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Happy Friday!  It’s May 31, and we’re tracking top stories to take you into the weekend: TikTok is preparing a U.S. copy of the app’s core algorithm, ex-Deutsche Bank investment banker gets 3 years for fraud, UBS fined by Swiss for failing to report Yemen-linked accounts, two Estonian men nailed as kingpins behind massive half billion dollar fraud, and much more...

Featured Story

🎯 TikTok is preparing a U.S. copy of the app’s core algorithm. An earlier plan to silo off U.S. user data, called Project Texas, failed to appease U.S. regulators and lawmakers. Reuters 

Top Stories

🌎 Ex-Deutsche Bank Investment Banker Gets 3 Years for Fraud. Rashawn Russell was sentenced to 41 months in prison. Bloomberg

🌎 UBS Fined by Swiss For Failing to Report Yemen-Linked Accounts. The amount is the highest possible penalty the Swiss finance ministry could hand down to a legal entity. Bloomberg

🌎 Two Estonian men are kingpins behind massive half billion fraud targeting thousands of U.S. investors. Potapenko and Turõgin started a company called HashCoins and marketed the firm’s mining equipment for Bitcoin and other digital assets. Fortune

🔐 Japanese Crypto Exchange DMM Bitcoin Suffers $305M Hack CoinDesk

🔐 Crypto Hacks, Rug Pulls Led to $473M Worth of Losses in 2024 CoinDesk

🌎 US imposes visa restrictions on Chinese, Hong Kong officials. The US is deeply concerned by the guilty verdicts announced in the National Security Law trial of pro-democracy organizers. Reuters

🌎 The Donald Trump I Saw on The Apprentice. For 20 years, I couldn’t say what I watched the former president do on the set of the show that changed everything. Now I can. Slate

🌎 EU Approves New Financial Crime Agency. The creation of a new Frankfurt-based watchdog comes as part of a major package of AML measures. WSJ

🌎 US Treasury No. 2 warns China over support for Russia. "Chinese firms can either do business in our economies or they can equip Russia's war machinery with dual-use goods. They can't continue to do both." Reuters

🌎 Turkey Close to Exiting FATF’s Illicit Finance List. The change would boost Turkey’s efforts to attract capital into its $1.1 trillion economy. Bloomberg

🌎 ‘Operation Endgame’ Hits Malware Delivery Platforms. Dubbed “the largest ever operation against botnets,” the international effort is the opening salvo in an ongoing campaign targeting advanced malware droppers. Krebs

🌎 Video Games Might Matter for Terrorist Financing. As governments crack down on certain modes, terrorist groups may turn to video games as an alternate avenue. Lawfare

🌎 Embedding With America’s Top Hostage Negotiator. A year with Roger Carstens, the point man for freeing US detainees, whether held by Putin, Hamas, or Maduro. VF

IN THE NEWS

Sanctions

🚩 Treasury Targets Enablers of Iran’s UAV Production U.S. Treasury

🚩 EU slaps new sanctions on North Korea for missile support to Russia AP

🚩 EU Sanctions Iran's Defense Minister, IRGC Over Drones And Missiles AFP

🚩 US sanctions Uganda's parliament speaker, her husband over corruption and rights abuses AP

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Russia

🇷🇺 Rosneft says Q1 net income more than doubled to $4.4B from Q4 Reuters

🇷🇺 EU plots new ways to cut Russia’s cash as sanctions stall Politico

🇷🇺 Russia Is Using North Korean Missiles in Ukraine AFP

🇷🇺 OpenAI Disrupts Disinformation Campaigns To Influence Public Opinion Forbes

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China

🇨🇳 The CCP is infiltrating the U.S. from the inside Hill

🇨🇳 Chinese property giant Evergrande fined $576M for fraud AFP

🇨🇳 China's Luckin Coffee has overcome its fraud scandal Axios

🇨🇳 Saudi Fund Joins $400M Financing for China AI Firm Zhipu Bloomberg

🇨🇳 China to impose controls on exports of some aviation and aerospace equipment AP

🇨🇳 New breakthrough deepens US troops' dependence on Chinese batteries Defense One

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Inside the bombshell affair claims rocking Spanish royal family — including Queen Letizia’s secret messages and NYC trips with lover NYP

💸 Government Whistleblower Programs Undermine Compliance Culture Bloomberg

💸 Pique under investigation in Spain corruption case BBC

💸 House COVID panel demands access to Fauci’s private email, cell records after alleged ‘secret back channel’ communications NYP

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Singapore Wealth Flows Face New Scrutiny in Superhacker Case Bloomberg

🔐 Terraform, Do Kwon Agree in Principle to Settle Fraud Case With SEC CoinDesk

🔐 NYDFS Issues New Crypto Firm Guidance for Consumer Complaints CoinDesk

🔐 Over 600K Routers Were Hacked in Three Days Late Last Year CNET

🔐 Hacking group claims it breached Ticketmaster and stole data for 560M customers CBS

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