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Happy Monday!  It’s March 18, and we’re tracking top stories to start the week: Illegal migrant caught at border admits terrorist plans in U.S., corporate transparency ruling complicates beneficial ownership campaign, OnlyFans exposed, Chinese organized crime dominates U.S. illegal pot market, and much more... 

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Featured Story

🎯 Migrant caught at border admitted terrorist plans in US. Illegal migrant from Lebanon caught at border admitted he’s a Hezbollah terrorist hoping ‘to make a bomb’ — and was headed for NY. NYP 

Top Stories

🌎 Corporate Transparency Ruling Complicates Campaign to Register Business Owners. Treasury says it will continue to collect ownership information as it battles a court ruling that found a U.S. transparency law unconstitutional. WSJ

🚩 FinCEN Publishes Ruling on Customer ID Requirements for Retirement Accounts FinCEN

🌎 OnlyFans Exposed. OnlyFans is an adults-only website where anyone – celebrities, adult stars, cash-strapped moms, and aspiring influencers – can sell sexually explicit videos of themselves. Reuters

🌎 Gangsters, Money and Murder: How Chinese Organized Crime Is Dominating America’s Illegal Marijuana Market. A quadruple murder in Oklahoma shows how the Chinese underworld has come to dominate the booming illicit trade. ProPublica

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🌎 Europe Will Tap Frozen Russian Assets for Ukraine Arms. Shift in Berlin’s stance on using windfall profits increases chance that $300B held in West will help Kyiv. Bloomberg

🌎 US, G-7 allies warn Iran to back off deal to provide Russia ballistic missiles or face new sanctions. The Biden administration has raised alarms for months that Russia is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran as Moscow struggles. AP

🌎 US Sanctions Network Smuggling American Tech to Iran's Central Bank. Treasury unveiled sanctions against a network of companies for facilitating illegal tech transfers from dozens of U.S. firms to Iranian entities. AFP

🌎 Meta's role in illegal drug sales on Facebook is under federal investigation. Meta says "the sale of illicit drugs is against our policies and we work to find and remove this content from our services". Quartz

🌎 Inside Boeing’s shocking personnel scandals: Drug dealing, love triangle and murder-suicide. Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his car with a gunshot wound to his head on the same day he was due to testify against the aircraft manufacturer. NYP

🚩 Boeing Criminal Probe Widens With Seattle Grand Jury Subpoena Bloomberg

🌎 US Probing Indian Billionaire Adani Over Bribery. Investigators are digging into whether an Adani entity, or people linked to the company including Gautam Adani, were involved in paying officials in India for favorable treatment on energy project. Bloomberg

🌎 From riches to ankle bracelet: UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s stunning fall. ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’ could spend up to 25 years in jail if convicted of fraud in the 2011 sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard. Guardian

🌎 TikTok’s lobbying firms may be next target of blacklist by lawmakers. China hawks in Congress are now considering blacklisting lobbying firms that represent TikTok or ByteDance from any meetings with congressional offices. Politico

🚩 They voted for the bill that could ban TikTok. They also actively use the app. CNN

IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 Russian Oil Squeeze Tightens as Sovcomflot Admits Difficulties Bloomberg

🇷🇺 Put sanctions on Russian-origin aluminium not on Rusal, industry group says Reuters

🇷🇺 North Korea’s Kim enjoys a Russian luxury limo gifted by Putin as the two nations expand ties AP

🇷🇺 The Canadian behind the West’s massive sanctions on Russia says it’s time for Round 2 Politico

Much more news at Illicit Edge!

China

🇨🇳 China’s former anti-terrorism chief Liu Yuejin under investigation for corruption SCMP

🇨🇳 CATL, the little-known Chinese battery maker that has the US worried Guardian

🇨🇳 Americans Invested Billions in Chinese Companies. Now Their Money Is Stuck. NYT

🇨🇳 China Police Takes ‘Coercive Measures’ Against Staff at Zhongzhi Bloomberg

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Jared Kushner's New Foreign Deals Spark 'Corruption' Accusation Newsweek

💸 Biden promoted top staffers involved in classified docs bungling within 24 hours of special counsel’s report NYP

💸 Sophisticated ‘burglary tourists’ fly from South America to rob wealthy homes LAT

💸 Anger rises over South Africa making millions in US benefits while cozying up to Iran, Russia and Hamas Fox

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 China’s crypto investors made gains of about $1B in 2023 despite sweeping government ban SCMP

🔐 Prosecutors seek from 40-50 years in prison for SBF for crypto fraud AP

🔐 CEO of Data Privacy Company Onerep.com Founded Dozens of People-Search Firms Krebs

🔐 NFT platform NFPrompt alerts FBI after hack compromises multiple wallets Protos

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Trafficking

🚚 Horrors of the migrant crisis just the beginning Boston Herald

🚚 Montana man pleads guilty to wildlife trafficking charges in scheme to clone sheep CNN

🚚 Vance Rips Tyson Foods For Replacing Americans With Illegal Migrants Daily Caller

🚚 EU pledges billions of euros for Egypt as it seeks to curb migration Reuters

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