Happy Friday!  It’s April 19, and we’re tracking top stories to take you into the weekend: JP Morgan sues Russia's VTB Bank over effort to unfreeze assets, hackers threaten to publish huge stolen sanctions and financial crimes watchlist, Wall Street steered billions to blacklisted Chinese companies, El Chapo's sons team up with FBI to catch white supremacist, and much more...    

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🎯 JPMorgan Chase sues Russia's VTB Bank over effort to unfreeze assets. The largest U.S. bank said U.S. law prohibits it from releasing $439.5M and VTB, Russia's second-largest bank, will try to seize its assets abroad if it prevails in the Russia lawsuit. Reuters 

Top Stories

🌎 Hackers are threatening to publish a huge stolen sanctions and financial crimes watchlist. GhostR said they stole 5.3M records from the World-Check screening database in March and are threatening to publish the data online. TechCrunch

🌎 Wall Street Steered Billions to Blacklisted Chinese Companies. With BlackRock and MSCI in focus, panel says ‘this activity is not illegal’ and urges new restrictions. NYP

🌎 El Chapo's sons team up with FBI to catch white supremacist 'Ghostface Gangster'. El Chapo's sons handed a gangster over to the FBI after learning he was hiding in one of their strongholds – they weren't too happy about his anti-Mexican rhetoric. Daily Star

🌎 Carnegie Mellon isn't being open about its relationship with Qatar. Between 2010 and 2022, Carnegie Mellon did not report nearly $700M from Qatar to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Pittsburgh Post

💸 FATF Ministers commit to stepping up efforts to fight money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing FATF 

🌎 Mango Markets swindler convicted for brazen $110M crypto manipulation scheme. Eisenberg used a flash loan attack to siphon the money from Mango Markets – later boasting of his actions on Twitter. Record

🎙️ POD: Counterfeit US Passport Cards, Money Laundering Through FanDuel Accounts, and Less Risk Management AML Conversations

🌎 Private-Fund Lobbyists Push Back on Expanding AML Checks. Industry says worries about dirty money flowing through private-equity and hedge funds are overblown. WSJ

📌 California landlords and business owners won’t be able to hide behind LLCs if new bill passes AP

🌎 Criminal Conspiracy: Thirty-Four Individuals Across the U.S. Indicted on Charges of Drug Trafficking, Firearms, Money Laundering, Cockfighting and Attempts to Kill Witnesses. DOJ

🌎 Larry Sanger Speaks Out. Wikipedia co-founder discusses Katherine Maher and the corruption of the Internet. City Journal

📌 OCC Announces Enforcement Actions for April 2024 OCC

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IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 Kremlin Crying About France Seizing Villa From Putin’s Ex-Wife Daily Beast

🇷🇺 ECB’s Lagarde digs in as US pushes Europe on using Russian assets for Ukraine aid Politico

🇷🇺 Small Texas town foiled Russian hacker group that attacked its water systems Fortune

🇷🇺 Blinken says China is Russia's primary military complex supplier Reuters

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China

🇨🇳 China Building New Outpost on U.S. Doorstep Newsweek

🇨🇳 U.S. likely to enact a law soon that could ban TikTok nationwide NBC

🇨🇳 Apple deletes WhatsApp, Threads from China app store on orders from Beijing CNN

🇨🇳 FBI says Chinese hackers preparing to attack US infrastructure Reuters

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 New York’s Rich Get Creative to Flee State Taxes. Auditors Are On to Them. Bloomberg

💸 BNP Paribas must face lawsuit over Sudanese genocide Reuters

💸 Financial Institutions Report $27B in Elder Financial Exploitation Suspicious Activity in One-Year Period FinCEN

💸 TD Bank CEO says AML probe ongoing Reuters

💸 Self-described BLM leader and 'world's sexiest albino' convicted of fraud, money laundering Toronto Sun

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Sanctions

💥 Two Florida Steel Traders Sentenced for Money Laundering and Russia-Ukraine Sanctions Violations DOJ

💥 US imposes sanctions on two groups for fundraising for Israeli extremists in West Bank CNN

💥 US aims to begin new North Korea sanctions monitoring regime by next month Reuters

💥 What do renewed Venezuela sanctions mean for energy markets and Venezuela’s election? Atlantic Council

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Crypto trader Avi Eisenberg convicted of fraud in $110M Mango Markets scheme Axios

🔐 LastPass users targeted in phishing attacks good enough to trick even the savvy Ars

🔐 Binance exec jailed alongside terrorists in Nigeria hopes to make bail after numerous delays DL News

🔐 Akira ransomware gang made $42M from 250 attacks since March 2023 Record

“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” —Thomas Paine

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