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DOJ and FBI announce a new task force to target Hamas over Oct. 7 attack.  The task force, made up of prosecutors and FBI officials, also will investigate civil rights violations and potential acts of terrorism by anyone providing support or financing to Hamas. AP

Director Charged For Fraud In $11M Scheme Over Unfinished Netflix Sci-Fi TV Series Hollywood Reporter

Trump will make — or break — Europe’s Russia sanctions Politico

A genocidal militia in Sudan controls a key ingredient in Coke and Pepsi Bloomberg

🔥 IE Originals: Mapping Illicit Business Networks with Varun Vira DESIGNATED

​The $7B Defense Contractor Who Became One of America’s Biggest Tax Cheats WSJ

5 charged, new raids in Huawei corruption probe at EU parliament in Belgium AFP

Smugglers Found Guilty Three Years After 53 Migrants Died in Texas NYT

Ex-Credit Suisse Client Pleads Guilty to Hiding Money From IRS Bloomberg

Iran official exposes Tehran’s global assassination program as US trial of regime hitmen continues Fox

Mexico arrests MS-13 leader on FBI’s most wanted list CNN

UBS’s auditor warns over bank’s financial reporting controls Reuters

How Bribes Helped a Crime Ring Steal Thousands of iPhones From Porches WSJ

🚩 RUSSIA & CHINA

The Hidden Cost of Trump’s Trade War on China NYT

The $300B question: What to do with Russia’s frozen central bank money? AP

Former Putin-appointed governor on trial for breaching UK sanctions BBC

Trump-Putin call poses choice of sanctions or ‘escalation’ ABC

Thai delegation heads to China to check on deported Uyghurs RFA

💸 CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

New Social Security anti-fraud rule will force more people to visit agency offices CNN

Miami leads U.S. in fraud. Romance scams cost Floridians $89 million Axios

Top DC prosecutor, who promoted false 2020 voter fraud claims, forms ‘election accountability’ unit AP

Trump picks Fed Governor Michelle Bowman to replace Michael Barr as Fed’s supervision head CNBC

Dozens of Wikipedia editors colluded on years-long anti-Israel campaign NYP

🔐 CRYPTO & CYBER

The SEC’s retrenchment Axios

Crypto exchange OKX shuts down tool used by North Korean hackers to launder stolen funds Record

85M Newly Stolen Passwords Being Used In Ongoing Attacks Forbes

Who is sending those scammy text messages about unpaid tolls? Cyberscoop

Microsoft identifies new RAT targeting cryptocurrency wallets and more Record

🚚 TRAFFICKING 

Egg smuggling from Mexico surges as prices in parts of US hit $10 per dozen NYP 

Caribbean leaders seek clarity as US mulls sweeping travel bans Reuters

Venezuela to face more sanctions if it won’t take its citizens back Politico

National Guard members killed in cartel ambush Border Report

Sixteen Defendants Charged in Escondido Takedown of Drug Trafficking Network DOJ

 


ILLICIT EDGE PODCASTS

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🎙 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

First 250+ migrant gang members from US arrive in El Salvador — where they’ll be held in a notorious mega-prison.  The flights included 238 members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, as well as least 21 members of MS-13, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, revealed Sunday morning. NYP

Trump’s New World Order Tests the Dollar WSJ

Huawei bribery scandal reignites anti-corruption fight in EU Politico

Ghillie suits and Maseratis: How Chilean gangs steal from America’s ultra-rich Telegraph

Inside the Chinese Region That Has Become a No-Go for Western Companies WSJ

US imposes sanctions on Thai officials after Uyghur men are deported to China AP

China, Russia and Iran call for end to US sanctions on Iran and the restart of nuclear talks AP

Trump toughens sanctions on Russian oil, gas and banking sectors CBS

Russian LockBit developer extradited from Israel, appears in New Jersey court Record

US weighing in on Lebanon’s next central bank chief Reuters

Trump Treasury Expands Financial Surveillance CATO

Vance expects a ‘high-level’ TikTok deal by the April 5 deadline NBC

AML Bitcoin creator convicted of wire fraud, money laundering Cointelegraph 

‘As long he is breathing, I’m not safe’: romance fraud victim flees UK after jailed conman is freed Guardian

U.S. sanctions Sweden-based gang with links to Iran.  Describing Foxtrot as one of Sweden’s “most notorious criminal gangs,” the U.S. Treasury and State Departments also placed sanctions on its leader Rawa Majid, with both agencies saying he had “specifically cooperated with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security.” AFP

First-of-its-kind lawsuit alleges human trafficking by San Diego’s Bumble Bee Seafoods SDUT

North Korean government hackers snuck spyware on Android app store TC

Amid Turmoil, ActBlue Faces Call for Terror-Financing Investigation Free Press 

Lindsey Graham to push ‘bone-breaking sanctions and tariffs’ to pressure Russia into peace with Ukraine Fox

Iran’s Khamenei Says Talks With Trump Will Lead to More Sanctions Bloomberg

Iran Compiling U.S. Terror List Newsweek

Why TikTok Should Be OnChain CoinDesk

🔐 Identity is Everything Coercive Capital

India arrests man accused of running $96B crypto exchange at request of US CNN

 

🚩 RUSSIA & CHINA

‘Made in Russia’ goods are the new craze in China CNN

Russia’s ghost ships haunt Libya ICIJ

EU Delists Russian Oligarchs After Sanctions Pressure From Hungary And Slovakia RFE

Leak Reveals Russia Is Quietly Priming Bitcoin And Crypto For A Price Bombshell Forbes 

G7 ministers unite to back Ukraine and warn Russia of sanctions Reuters

Banned Russian Channel RT Secretly Pays Video Bloggers Who Promote Kremlin Narratives OCCRP

Russian and European Officials See US Interest in Gazprom Ties Bloomberg

💸 CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

DOJ is investigating whether Columbia University hid students sought by the U.S. AP

US Export Bank Quietly Approves $5B Loan to French Company With Ties to Foreign Adversaries, Sparking Conservative Criticism Free Beacon 

Brooklyn man’s Seinfeld joke turns out to be multi-million dollar scam USAT 

US Supreme Court allows FINRA proceedings against Alpine Securities Reuters

India to deliver US summons to Adani for alleged bribery Reuters

100,000 people rally in massive anti-corruption protest against Serbian government AP

The shocking story of the Olympic star who became a Hezbollah-linked crime boss Ynet

Americans lost billions more to fraud last year Axios

🔐 CRYPTO & CYBER

California Man Sentenced for Using Bitcoin To Launder Dark Web MDMA Profits Decrypt

TON Surges 20% as Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Recovers Passport From French Authorities CoinDesk

Singapore prosecutors say US server fraud case involves $390M of transactions Reuters

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on the New Crypto Task Force CoinDesk

A New Era of Attacks on Encryption Is Starting to Heat Up Wired

 

🚚 TRAFFICKING

Iraq seizes more than one ton of captagon pills shipped from Syria Reuters

Long Island DA reveals 3 twisted ‘rules’ that made MS-13 a plague in the suburbs — ‘biggest, baddest, most violent gang’ NYP

Europol Bust Uncovers Ecuador-EU Drug Network OCCRP

From Mexico cartel safe house to US streets BBC 

A Chance for Justice in a Notorious Drug War NYT

Authorities tout massive 50-pound fentanyl seizure in L.A.: ‘Our biggest bust yet’ LAT

Rio de Janeiro police demolish ‘drug trafficking resort’ in favela Reuters

How Donald Trump Can Win A War Against the Drug Cartels 1945

In This English Village, Asylum Seekers May Soon Outnumber the Locals Free Press

 


COMPLIANCE TOOLBOX

How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions MIT

Taskforce on Public-Private Partnership in Fighting Financial Crime in Ukraine RUSI

The Digital Asset Ecosystem in El Salvador: Challenges and Risks to Countercheck Financial Global Financial Integrity

Money Laundering from Environmental Crime: Typologies and Trends in Countries in the Amazon Region Fact Coalition

INTERPOL Financial Fraud assessment: A global threat boosted by technology Interpol

Sanctions by the Numbers: Comparing the Trump and Biden Administrations’ Sanctions and Export Controls on China CNAS

The threats posed by the global shadow fleet—and how to stop it Atlantic Council

Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)

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Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)

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State Department

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Federal Reserve

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Department of Justice

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Commerce Department

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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