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Hello!  It’s March 28, and we’re tracking today's top stories: Foreign firms' losses from exiting Russia top $107B, Trafigura to pay $126M in Brazil bribery case, Mississippi hits BlackRock with cease and desist over ESG policies, US and UK probe $20B of crypto transfers to Russian exchange Garantex via Tether, and much more...  

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🎯 Foreign firms' losses from exiting Russia top $107B. Moscow demands discounts of 50% on foreign asset sales and has tightened exit requirements, often accepting nominal fees as little as one ruble. Reuters

🇷🇺 Putin’s Billionaires Sidestep Sanctions by Financing Lawsuits Bloomberg

Top Stories

🌎 Trafigura to Pay $126M and Plead Guilty to Brazil Bribes. Trafigura’s is the latest in a string of cases in which the world’s biggest commodity trading houses have paid large fines to resolve charges of bribing government officials. Bloomberg

💸 Singapore charges two ex-employees of Sembcorp Marine in Brazil graft case Reuters

🌎 Mississippi hits BlackRock with cease and desist, threatens massive fine over ESG policies. The state has issued a cease-and-desist order alleging the firm has committed fraud by misleading investors through its climate policies. Fox

🌎 US and UK Probe $20 Billion of Crypto Transfers to Russian Exchange. The payments went through Moscow-based crypto exchange Garantex using the dollar-pegged cryptocurrency Tether. Bloomberg

🌎 China's WuXi AppTec shared US client's data with Beijing. U.S. intelligence officials told senators working on a biotech security bill that the Chinese pharmaceutical firm transferred U.S. IP to Beijing without consent. Reuters

🌎 Penthouse to prison: Sam Bankman-Fried’s journey from crypto king to convicted conman. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Kaplan will deliver his decision on how many years SBF will spend in prison. CNBC

🔐 Following the money from the $4.3B British Bitcoin seizure Elliptic

🔐 Canadian authorities seize assets tied to QuadrigaCX CEO Cointelegraph

🌎 MA Teachers Union Hosts Webinar By Professor Who Praised Hamas. 'They are looking to train teachers with dangerous material that will indoctrinate our students to be anti-Semitic," teacher warns. Daily Wire

🌎 New US sanctions target North Korean military finances. The targeted entities are Alis LLC, based in Vladivostok, Russia, and UAE-based Pioneer Bencont Star Real Estate. Reuters

🌎 U.S. offers $10M reward for info on UnitedHealthcare hackers. The State Department announced it would provide a $10M reward for information about the Blackcat ransomware group. Hill

IN THE NEWS

China

🇨🇳 Profits Fall For China's Top Chipmaker As Sanctions Bite AFP

🇨🇳 PNG Investigating How Meth Flight Suspect Got Citizenship OCCRP

🇨🇳 US Is Asking Allies to Tighten Servicing of Chip Gear in China Bloomberg

🇨🇳 Yellen Warns China's Industry Ramp-Up Is Distorting World Economy Bloomberg

Much more news at Illicit Edge!

Russia

🇷🇺 Dubai Glitz Dims for Russians On Costs, US Sanction Pressures Bloomberg  

🇷🇺 Russian company starts Citroen production at former Stellantis factory Reuters

🇷🇺 Armenia’s exports to Russia raise concerns over sanctions circumvention Euractiv

🇷🇺 Russia increases gasoline imports from Belarus as domestic supplies shrink Reuters

🇷🇺 Czechs sanction Medvedchuk, website over pro-Russian EU political influence Reuters

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Judge says Hunter Biden lawyers presented no evidence tax charges are political WaPo

💸 How a bank’s collapse brought grief to hundreds of account holders in Miami and Latin America Miami Herald

💸 How Squatters Rights Compare in Different States Newsweek

💸 Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months TechCrunch

💸 Gunman Who Fatally Shot NYPD Officer Had 21 Prior Arrests National Review

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Dutch Prosecutors Seek 64-Month Jail Sentence for Tornado Cash Dev Alexey Pertsev CoinDesk

🔐 Visa Adds New AI Tools to Help Fight Digital Fraud on Payment Bloomberg

🔐 A high-level election security group is back Record

🔐 The Munchables Hack Is Way Worse Than It Seems CoinDesk

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Trafficking

🚚 The Navy is using robot ships to deter human smuggling out of Haiti Defense One

🚚 Taking on the Illicit Synthetic Drug Trade VOA

🚚 Southeast Asia human trafficking now a global crisis, Interpol says Reuters

🚚 Calif. cops forced to return $800,000 in pot after controversial raid SFGate

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