Plus: Money War – How Four U.S. Presidents Unleashed Economic Warfare Across the Globe...
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7/25/24

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Hello!  It’s July 25, and we’re tracking today's top stories: Russia runs global ransomware machine, China steps up Russian energy cooperation despite U.S. sanctions, Coinbase UK unit fined $4.5M by British regulator over ‘high-risk’ customer breaches, how four U.S. presidents unleashed economic warfare across the globe, and much more...   

 

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Featured Story

 

🎯 Russian-Speaking Groups Ran Most Ransomware Attacks in 2023. Inflows to Russia-based crypto exchange Garantex accounted for 82% of the crypto volumes that belonged to sanctioned entities internationally. CoinDesk 

 

Top Stories

 

🌎 China aims to step up Russian energy cooperation despite U.S. sanctions calls. Xi’s message to the China-Russia energy forum is a clear indication that cooperation will expand and deepen. SCMP

 

🌎 Coinbase UK unit fined $4.5M by British regulator over ‘high-risk’ customer breaches. Despite restrictions in place, CBPL onboarded 13,416 high-risk customers for e-money services. CoinDesk

 

🌎 Money War – How Four U.S. Presidents Unleashed Economic Warfare Across the Globe. In country after country, sanctions have emerged as the key instrument of U.S. foreign policy. WaPo

 

🌎 U.S. Court awards CITGO Petroleum over $340M in bribery case. Testino, PLS and others paid millions in bribes to then-CITGO employees to secure highly lucrative contracts. Reuters

 

🌎 We bought everything needed to make $3M worth of fentanyl. All it took was $3,600 and a web browser. Reuters

 

🌎 U.S. Coast Guard offloads $96M seized cocaine after trio of Caribbean arrests. They stacked countless blocks of the illicit drugs in a series of Jenga-like towers along the water’s edge. NYP

 

🌎 Biden-Harris Admin Fails To Produce Congressionally Mandated Report on Iranian Human Rights Abuses. The report was mandated under the MAHSA Act, a bipartisan law passed after Iran’s morality police murdered a 22-year-old woman. Free Beacon

 

🌎 A Nation Bet Big on Online Casinos. It Didn’t Go Well. The Philippines is shutting down gambling platforms that cater to demand from outside the country, including players in China. WSJ

 

🌎 Sanctions crushed Syria’s elite, so they built a zombie economy fueled by drugs. Having swollen to a massive scale with tacit government approval, the trade threatens Syria’s neighbors, flooding the region with cheap drugs. WaPo

 

🌎 Brazilian rancher ordered to pay $50M for damage to Amazon. Brazil court freezes assets of Dirceu Kruger to pay climate compensation for illegal deforestation. Guardian

 

🌎 Documents Reveal Details of Adani Group's Controversial Bid to Run Kenya's Largest Airport. Whistleblower sparked outrage in Kenya after claiming the country’s main airport would be leased to one of India’s largest conglomerates. OCCRP

IN THE NEWS

Russia

 

🇷🇺 Russian Firms Face Mounting Payment Issues as Sanctions Bite Bloomberg

 

🇷🇺 The Illicit Flow of Technology to Russia Goes Through This Hong Kong Address NYT

 

🇷🇺 Western Sanctions, Houthi Attacks Boost Appeal of Russia’s Arctic Sea Route Bloomberg

 

🇷🇺 EU countries look to extend freeze on Russian assets to secure G7 loan to Ukraine Reuters 

 

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China

 

🇨🇳 Treasury targets China with sanctions over North Korea missile help Washington Times

 

🇨🇳 Olympic officials try to crush U.S. probes of China doping, threaten Salt Lake Games NPR

 

🇨🇳 Indictment accuses Pasco man of acting as Chinese government agent Tampa Bay Times

 

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Corruption & Financial Crime

 

💸 U.S. Department of Justice finalizes plea deal with Boeing CNN

 

💸 PPP loans earned a Miami lender $680M. Now it’s being sued by the Federal Reserve. MH

 

💸 50 arrested in massive FBI bust in Houston as part of alleged bail bond scheme Houston Chronicle

 

💸 ServiceNow Operating Chief Desai Resigns After Probe into Government Contract WSJ

 

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Crypto & Cyber

 

🔐 North Korean hacker got hired by US security vendor, immediately loaded malware Ars

 

🔐 Don’t sanction cyberweapons — sanction how they’re used Euro News

 

🔐 MonoSwap has been hacked, warns users not to deposit funds Cointelegraph

 

🔐 A Hacker ‘Ghost’ Network Is Quietly Spreading Malware on GitHub Wired

 

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Trafficking

 

🚚 Gaslighting the Public on Kamala Harris as ‘Border Czar’ Free Press

 

🚚 India Has Seen 92 Drug Trafficking Cases in Four Years Involving Dark Net and Crypto CoinDesk

 

🚚 Thailand to set up task force to prevent transactions for Myanmar arms Reuters

 

🚚 19 charged in maritime human smuggling operation in San Diego SDUT

“The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.” --Aldous Huxley

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