Happy Friday! It’s May 26, and we’re tracking today’s top stories: Trump employees moved boxes day before DOJ went to Mar-a-Lago, $2B Powerball winner under investigation, Hunter Biden wooed China execs with high-level CCP ties, NYC officials freeze accounts for failing to submit anti-discrimination plans, and much more.

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Featured Story

🎯Trump employees moved boxes day before DOJ went to Mar-a-Lago. Investigators view the timing – just before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the Florida resort to recover the documents – as a potential sign of obstruction. [more]

Top Stories

🔸$2B Powerball winner Edwin Castro served papers at $25M California mansion. The suit against Castro, which was first filed earlier this year, claims he is not the rightful winner, as the ticket was bought by plaintiff Jose Rivera and soon stolen from him. [more]

🔸Hunter Biden wooed China execs with high-level CCP ties while fundraising for movie venture while dad was VP. A business executive on the itinerary for "Afternoon tea" was Jeffery Li, the son of one of the most powerful CCP leaders in China. [more]

🔸New York City Officials Freeze Accounts After Banks Fail To Submit Anti-Discrimination Plans. The latest actions are the result of new requirements introduced in February that assess banks’ commitment to non-discrimination practices in lending, employment, and other services. [more]

🔸Treasury Sanctions the Head of the Wagner Group in Mali. U.S. accuses the Russian private army of trying to obscure its efforts to acquire military equipment for use in Ukraine, and of working through Mali and other countries. [more]

🔸Iran has a direct route to send Russia weapons – and Western powers can do little to stop the shipments. The Caspian Sea route – which provides a direct path between Iran and Russia – is increasingly busy with cargo traffic. [more]

🔸How a Pandemic-Era Program Became a Magnet for Fraud. The Employee Retention Credit has become a magnet for fraud, creating a cottage industry of firms that falsely market themselves as tax credit specialists who can help clients – and reap huge refunds from the I.R.S. [more]

🔸Chinese Firms That Threaten U.S. Security Get Investment from Federal Employees. Among the companies are a leading developer of engines for fighter planes and turbines for naval ships and solar panel firms targeted for allegedly using forced labor by Uyghurs. [more]

🔸Lloyd’s Register Punishes Indian Shipping Company For Carrying Russian Oil. Lloyd’s has removed the certification of 21 vessels operated by Indian shipping company Gatik Ship Management, which is one of the biggest shippers of Russian oil abroad. [more]

🔸EU Blocks More Than €200 Billion in Russian Central Bank Assets. Separately, the EU has been looking at powers to seize the private assets of sanctioned Russians in the event of criminal offense by extending the list of crimes, such as money-laundering and corruption, to include the evasion of EU sanctions. [more]

🔸Coinmint Sues California Chipmaker for $23M, Alleging ‘Elaborate Deception’. The mining firm, which has been embroiled in several legal battles, describes an elaborate fraud scheme for a $150 million contract. [more]

IN THE NEWS

Russia

🔸Russian weapons manufacturers hosted at Saudi trade event. Seven sanctioned Russian companies, including a manufacturer of military helicopters deployed in the war in Ukraine, are visiting Saudi Arabia next week as part of a trade mission to increase business with the Gulf state. [more]

🔸Companies are finding it’s not so simple to leave Russia. Some international brands such as Coke and Apple are trickling in informally through third countries despite a decision to exit. [more]

🔸Yandex to Offer Investors Choice of Russia or Foreign Assets. Once dubbed the “Google of Russia,” Yandex is now seeking to divest of its Russian business that generates most of its revenue and spin off a handful of international startups. [more]

Corruption & Financial Crime

🔸Credit Suisse Loses Singapore Case Against Georgian Billionaire Ivanishvili. The ruling marks another major setback for Credit Suisse after the loss to Ivanishvili in Bermuda court, a conviction for money-laundering in Switzerland and a raft of other scandals that undermined investor confidence in the bank. [more]

🔸Tipster on Ericsson won SEC's largest-ever whistleblower award of $279 million. The award from the regulator's cash-for-tip program was related to the $1.1 billion settlement the company reached with U.S. authorities in 2019 over illegal payments to win business in five countries. [more]

🔸German court deems raids against Russian-Uzbek oligarch unlawful. In September, over 250 police officers searched an apparently abandoned lakeside villa in the upmarket Bavarian holiday town of Rottach-Egern as part of the investigation against Usmanov. [more]

Crypto & Cyber

🔸How Crypto Can Help Secure AI. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence create unique safety challenges. Can skills and approaches honed by the crypto community help make AI safe for humanity? [more]

🔸Barracuda Warns of Zero-Day Exploited to Breach Email Security Gateway Appliances. The company, which has over 200,000 global customers, did not disclose the scale of the attack. It said affected users have been directly contacted with a list of remedial actions to take. [more]

🔸As Microsoft Embraces AI, It's Also Calling for New Regulation to Reduce Risks. The software giant says a new government agency could help implement laws and get ahead of potential problems. [more]

Industry Analysis

🌎 Atlantic Council: Global Sanctions Dashboard

🌎 AML Rightsource: Conversation with Don Fort, former Chief of IRS-CI

🌎 FiveBy Weekly Insights

🌎 Money Laundering Techniques Newsletter

🌎 TRM Labs Weekly Roundup

🌎 K2 Integrity: Recent Developments in Russia Sanctions

“You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” --Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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