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🎯Russia Pushes India for Help to Avert FATF Blacklist. The Kremlin is pressuring governments including India behind the scenes, threatening to upend defense and energy deals unless they help block expected moves aimed at turning Russia into a financial pariah state over its invasion of Ukraine. [more]
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🔸Second Hunter Biden IRS whistleblower emerges after dismissal despite five years on case. The new whistleblower is a special agent in the IRS’s international tax and financial crimes group and worked on the Hunter Biden case since it opened in 2018 — until he was ousted without explanation last week. [more]
🔸Berkeley’s $220M Mistake Exposed in Massive Deal With China. U.C. Berkeley has failed to disclose to the U.S. government massive Chinese state funding for a highly sensitive $240 million joint tech venture in China that has been running for the last eight years. [more]
🔸What are the Top 10 Books on Corruption, Kleptocracy, and Illicit Financing? [more]
🔸TikTok Will ‘Soon’ Grant Oracle Full Access to Code, Algorithm. ByteDance’s TikTok is “on track” with its undertaking to have all US user data hosted and overseen by Oracle, as the Chinese tech behemoth struggles to win over critics worried about the national security implications of its hit video app. [more]
🔸Lebanon set to be grey-listed by financial crime watchdog. Lebanon is likely to be placed on a "grey list" of countries under special scrutiny over unsatisfactory practices to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing. [more]
🔸EU Sanctions Iran Revolutionary Guards' Investment Wing. The latest round of sanctions — the eighth imposed by the EU over the repression — came after Iran hanged three more men convicted in relation to the demonstrations. [more]
🔸Indonesia, Iran sign preferential trade agreement. Deal comes as ties between Iran and the West become increasingly strained following Iranian security forces' violent crackdown on protests against the country's clerical elite after the death of a Kurdish woman in morality police custody last year. [more]
🔸‘Uber with guns’: Black Wolf ride-sharing app has armed drivers — and it’s coming to NYC. The surge in violent crime nationwide has inspired a former bodyguard to launch a ride-sharing app that features armed drivers. [more]
🔸Married Putin Stooge Accused of Hiding Kids With Secret American Lover. A bombshell investigation has tied Moscow’s most prominent mouthpiece to a second family of U.S. citizens. [more]
🔸Covid Loan Fraud Probes Turn to the Bankers Who Approved Them. Larger banks with more sophisticated prevention practices are less vulnerable, but regional and local institutions and fintechs—or web-based financial services providers—face greater scrutiny. [more]