Featured Story
🎯 FATF Adds Croatia to 'Grey List': The Financial Action Task Force financial crime watchdog on Friday said it had added EU member state Croatia to its so-called "grey list" of countries under special scrutiny, adding that Cameroon and Vietnam were also added to the list. Reuters
Top Stories
🔸 Sanctions Are Not Enough. The West Should Encourage a Russian Capital and Brain Drain Instead. The international community should be extremely interested in this migration outflow that Putin is trying to stop, focusing on Russia’s educated and wealthy who are more inclined toward and actually yearning for freedom. Moscow Times
🔸 FTX sues former Hillary Clinton aide over $700 million in ‘misappropriated funds’. FTX is seeking to claw back some $700 million from a former aide to Hillary Clinton-turned Hollywood super agent who was allegedly showered with cash by disgraced fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried. NY Post
🔸 Bloodied Macbooks and Stacks of Cash – Inside the Increasingly Violent Discord Servers Where Kids Flaunt Their Crimes. Taken as a whole, the videos and photos provide a snapshot of an online community of young people that many likely have no idea exists. VICE
🔸 A Crypto Side Door: Buying a ‘Digital Residency’ in Palau for $248. The residency has caught the attention of crypto traders searching for side doors to access platforms banned in their countries of residence as a crackdown on digital assets continues in places such as the U.S., China and Canada. WSJ
🔸 Kyrgyz, Kazakh Companies Send Western Tech To Firms Linked To Kremlin War Machine. Russian imports of a range of dual-use goods from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have skyrocketed since the start of the war, including electronics produced by Western technology giants. Radio Free Europe
🔸 Whistleblowers say IRS recommended far more charges, including felonies, against Hunter Biden. The IRS whistleblowers said the recommendation called for Hunter Biden to be charged with tax evasion and filing a false tax return – both felonies – for 2014, 2018 and 2019. CNN
🔸 Treasury sanctions Russian officers for election interference. Authorities say the Russian officers recruited six U.S. co-conspirators, including two who ran for local office, to collect information on the activities of several political groups. The Hill
🔸 As West Battles China, a Trade Ally Tries to Keep Both Doors Open. In this burgeoning industrial zone, there’s room for businesses from both sides of the new Cold War. And like many key emerging economies, Morocco wants to keep it that way, even if walking the line won’t be easy in a polarizing world. Bloomberg
🔸 Qatar sovereign wealth fund buys stake in Washington’s NBA, NHL and WNBA teams. Sports are part of Qatar’s nation-branding and public diplomacy strategy and this move aligns with the strategy. AP
🔸 Family of indicted art dealer Douglas Latchford gives up $12 million in historic antiquities settlement. The Bangkok-based businessman’s alleged exploits were suspected for years, but only began to unravel during a series of civil and criminal cases brought by American prosecutors in the early 2010s. Denver Post
🔸 The Biotech Edge: How Executives and Well-Connected Investors Make Exquisitely Timed Trades in Health Care Stocks. Secret IRS records reveal dozens of highly fortuitous biotech and health care trades. One executive bought shares in a corporate partner just before a sale, and an investor traded options right before a company’s revenues took off, netting millions. ProPublica
🔸 Largest public pension fund in US affected by MOVEit breach. The controversy around vulnerabilities in the MOVEit file transfer tool has now reached the largest public pension fund in the U.S. – California’s Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS). The Record