Illicit Edge

We’re excited to feature Erin West, a leading expert on the global Pig Butchering crisis, in the latest episode of Designated with Yaya Jata Fanusie. Watch or Listen to uncover the truth behind this devastating scheme, the criminals behind it, the crypto connection, and the worldwide victims caught in its wake.

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🌎 Global money laundering body to consider blacklisting Russia. Lowering Russia’s ranking requires consensus from FATF’s multilateral membership. Politico

🇷🇺 Russia Is Willing to Let Ruble Weaken to Ease Sanctions Pain Bloomberg

🌎 TD Bank execs presided over rampant money laundering, but no one is going to jail, for now. While more charges could be forthcoming, the outcome of the TD scandal stands in stark contrast to the Binance case a year ago. Fortune

🌎 Singapore Seeks to Jail OK Lim for 20 Years for Cheating HSBC. Hin Leong’s case has tarnished Singapore’s hard-earned reputation as a leading hub for energy trading and financing. Bloomberg

🌎 U.S. AML Law Are Outdated. Regulators Are Struggling With How to Modernize Them. TD Bank’s $3B settlement over AML failures has underscored the difficulty banks have in preventing financial crimes. WSJ

🐖 What is Pig Butchering? Illicit Edge

🌎 How Hamas Infiltrated Europe. The terrorist group has built an extensive network of activists who fund its activities and sow anti-Israel hatred across the continent. Free Press

🚩 Pro-Hamas group that helped organize college protests is a sham charity NBC

🌎 Treasury Targets Hizballah and Syrian Captagon Trafficking. Hizballah’s finance team is responsible for the establishment and operation of commercial projects throughout Lebanon. U.S. Treasury

🚩 Britain issues sanctions targeting Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank UPI

🌎 The Time Is Right for Ally-Shoring, and It’s About More Than Being Friends. As the global economy realigns, the next U.S. president should formalize a liberal economic bloc of allied countries to stand up against authoritarian rivals. CFR

🌎 New Sanctions Monitoring Team To Track North Korea’s Violations. Eleven countries, including South Korea, the United States and Japan, will launch a new joint mechanism to monitor violations. AFP

🌎 In the heartland of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, the old ways have changed. Cellphone chats have become death sentences in the continuing, bloody factional war inside Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel. AP

📌 FinCEN Renews Real Estate Geographic Targeting Orders FinCEN

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RUSSIA

🇷🇺 Spain arrests 4 for shipping precursors for chemical weapons to Russia CBS

🇷🇺 EU Gas Firms Warned Over Seeking ‘Dangerous’ Russia Transit Deal Bloomberg

🇷🇺 How Saudi Oil Policies Could Cripple Russia’s War Effort Oil Price

🇷🇺 Russian Non-Profit Interferes in Moldova’s EU Referendum OCCRP

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CHINA

🇨🇳 US adds three Chinese companies to ‘Unverified List’ Reuters

🇨🇳 How the U.S. Is Trying to Challenge China’s Cobalt Chokehold WSJ

🇨🇳 Chinese cyber association calls for review of Intel products sold in China Reuters

🇨🇳 UK Fears Chinese Hackers Compromised Critical Infrastructure Bloomberg

🇨🇳 China-Led Regional Group Calls for Countering Sanctions Reuters

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CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

💸 Lufthansa fined a record $4M for denying boarding to 128 Jews CNN

💸 Cambodia’s Billion Dollar Scam The Dial

💸 Fake vintage wine gang busted in France and Italy BBC

💸 Mexico’s former public security chief set to be sentenced in US drug case AP

💸 Man sentenced to 12 years for stealing $40M in Feeding Our Future fraud CBS

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CRYPTO & CYBER

🔐 Crime and crypto: Concrete steps to address money laundering a16zcrypto

🔐 US Seeks 5-Year Sentence for Ilya Lichtenstein, Orchestrator of $6B Bitfinex Hack Crypto News

🔐 Fake AI History Photos Cloud The Past AFP

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RESEARCH AND MULTIMEDIA

📘 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

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

🎙️ 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

IN OTHER NEWS

🌎 Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers grows despite western sanctions. Poorly maintained and uninsured vessels transport up to 70% of country’s seaborne oil. Guardian

🌎 EU includes Iran Air in sanctions over missile transfer to Russia Reuters

🎙️ Meet Erin West: New Episode of Designated with Yaya Jata Fanusie Features Counter-Pig Butchering Paragon to Discuss the Scam’s Deep Roots, Terrible Consequences Illicit Edge

🌎 Hezbollah running out of money amid Israeli bombardment. The group’s cash sources include Lebanon’s insolvent but licensed commercial banks and arrivals of cash-bearing planes. VOA

💥 UN peacekeeping troops failing Israel as Hezbollah creates terror tunnels right under their noses NYP

🌎 Inside America’s Fastest-Growing Criminal Enterprise. House of Hope residents often come branded or tattooed by the cartels and gangs who trafficked them. Free Press

🌎 Kamala Harris accused of plagiarizing passages in co-authored 2009 book. The vice president appears to have airlifted sections of her book, Smart on Crime. CNN

🌎 Crypto Company Tether Talking to Commodity Traders About Lending Them Its Billions. Two top Russian metals producers have turned to the stablecoin to settle cross border transactions. Bloomberg

🌎 He Was a Monk, Then a Billionaire and Now an Alleged Tax Cheat. Michigan philanthropist Manoj Bhargava made a fortune on his path to enlightenment. WSJ

🌎 Inside the Carjacking Crisis. In October of last year, three masked men carjacked Henry Cuellar, a congressman from Texas. Atlantic

🌎 Scale of Chinese Spying Overwhelms Western Governments. Fears of escalation as China’s intelligence-gathering operation looks to consolidate Xi Jinping’s grip on power. WSJ

🚩 U.S. Weighs Capping Exports of AI Chips From Nvidia and AMD to Some Countries Bloomberg

🌎 NY Congressional Candidate, Running on a Plan To Combat Campus Anti-Semitism, Took Max Donation From Nonprofit Leader Bankrolling Pro-Hamas Protests Free Beacon

📕 Propaganda, Procurement and Lethal Operations: Iran’s Activities Inside America GW Program on Extremism

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