Greetings!  It's August 27, and we're tracking today's top stories: Mystery blonde traveling with secretive Telegram CEO was posting trip on social media before arrest, Russia close to starting trials of crypto payments, NFL players union sues DraftKings for breaking NFT contract, detained Binance exec’s wife begs for his immediate release, and much more... 

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Featured Story

🎯 Mystery blonde traveling with secretive Telegram CEO was posting trip on social media before he was arrested — and now she’s missing. Online observers suggest those posts may have given away details about the exiled Russian mogul’s movements prior to his arrest. NYP

💥 How Telegram became a destination for criminals Axios

Top Stories

🌎 Russia Close to Starting Trials of Crypto Payments, Exchanges. Russia’s parliament in July passed bills legalizing crypto mining and a framework to allow the testing of digital tokens for cross-border payments. Bloomberg

🇷🇺 Russia’s economy is flourishing. How is it flouting sanctions? Economist

🇷🇺 Hungarian National Arrested For Exporting U.S. Military-Grade Radios to Russian Government DOJ

🌎 NFL players union sues DraftKings for breaking NFT contract. Boston-based DraftKings partnered with the NFLPA in 2021 to make collectible NFTs of NFL players that could be bought and sold as part of a game on the fantasy sports site. Reuters

🌎 ‘My Living Nightmare’: Detained Binance Exec’s Wife Begs for His Immediate Release. Tigran Gambaryan’s family says he can no longer walk and has battled multiple bouts of malaria pneumonia. CoinDesk

🔐 Nigerian judge to hear money laundering case against Binance next week Reuters

🌎 Extreme rhetoric in New York mosques as imams call for destruction of Israel, praise Hamas. A Brooklyn cleric who once partnered with New York Mayor Adams on a campaign to end hate is now spreading it. NYP

🌎 Corporate Transparency Act Necessary to Help Law Enforcement Follow the Dirty Money Trails. Small and midsize companies should do their small part to make sure business is transacted honestly. Townhall

🚩 Financial privacy is under fire — the issue should draw the attention of both parties Hill

🌎 Cannabis Reclassification Would Expand Banking Access to Industry. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer says cannabis will likely be rescheduled to a less restricted drug before the end of this year. WSJ

🌎 U.S. SEC Charges Two Brothers in $60M Ponzi Scam Using a Crypto Platform. The duo falsely told investors about one of them creating a “bot” that operated on a crypto asset trading platform. CoinDesk

🚚 FinCEN Reminds Financial Institutions to Remain Vigilant to Suspicious Transactions Associated with Synthetic Opioids FinCEN

IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 How to rein in Russia’s shadow fleet Politico

🇷🇺 Tightening the Screw? — EU’s New Sanctions on Russia CEPA

🇷🇺 Complex Russian share swap scheme falls short of targets FT

🇷🇺 LNG entities under U.S. sanctions to curb Russia's Arctic LNG 2 project Reuters

🇷🇺 Russia's Nornickel examining impact of latest U.S. sanctions Reuters

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China

🇨🇳 China calls U.S. sanctions over Ukraine war 'illegal and unilateral' Reuters

🇨🇳 German firms ignore calls to shrink China investments DW

🇨🇳 ICAC, antitrust watchdog arrest 5 in Hong Kong over construction fraud, bid-rigging SCMP

🇨🇳 Top US, China officials to meet on military, Taiwan, fentanyl Reuters

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Mexico president defends judicial overhaul as U.S. concerns mount Reuters

💸 Networked authoritarianism and economic resilience in Syria Brookings

💸 Special counsel urges appeals court to revive documents case against Trump CBS

💸 Greece ― the country that lets people escape justice Politico

💸 How has Communist-run Vietnam's graft campaign shaken up its politics? Reuters

💸 Jury left to decide Tom Girardi’s fate in fraud trial LAT

💸 Libyan Rival Government to Stop Oil Output Over Bank Row Bloomberg

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Uber fined $324M by Netherlands data protection agency CBS

🔐 Google Warns of Chrome Security Flaw Under Active Exploitation Hacker News

🔐 How Trump was ‘orange-pilled’ by three bitcoiners in Puerto Rico CNBC

🔐 Martin Shkreli must give up copies of one-off Wu-Tang album Cointelegraph

“One idiot is one idiot. Two idiots are two idiots. Ten thousand idiots are a political party.” --Kafka

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