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Happy Friday!  It's November 17, and we're tracking top stories to take you into the weekend: DOJ probes Applied Materials over China chip shipments, sanctioned tankers sail to India anyway, Venezuela sanctions snapback in play, FBI arrests trio for $10M crypto fraud, six new industry reports, and much more...

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Featured Story

🎯 Applied Materials under US criminal probe for shipments to China's SMIC. The largest U.S. semiconductor equipment maker is being probed by the Justice Department for sending equipment to SMIC via South Korea without export licenses. Reuters 

Top Stories

🌎 Tankers newly sanctioned by US supplied Russian oil to India. Three oil tankers, newly sanctioned by Washington, regularly shipped Sokol crude from Russia's Far East to Indian Oil Corp. Reuters

🌎 US Says All Venezuela Sanctions Are on Table If Maduro Reneges. The Biden administration is prepared to revoke all licenses recently awarded to Venezuela if Nicolás Maduro doesn’t present a path toward fairer elections by the end of November. Bloomberg

🚩 Issuance of Venezuela-related General Licenses U.S. Treasury

🌎 FBI Arrests Trio Accused of Bilking Banks Out of $10M, Converting Funds to Crypto. Three men used foreign crypto exchanges to launder the proceeds of a scheme that targeted nearly a dozen financial institutions in New York. CoinDesk

🌎 US imposes new sanctions over Russian oil price cap violations, Kremlin influence in the Balkans. Treasury launched a new round of sanctions on firms and ships that used American service providers to carry Russian crude and another set of sanctions on a group of Balkan people and firms tied to Kremlin influence in the region. AP

🌎 Special counsel investigating Joe Biden’s handling of classified material is not expected to bring charges. Hur is compiling a detailed report on his year-long probe that is expected to be critical of Biden for the way he handled sensitive materials. CNN

🌎 Russian Carlsberg staff arrested after business seized. The boss of Carlsberg's Russian business and a top manager have been arrested after the Kremlin took control of the beer company. BBC

🌎 How an Indian startup hacked the world. Appin grew from an educational startup to a hack-for-hire powerhouse that stole secrets from executives, politicians, military officials and wealthy elites around the globe. Reuters

🌎 NewsGuard's For-Profit Censorship Model Merges Government and Corporate Power. The anti-misinformation start-up works closely with the Defense Department and the world's largest corporate marketing conglomerate. Lee Fang

IN THE NEWS

Russia & China

💥 Treasury Department’s hunt for Russian oil sanctions violators on the seas is intensifying CNBC

💥 US Lifts Sanctions on Chinese Institute to Seek Fentanyl Cooperation VOA

💥 EU to ban sale of tankers to Russia to curb shadow fleet growth Reuters

💥 The U.S.’s efforts to stymie Chinese chip production are not watertight Fortune

💥 Myanmar cybercrime kingpin dead, family handed over to China SCMP

🚀 Search Sanctions with Castellum.AI – Instantly 🚀

Crypto & Cyber

🔑 California, Texas Among States Accusing GS Partners of Misleading Crypto Investors CoinDesk

🔑 FTC Takes Action Against Global Tel*Link Corp. for Failing to Adequately Secure Data FTC

🔑 Global Standards Setter for Securities Regulation Publishes Crypto Markets Policy Recommendations CoinDesk

🔑 FBI shares tactics of notorious Scattered Spider hacker collective Bleepingcomputer

🔑 Samsung says hackers accessed customer data during year-long breach TechCrunch

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Pentagon fails sixth audit in a row Hill

💸 Star Canadian singer's Indigenous heritage disputed in bombshell report Fox

💸 Blackwater founder and 4 others on trial in Austria over export of modified crop-spraying planes AP

💸 Italy's cabinet backs crack down on women pickpockets Reuters

Reports

📘 Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting FinCEN

📘 Amendments to the FATF Standards to Strengthen Global Asset Recovery FATF

📘 Ownership and Control: Public Officials and Control Guidance UK Government

📘 New handbook on best practices in strategic trade control at seaports King’s College

📘 The Thriving Black Market for Crypto-to-Fiat Money Mules TI

📘 Illicit Financial Flows from Cyber-enabled Fraud FATF

"Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not." --Alan Greenspan

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