Greetings!  It’s March 7, and we’re tracking today's top stories: BlockFi settles with FTX, slick Russia sanctions scheme, suspicious communications devices on Chinese cargo cranes, Google engineer steals AI secrets for China, and much more...

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Featured Story

🎯 BlockFi Settles With FTX, Alameda Estates for $875M. The three companies had a long and complicated relationship, but this settlement brings BlockFi closer to full recovery for customers. CoinDesk 

Top Stories

🌎 US Indictment Details Russian Oligarch’s Sanctions-Busting Scheme. Vadim Wolfson helped Andrei Kostin, an oligarch and head of Russia’s VTB Bank, to own and manage an elite mansion in Colorado. VOA

🌎 Espionage Probe Finds Communications Device on Chinese Cargo Cranes. New discovery fuels worries that the China-built equipment could be a national security threat at America’s ports. WSJ

🌎 Ex-Google Engineer Arrested for Stealing AI Technology Secrets for China. Linwei Ding pilfered from Google over 500 confidential files containing AI trade secrets to pass to Chinese companies. Hacker News

🚩 AMD, like Nvidia, tried to make a weaker chip for the Chinese market – but DC says it’s still too powerful Fortune

🌎 U.S. Departments of Commerce, Treasury, Justice Tri-Seal Compliance Note: Obligations of foreign-based persons to comply with U.S. sanctions and export control laws USG

🌎 Top US official warns Austria over banking with Russia. The US is warning Raiffeisen Bank of the dangers of doing business in Russia, piling pressure on the biggest Western bank there. Reuters

🌎 Crowdfunding, Auctions and Raffles: How Ukrainians Are Aiding the Army. The crowdfunding campaigns have raised enough money to buy not just small items like gloves but heavy battlefield equipment as well. NYT

🌎 The Terrifying A.I. Scam That Uses Your Loved One’s Voice. A Brooklyn couple got a call from relatives who were being held ransom. Their voices – like many others these days – had been cloned. New Yorker

🚩 FBI Internet Crime Report 2023 FBI

🌎 Founder of LGBTQ+ nonprofit Casa Ruby arrested on money laundering charges. Ruby Corado transferred $150K in emergency relief funds to private bank accounts in El Salvador and hid it from the IRS. NBC

🌎 Top U.S. South Sudan activist arrested for gun running. A Harvard fellow and high-profile advocate for South Sudan was arrested in Arizona for trying to smuggle weapons worth millions of dollars. Semafor

🌎 Arizona investigators issue grand jury subpoenas as state’s 2020 Trump election probe accelerates. It’s a sign the state’s attorney general is nearing a decision about whether to bring criminal charges. Politico

🚩 Steve Bannon’s Refusal to Pay His Bills Is Costing Him Big Daily Beast

IN THE NEWS

Sanctions

💥 Finnish court rules French businessman guilty of breaching Russia sanctions Reuters

💥 EU Proposes New Russia Sanctions Over Death of Alexey Navalny Bloomberg

💥 Tanker Liteyny Prospect, hit by sanctions, docks in China to offload Russian oil Reuters

💥 Greek operators regain share in Russian crude exports despite tighter sanctions S&P

💥 India Cautious on Contracted Russian Oil as US Sanctions Bite Bloomberg

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China

🇨🇳 Big American Tech Profits From Chinese Ad Spending Spree NYT

🇨🇳 Shein UK breaches company law by failing to disclose human owner Guardian

🇨🇳 US Senate bill targeting China's BGI, WuXi AppTec moves forward Reuters

🇨🇳 US urges allies to tighten China's access to chip technology Reuters

Much more news at Illicit Edge!

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 ‘Dolton dictator’ Tiffany Henyard, accused misusing funds for lavish trips, vetoes probe into her spending. Chicago Tribune

💸 Online gambling firm Bet365 probed in Australia BBC

💸 Su Wenqiang set to be first accused in $3B money laundering case to plead guilty Straits Times

💸 French banking watchdog flags possible fraud at Leonteq to prosecutors Reuters

💸 Liberian president sets up task force to trace stolen state assets Reuters

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Russia

🇷🇺 Ukrainian POWs are being bought and sold on a Russian black market BI

🇷🇺 Democrats probe Musk’s SpaceX, examining Russia’s alleged Starlink use WaPo

🇷🇺 What's on Pyongyang's Weapons Shopping List in Moscow? VOA

🇷🇺 Russia Hit By Tsunami of Bankruptcies Newsweek

🇷🇺 Russian oligarch’s yacht is costing U.S. taxpayers close to $1M a month CNBC

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 How a big crypto villain helped fuel bitcoin's surge Axios

🔐 First BofA, Now Fidelity: Same Vendor Behind Third-Party Breaches Dark Reading

🔐 South Korea vows to ‘take action’ if Worldcoin violations are confirmed Protos

🔐 Bitcoin Trade That Gave Bankman-Fried His Millions Returns in South Korea CoinDesk

Much more news at Illicit Edge!

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