Deep investigations that expose illicit activity.

Greetings!  It’s April 4, and we’re tracking today's top stories: Banking bottleneck causing six-month delays for Russia-China payments, U.S charges eight in beer heists across Northeast, U.S. Treasury targets Iranian network, Diddy's sons hire El Chapo's lawyer as trafficking scandal unfolds, and much more... 

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🎯 Banking bottleneck causing six-month delays for Russia-China payments. As the threat of secondary sanctions deters Chinese banks, companies are flocking to the one Russian bank with a Chinese branch and facing major delays. Reuters 

Top Stories

🌎 U.S. Charges 8 in Beer Heists That Targeted Trains and Warehouses. The men stole hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of beer, mostly Modelo and Corona, by robbing rail yards across the Northeast. DOJ

🌎 Treasury Targets Network Facilitating Shipments Valued in Hundreds of Millions for Iranian Military U.S. Treasury

🌎 Diddy's sons hire John Gotti and El Chapo's former attorney. They'll investigate 'excessive use of force' after rifle-wielding Feds slammed them up against the walls of mogul's LA mansion. Daily Mail

🌎 Did One Guy Just Stop a Huge Cyberattack? A Microsoft engineer noticed something was off. He soon discovered someone was trying to gain access to computers all over the world. NYT

🌎 The Mystery of ‘Jia Tan,’ the XZ Backdoor Mastermind. The thwarted XZ Utils supply chain attack was years in the making. Now, clues suggest nation-state hackers were behind the persona that inserted the malicious code. Wired

🌎 How investment firms shield the ultrawealthy from the IRS. Hundreds of leaked tax forms offer a glimpse into the huge challenges the U.S. agency faces. ICIJ

🌎 The U.S. Already Soaks the Rich. In 2021 the richest 1% paid 46% of income taxes, up from 33% in 2001. WSJ

🌎 Lebanon's billionaire prime minister denies allegations of money laundering in France. Mikati founded Investcom in the 1980s and sold it to South Africa’s MTN Group for $5.5B. AP

🌎 US May Revoke Houthi Terrorist Label If They Stop Red Sea Ship Attacks. In January the State Department announced it was naming Ansarallah a Specially Designated Terrorist Group. Bloomberg

🌎 Colombia guerrillas lure youth on TikTok. With promises of wealth and images of vast fields of coca leaves, Colombia's modern-day guerrillas are urging young people to join their ranks. AFP

🌎 OneCoin legal chief sentenced to four years for role in crypto pyramid scheme. Dilkinska was the project's Head of Legal and Compliance but facilitated money laundering. Block

🌎 $3B money laundering case: Man who jumped from bungalow balcony during raid gets 14 months’ jail. Su is the second of 10 foreigners linked to Singapore’s largest money laundering case to be sentenced. Straits Times

🌎 Shell seeks longer US license before sanctioning Venezuela gas project. The Dragon field lies in Venezuelan waters near the maritime border with Trinidad and Tobago and holds up to 4.2T cubic feet of gas. Reuters

📌 UK Strategic Export Control List UK Government

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IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 U.S. sanctions hamper Russian efforts to repair refineries Reuters

🇷🇺 Load of Wood Gets Cargo Ship Detained in Germany for Sanction Violations Maritime Exec

🇷🇺 Russia's Novatek may scale back Arctic LNG 2, focus on Murmansk Reuters

🇷🇺 US treasury officials to urge India to maintain implementation of Russian oil price cap Econ Times

🇷🇺 Germany's AfD Asks Its Lawmaker to 'Clarify' Russian Cash Report Reuters

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Corruption fears as report finds US doctors received record $12B in pharma payments in past decade Daily Mail

💸 SEC Bribery Unit Probes Technology Companies’ Use of Contractors Bloomberg

💸 South Africa Tax Agency to Target ‘Professional Enablers’ of Organized Crime Bloomberg

💸 South African parliament speaker resigns over bribery, corruption allegations AP

💸 Hungary’s Orban, a long-time Trump ally, rocked by major scandals ahead of European elections CNBC

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China

🇨🇳 Secretary Yellen is in China to talk trade, AML and Chinese overproduction AP

🇨🇳 China sanctions Britons over West's Xinjiang criticism AP

🇨🇳 US to press Dutch next week to curb ASML's work servicing tools for China Reuters

🇨🇳 Gallium Has More Than Doubled in Price on China Export Curbs Bloomberg

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Google Files Racketeering Suits Over Alleged Crypto-App Scams Bloomberg

🔐 Detained Binance executive in court on Nigerian tax, money laundry charges Reuters

🔐 Project Agorá: central banks and banking sector embark on major project to explore tokenization of cross-border payments BIS

🔐 For Crypto, the Global Regulatory 'Olympics' Has Already Begun CoinDesk

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Trafficking

🚚 Hold the fentanyl. Drugs found in hamburger at El Paso border crossing. El Paso Times

🚚 Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in trophy hunting dispute CNN

🚚 How AI is being used to prevent illegal fishing BBC

🚚 Massachusetts pardons all misdemeanor marijuana possession convictions Axios

🚚 Ecuador arrests 14 people in organized crime probe Reuters

"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled" --Mark Twain

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