Illicit Edge

TOP STORIES —

🌎 Treasury Targets Oil and LPG Smuggling Network That Generates Millions in Revenue for Hizballah. The network has facilitated dozens of LPG shipments to Syria, working with regime official Yasser Ibrahim. U.S. Treasury

🌎 Russia Loses EU Case Aimed at Unblocking Sanctioned $77 Billion. The depository currently has around $77B immobilized at Euroclear, the Belgium-based clearing house Bloomberg

🌎 U.S. sanctions man who leads fuel theft ring for hyper-violent Mexican cartel. Cazarin Molina was among nine Mexicans and 26 entities sanctioned Tuesdas by OFAC for role in fueling the cartel’s illicit activities. CBS

🚢 Two tons of seized cocaine worth $54M offloaded at Port Everglades NBC

🌎 Former Swedbank CEO Jailed For ‘Swindling’. A Swedish court sentenced the former CEO of Swedbank to 15 months for deceiving investors about the bank’s links to a AML scandal. AFP

🌎 The World’s Biggest Construction Project Is a Magnet for Executives Behaving Badly. Saudi Arabia’s Neom project contends with corruption, worker deaths, racism and misogyny. WSJ

🌎 Sanctions Are Often Ineffective, but This Kind Is Worth Keeping. While the sanctions might not change behavior, they send a strong signal and impose a stigma that can serve warnings to others. NYT

🌎 Top aide to embattled NYPD commissioner Edward Caban linked to CCP. Lin Gui’an was handpicked by Mayor Adams for his high-ranking job as assistant director of the Police Commissioner Liaison Unit. NYP

🌎 Deere settles U.S. SEC bribery probe into massage parlor, other gifts in Thailand. The SEC said payments were made though the unit’s code of conduct prohibited giving “absolutely anything” to improperly influence government officials. Reuters

🌎 Indonesian crypto exchange Indodax goes offline after suspected $22M hack. The breach compromised hot wallets, resulting in the loss of Bitcoin, Ether, TRX, MATIC and other crypto. Cointelegraph

🔐 Atomic Wallet wins dismissal of class suit over $100M hack Cointelegraph

🌎 Brazilian police raid targets accused of laundering millions in gold mined in the Amazon. Authorities conducted 33 search warrants and 13 preventive arrest warrants across the states of Para, Amazonas, Roraima and Mato Grosso. AP

🌎 U.S. imposes new sanctions on Iran’s main airline over Tehran supplying missiles to Russia. Beyond the additional sanctions on Iran Air, the U.S. also imposed sanctions on Russian and Iranian officials and companies involved in the weapons transfers. Politico

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RUSSIA & CHINA

📌 Mess Around and Find Out: The Need to Decouple from Rosatom RUSI

📌 U.S. accuses China of giving ‘very substantial’ help to Russia’s war machine Politico

📌 How Corruption Fuels Inequality in China Foreign Affairs

📌 UK imposes sanctions on 10 ships in crackdown on Russia’s shadow oil fleet Guardian

📌 Sanctions on Russia spark suicides in India’s ‘Diamond City’ DW

📌 Chinese ‘Crimson Palace’ espionage campaign keeps hacking Southeast Asian governments Record

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CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

💸 Maduro Blows Through Venezuela’s Dollar Stockpile in New Threat to Regime Bloomberg

💸 Glencore Billionaire Alex Beard Appears at UK Court Accused of Corruption Bloomberg

💸 Deere settles SEC bribery probe into massage parlor, other gifts in Thailand Reuters

💸 Taxpayers lost more than $100B to COVID unemployment insurance fraud Fox

💸 Malaysia Court Rejects Ex-PM’s Bid to Review Graft Charges Bloomberg

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CRYPTO & CYBER

🔐 Caroline Ellison Is Finally Getting Sentenced Over FTX’s Collapse NY Magazine

🔐 UK Regulator Charges First Individual With Running a Network of Illegal Crypto ATMs CoinDesk

🔐 Singapore Police Arrest Six Hackers Linked to Global Cybercrime Syndicate Hacker News

🔐 Online Returns Fraud Finds a Home on Telegram, Costing Retailers Billions WSJ

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TRAFFICKING

🚚 How to Talk to Colombia’s Largest Criminal Group NYT

🚚 Mexican cartel assassins operating in U.S. Wash Times

🚚 Sinaloa violence sparks fear of intra-cartel war in Mexico Reuters

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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

🌎 U.S. accuses Iran of sending Russia ballistic missiles to use in Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and British Foreign Secretary Lammy said sanctions would be announced Tuesday. AP

🌎 He’s Known as ‘Ivan the Troll.’ His 3D-Printed Guns Have Gone Viral. From his Illinois home, he’s linked the firearm he helped design to terrorists and drug dealers in 15 countries. NYT

🌎 U.S. bill to restrict business with China’s WuXi AppTec, BGI passes House. Supporters argue the measure is necessary to protect Americans’ personal health and genetic information and U.S. pharmaceutical supply chains. Reuters

📌 U.S. House votes to bar new DJI drones as ‘China week’ gets underway Reuters

🌎 The Shadow Dollar That’s Fueling the Financial Underworld. Cryptocurrency Tether enables a parallel economy that operates beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. WSJ

📌 Tron, Tether and TRM Labs Start Financial Crime Fighting Force CoinDesk

🌎 Sanctioned Russian Gas Plant Sends Cargo to Asia for First Time. The vessel was sanctioned last month due to its connection to a suspected dark fleet. Bloomberg

🌎 China poised to embed ‘Communist Party spies’ inside U.S. firms. Corporate spies could seek to infiltrate confidential meetings or facilitate IP theft by telling an employee to put a flash drive into a particular computer. NYP

🌎 Inside the global illegal organ trade. Several countries, including Pakistan, Egypt, India, Turkey, and China identified as centers of organ trafficking in transnational operations. Guardian

🌎 Millions of Dollars, Classified Information, and Biometric Data: Inside What the Biden-Harris Admin Left Behind in Afghanistan. House Foreign Affairs report, three years in the making, details scope of security failures. Free Beacon

🌎 ‘Terrorgram’ leaders charged by DOJ for soliciting assassinations. The target list included U.S. federal, state and local officials, leaders of private companies, and NGOs. Axios

🌎 Americans lost $5.6B last year in cryptocurrency fraud scams. Scammers make contact through dating apps to build trust over several months before suggesting crypto investing. AP

📌 SEC crypto enforcement hits $4.7B this year, rising 3,000%. Cointelegraph

🌎 Police in Guinea-Bissau seize nearly 3 tons of cocaine on plane from Venezuela. The agents confiscated 78 bales of drugs smuggled in on a Gulfstream IV. AP

🌎 Wiretaps suggest Tate brothers used offshore account to conceal webcam profits as fresh allegations emerge involving minors. New criminal case shines fresh spotlight on the brothers’ tactical use of multiple banks. ICIJ

🚩 FinCEN Issues In-Depth Analysis of Check Fraud Related to Mail Theft FinCEN

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RUSSIA

🇷🇺 U.S. arrests laser tech salesman for illegal exports to Russia Reuters

🇷🇺 It was naive to expect Western sanctions would make Russians rebel against Putin Euro News

🇷🇺 Mol Reaches Russia Crude Supply Deal After Ukraine’s Lukoil Halt Bloomberg

🇷🇺 Wix Website Builder Blocks Russian Users as U.S. Sanctions Bite Moscow Times

🇷🇺 Oil Price Rout Drives Russian Revenues to Seven-Month Low Bloomberg

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CHINA

🇨🇳 Illicit Chinese Vapes Are Flooding the U.S. Market, Targeting Children Free Beacon

🇨🇳 Ex-Samsung Execs Arrested for Allegedly Stealing Tech for China Bloomberg

🇨🇳 U.S. thinktank leader arrested on charges of acting as unregistered agent of China Guardian

🇨🇳 China Harnesses a Technology That Vexed the West, Unlocking a Treasure Chest WSJ

🇨🇳 Vanished Banker Loses $750M in China’s Unending Crackdown Bloomberg

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