africa Sends Top Officials to UAE Over Gupta Extraditions Bloomberg

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CRYPTO & CYBER

🔐 Samourai Wallet Charges Raise Existential Questions for Privacy Tech CoinDesk

🔐 UK Law Enforcement Agencies Can Now Seize Crypto More Easily CoinDesk

🔐 Millions of IPs remain infected by USB worm years after its creators left it for dead Ars

🔐 North Korean Lazarus hacker group using LinkedIn to target and steal assets Cointelegraph

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TRAFFICKING

🚚 What George Kelly’s Mistrial Says About How We See the Border New Yorker

🚚 DR Congo demands answers from Apple over ‘blood mineral’ supply chain concerns Semafor

🚚 Georgians arrested over cross-Europe thefts of rare library books Guardian

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RESEARCH AND MULTIMEDIA

📘 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

📘 France Compliance Report: Preventing corruption and promoting integrity in central governments EU

📘 China Rubicon Report – The Institutional Investors & Funds financing the rise of technology innovation in China and other adversarial autocracies. Future Union

📘 Paper Wall: Chinese Websites Posing as Local News Outlets Target Global Audiences with Pro-Beijing Content Citizen Lab

📘 Bankrolling Terror: Iran’s Role in Fundraising and Recruiting for Hamas Post-10/7 Cloudburst

📘 Safer Scrolling: How algorithms popularize and gamify online hate and misogyny for young people University of Kent

ILLICIT EDGE INSIGHTS

📌 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?

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 /

PODCASTS

🎙 Treasury in the Time of Russia Sanctions: Insights with Liz Rosenberg RUSI 

🎙 Sanctions Past, Present, and Future with OFAC Director Brad Smith Lawfare

🎙 FBI Director Wray talks takedown operations, nation-state hackers, and growing threats in cyberspace Record

🎙 Do sanctions still work as a weapon of war? Economist

🎙️Pirate of Prague Apple

🎙️Bug bounties with Chinese characteristics Click Here

🎙️Davos, WWIII, Essential Books GoodFellows

IN OTHER NEWS

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

🔑 Basel AML Index Map Basel Institute on Governance

🔑 Scorched Earth: Using NASA Fire Data to Monitor War Zones Bellingcat