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Hello!  It’s June 13, and we’re tracking today's top stories: The costs of onerous AML rules, Senate Democrat probes Jared Kushner’s investment firm, Venezuelan ghost criminals penetrate southern border, U.S. hits Terraform with $4.5 billion penalty, and much more...

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Featured Story

🎯 Should Banks Be Crime Fighters? The Hidden (and Not So Hidden) Costs. Pointlessly onerous AML rules lead to debanking of individuals and entire regions, just as “financial inclusion” is thrown around as a social objective. CoinDesk 

Top Stories

🌎 Senate Democrat probes Jared Kushner’s investment firm. Affinity Partners may shield him from public scrutiny and be an end-run around the Foreign Agents Registration Act. WashTimes

💸 A tale of two families: Trumps hide and Bidens unite in face of criminal trials Independent

🌎 'Ghost criminals': How Venezuelan gang members are slipping into the U.S. Cases linked to Tren de Aragua show how hard it is for border agents to vet illegal migrants. NBC

🌎 Terraform Labs and Do Kwon to Pay $4.5B to Settle SEC Fraud Case. While the fallen crypto mogul is still in Montenegro, he is now personally on the hook for $204B. CoinDesk

🌎 Janet Yellen: A New Way to Make Russia’s Assets Pay for Ukraine’s Defense and Rebuilding NYT

🚩 Dollar and euro trade halted on Russia’s biggest exchange due to new sanctions Reuters

🌎 Dollar doomsters have got it all wrong. Global demand for the U.S. currency remains extremely robust while appetite for the renminbi has soured. FT

🌎 A New Chinese Megaport in South America Is Rattling the U.S. The U.S. worries that China’s control over what could become South America’s first true global commercial hub will allow Beijing to strengthen its grip over the region’s resources. WSJ

🌎 How a powerful executive at Nike and Facebook secretly stole millions. Furlow-Smiles linked her personal PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts to her work credit cards and spent lavishly on herself and her family. Fortune

🌎 The Tupac Cop: Greg Kading, the controversial detective who cracked the case, connected Sean Combs to the murder, and maybe solved Biggie’s too. NY Mag

🚩 Readout: FinCEN Director Gacki’s Travel to Arizona for Engagements on Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting FinCEN

IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 Two Russia-Born U.S. Citizens Arrested for Conspiring to Send $500,000 Worth of Luxury Goods to Russia DOJ

🇷🇺 Chinese Trader’s $20M Pile of Russian Copper Goes Missing Bloomberg

🇷🇺 German energy company Uniper awarded billions in damages from Russia’s Gazprom AP

🇷🇺 UK imposes first sanctions targeting ships breaching Russian oil restrictions Reuters

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China

🇨🇳 Learning from Myanmar's rebels, junta builds new Chinese drone fleet Reuters

🇨🇳 China’s health system anti-corruption drive nets another senior official in Guizhou SCMP

🇨🇳 US sanctions Hong Kong, UAE firms for dealing with Russian gold Reuters

🇨🇳 US lawmakers seek China patent data amid science pact talks Reuters

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 A Mercedes, Grand Marnier and $250K: How an insurance agent got entangled in Menendez bribery scheme NYP

💸 Republicans Introduce Bill To Ban DEI in Government, Federal Contracting Free Beacon

💸 The enemy within: How corruption and inefficiency are sabotaging Ukraine’s war effort Independent

💸 Remington's sale of its ammunition arm to a foreign buyer is raising eyebrows Fox

💸 How Palestinian terrorists train ‘journalists’ in Gaza Washington Examiner

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Microsoft Chose Profit Over Security and Left U.S. Government Vulnerable to Russian Hack ProPublica

🔐 Donald Trump Says He Wants All Remaining Bitcoin to Be 'Made in USA' CoinDesk

🔐 Black Basta ransomware gang may have exploited Windows flaw before it was patched Record

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Trafficking

🚚 U.S. can stop border-crossing terrorists with Obama administration policies NYP

🚚 Multiple illegal immigrants wanted for murder arrested in 2-week-span in Houston Fox

🚚 Captives of Cannabis: Inside smuggling across U.S. highways NBC

"If you must break the law, do it to seize power; in all other cases observe it." --Julius Caesar

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