Greetings!  It’s May 14, and we’re tracking today's top stories: U.S. exposes Russia sanctions evasion scheme, FCC designates first robocall threat actor, China busts $295M underground bank using crypto, cocaine superhighway brings drugs and violence to Europe, and much more...  

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🎯 U.S. Exposes Sanctions Evasion Scheme Connected to Russian Oligarch. The scheme is consistent with typologies highlighted by the multilateral REPO Task Force. U.S. Treasury

Top Stories

🌎 FCC designates first robocall threat actor under new classification system. In February, the agency made AI-generated voice cloning in robocalls illegal and said it would step up enforcement efforts. Record

🌎 China busts $295M underground bank that used crypto to convert foreign currencies. The bank used crypto for currency exchange operations between the Chinese yuan and the South Korean won. Block

🌎 Cocaine Superhighway Brings Drugs and Violence to Europe. With drugs flooding into troubled neighborhoods of cities across Europe, the issue is becoming one politicians can no longer ignore. Bloomberg

🌎 U.S. Blocks China-Tied Crypto Miners as 'National Security Risk' Near Nuke Base. President Biden ordered a halt to the MineOne operation near Warren Air Force Base. CoinDesk

🌎 Biden signs Russian uranium ban. Russia supplies about 20% of its enriched uranium for U.S. nuclear fuel. Axios

🌎 The hunt for the missing Greensill billions. How the fight to recover funds owed to Credit Suisse clients landed with coal baron Jim Justice and a small Virginia bank. FT

🌎 Silicon Valley once chafed at dictatorships. Then came a Middle East gold rush. Washington is steering some of this shift, using the industry to push the region away from China’s orbit. WaPo

🌎 Investment Advisers Face Customer Vetting Requirements in AML Push. Treasury looks to tighten regulation that seeks to prevent the U.S. financial system from being used for money laundering. WSJ

🌎 Nonprofits Are Making Billions off the Border Crisis. Federal funding has turned the business of resettling migrant children into a goldmine for a handful of NGOs – and their top executives. Free Press

🌎 Is America thwarting Britain’s fight against corruption? For once the Serious Fraud Office had a slam-dunk case. Then the Justice Department showed up. Economist

🌎 Chinese scientists find a way to mass-produce optical chips that the U.S. cannot sanction. Researchers developed a technique that uses a low-cost material – lithium tantalate – already being used to make smartphone components. SCMP

🇨🇳 US China Tech Controls Face Problematic Diagnosis CEPA

IN THE NEWS

Sanctions

🚩 What EU Sanctions on Russian LNG Would Mean for Global Gas Bloomberg

🚩 Hungary teases veto over new EU Russian gas sanctions Politico

🚩 EU Suspends Sanctions on Venezuela Official Ahead of Election Bloomberg

🚩 U.S. lawmakers threaten sanctions over Georgia’s “foreign agents” bill Axios

🚩 U.S. says sanctions possible after India-Iran port BBC

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Russia

🇷🇺 How Russia can compensate Ukraine for economic damage from the war The Insider

🇷🇺 Ukraine Needs Money to Fight. Can Seized Russian Assets Help? NYT

🇷🇺 Russia defense scandal deepens with arrest of new bribery suspect Reuters

🇷🇺 Russia is hacking evidence of its war crimes War on the Rocks

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China

🇨🇳 Robocar Supplier Sues US, Disputes Alleged Chinese Military Ties Bloomberg

🇨🇳 Biden to increase tariffs on $18B in Chinese imports in a new warning to Beijing CNN

🇨🇳 WuXi Says Parent Owned a DNA Pioneer But It Never Accessed Data Bloomberg

🇨🇳 Congressional Executive Commission on China Annual Report CECC

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Top fitness company CEO suspended amid federal probes CNBC

💸 Southeast Asian scam syndicates stealing $64B annually Record

💸 $3B AML case: Man gets jail, forfeits highest amount of assets seized Straits Times

💸 Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures WSJ

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Tornado Cash Developer Sentenced to 64 Months by Dutch Court CoinDesk

🔐 $2.3B Tornado Cash Case Is a Pivotal Moment for Crypto Privacy Wired

🔐 Cyber Threats Rise Along With Scrutiny of How Companies Handle Hacks WSJ

🔐 US Senators ring alarms over the DOJ's treatment of crypto mixers Block

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Trafficking

🚚 In a city cut off from the world, guns and drugs keep flowing CNN

🚚 Without The SAVE Act, The Only Thing Keeping Foreigners From Voting Is The Honor System Federalist

🚚 Migrant-smuggler arrested after news investigation BBC

🚚 Child refugees using people smugglers to reach family in UK Guardian

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