Hello Wednesday!  It’s May 15, and we’re tracking today's top stories: Dubai crime hub attracts bad actors worldwide, Treasury sanctions Sudanese Rapid Security Forces, Islamism's sharpest swords, U.S. warns Raiffeisen access to dollar system could be curbed over Russia, and much more...

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🎯 Dubai Unlocked: Dubai has become a meeting point for men and women from around the globe accused of criminality and corruption. OCCRP

🚩 Dubai property portfolio calls into question effectiveness of Kinahan sanctions ICIJ

🚩 Dubai Property Database: Exposing The Illicit Networks That Exploit the UAE Property Market C4ADS

Top Stories

🔥 Treasury Sanctions Sudanese Rapid Support Forces Commanders Expanding War U.S. Treasury

🌎 Islamism's Sharpest Swords. Time, Migration, Tech, and Our Own Legal System. What 9/11 made clear is that the terrorists successfully built up a massive network of operators within the U.S. hard at work radicalizing vulnerable targets. Restoration

💥 The Woke Jihad Commentary

🌎 U.S. warned Raiffeisen access to dollar system could be curbed over Russia. The warning is the strongest yet to the biggest Western bank in Russia and follows months of pressure from Washington. Reuters

🇷🇺 U.S. Sanctions Parties Involved in Raiffeisen’s Axed Russian Deal Bloomberg

💸 Canada to convene meeting to discuss AML allegations against TD Bank Reuters

🌎 NYPD, FDNY, teachers and NYC worker pension funds may have millions sunk in TikTok parent ByteDance. Future Union says exact amount remains unknown due to proprietary data constraints. NYP

📌 TikTok creators file suit to block US divestment or ban law Reuters

🌎 Secret papers reveal Hamas plan to set up base in Turkey. A document proposing to ‘establish a security branch abroad’ was discovered at the home of the chief of staff to Hamas’s leader in Gaza. The Times

🌎 North Korea used Tornado Cash to siphon HTX’s $150M loot. A UN report reveals North Korean hackers laundered $150M in stolen crypto assets through Tornado Cash in March 2024. Cointelegraph

🌎 US suggests penalties if production of Chinese electric vehicles moves to Mexico. Any penalties if China should follow through on factories would require a “separate pathway” from the Section 301 review of the Trade Act of 1974. AP

🌎 DOJ says Boeing violated deal that avoided prosecution after 737 Max crashes. Boeing could be prosecuted “for any federal criminal violation of which the United States has knowledge.” AP

🚩 Inspector general sees trouble in DOJ, FBI punishing whistleblowers, stripping security clearances Wash Times

🌎 Nearly 40% of dirty money is laundered in London and UK crown dependencies. Deputy foreign secretary urges Cayman and British Virgin Islands to implement UK law requiring public registers of funds. Guardian

🌎 Poland hunts for $330M of Orlen payments for Venezuela oil. State-controlled Orlen agreed last year to buy several oil cargoes from Venezuela during a temporary softening of sanctions and sent supertankers to pick them up. Reuters

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IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 How Turkey became Putin’s ‘pit stop’ for selling camouflaged fuel to the EU Politico

🇷🇺 Meet The Greek Shipping Billionaires Getting Rich Off Russian Oil Forbes

🇷🇺 MPs urged to change law so frozen Russian assets can help aid Ukraine Guardian

🇷🇺 Yevgeny Prigozhin Finally Gets His Revenge From Beyond the Grave Daily Beast

🇷🇺 French, Dutch seek EU sanctions on financial institutions helping Russia military Reuters

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China

🇨🇳 China Sanctions Political Pundits in Taiwan to Pressure Lai Bloomberg

🇨🇳 US intelligence spotted Chinese, Iranian deepfakes in 2020 aimed at influencing US voters CNN

🇨🇳 China-linked group uses malware to try to spy on commercial shipping NBC

🇨🇳 Chinese firms make headway in producing high bandwidth memory for AI chipsets Reuters

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Police arrest over 100 mafia members in mass raid DW

💸 Israel Takes Out Hamas War Room Embedded in UNRWA School Free Beacon

💸 Iran's Ex-Agriculture Minister Gets 3 Years In Prison On Corruption Charges RFE

💸 Scandal Brought Reforms to Soccer. Its Leaders Are Rolling Them Back NYT

💸 Treasure Allegedly Stolen by 18th-Century Scammer Found in Poland Men’s Journal

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 The Hard Truths and Worrying Consequences of the Tornado Cash Verdict CoinDesk

🔐 Crypto Investment Firm BlockTower Capital Suffers Losses in Hack Bloomberg

🔐 Solana Dev Confesses to Stealing, Gambling Away Cypher User Funds Decrypt

🔐 Malaysia outraged at Meta takedown of media's Facebook posts on PM's Hamas meeting Reuters

🔐 How Did Authorities Identify the Alleged Lockbit Boss? Krebs

🔐 Threat actor scraped Dell support tickets, including customer phone numbers TechCrunch

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Trafficking

🚚 11 dead as shootout rocks small town in Chiapas Border Report

🚚 Migrants charged in attack on NYPD cops in Times Square offered plea deals NYP

🚚 Mexico is stopping nearly three times as many migrants now, keeping U.S. border crossings down NBC

🚚 Thirteen people indicted in drug trafficking conspiracy involving fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine DOJ

🚀 Get more news at Illicit Edge!

"Good luck has its storms." --George Lucas

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