Hello!  It’s March 19, and we’re tracking today's top stories: U.S. CFTC hits U.S. Bank, Oppenheimer with new fines, Russia's backdoor to the global banking system is shutting down, Genesis penalized $21M by SEC, Chinese billionaire pleads guilty to straw donor scheme, and much more...

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🎯 US CFTC hits U.S. Bank, Oppenheimer with fines over record keeping failures. The institutions have agreed to pay fines to settle charges over use of unapproved communications channels. Reuters 

Top Stories

🌎 Russia’s Backdoor to the Global Banking System Is Slamming Shut. A major lender in Dubai has scaled back Russia-related business, while Turkish lenders have become more cautious. WSJ

🚩 EU pushes ahead with a plan to buy weapons for Ukraine with frozen Russian asset profits AP

🌎 Genesis to Pay SEC $21M Penalty to Settle Charges Over Gemini Earn Product. The settlement comes days after a New York judge denied motions by Genesis and crypto exchange Gemini to stop the SEC case. CoinDesk

🚩 Judge slams SEC for ‘gross abuse of power’ in crypto case, imposes sanctions Fortune

🌎 Chinese billionaire pleads guilty to straw donor scheme in NY and Rhode Island. Hui Qin, a Chinese film magnate with homes in Manhattan and Long Island, admitted to using his fortune to recruit and reimburse people who made political donations on his behalf. AP

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🌎 EU agrees on sanctions on Hamas, violent West Bank settlers. The decision marked the first time that the EU's 27 member countries had agreed to sanction violent Israeli settlers, following in the footsteps of the US and Britain. Reuters

🌎 Friends in Low Places? Behind South Africa's New Genocide Case Against Israel. Pretoria and Tehran have been diplomatically and financially close since long before Hamas invaded southern Israel last October. RealClearInvestigations

🚩 Investigators search the home of South Africa’s Parliament Speaker over bribery allegations. AP

🌎 Brazil’s Bolsonaro is indicted for first time over alleged falsification of his own vaccination data. The federal police indictment released by the Supreme Court alleged that Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false information into a public health database. AP

🌎 Embattled Binance Founder CZ Launches ‘Giggle Academy’. Even as he awaits sentencing in federal court, CZ announces "the most impactful thing I could do for the next chapter of my life." Decrypt

🌎 Google helped boost Obama, Clinton presidential runs while censoring Republicans. The MRC published a report accusing Google of having “utilized its power to help push to electoral victory the most liberal candidates…while targeting their opponents for censorship.” NYP

🌎 Sex trade to slavery: A UN agency says criminals reap $236B a year in profits from forced labor. The sum equaled the economic output of EU member Croatia and eclipsed the annual revenues of tech giants like Microsoft and Samsung. AP

🌎 2nd Man Charged in Theft of Judy Garland’s Ruby Slippers. Jerry Hal Saliterman threatened to release a sex tape of a woman if she told the F.B.I. about the theft of the famed red pumps. NYT

🔥 Understanding the Extraordinary Power of the US Treasury Bloomberg

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IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 Putin calls on KGB's heirs to bust the West's sanctions Reuters

🇷🇺 Russians will no longer be able to access Microsoft cloud services, business intelligence tools Record

🇷🇺 Armenian Banks to Suspend Russia’s Mir Payment System Moscow Times

🇷🇺 Foreign ministers back new Russia sanctions following Navalny’s death Politico

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Pro-Trump attorney arrested after hearing over leaking Dominion documents AP

💸 US Blacklists North Macedonia Presidential Hopeful Over Corruption AFP

💸 Senior Iranian Cleric Accused Of Corruption In Land Deal RFE

💸 Iraq's former defense minister arrested in Swedish airport for benefits fraud Fox

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China

🇨🇳 China Set for Record Russian Oil Imports in March Bloomberg

🇨🇳 EU Weighs Joining US in Reviewing Risks of Chinese Legacy Chips Bloomberg

🇨🇳 US is still chasing down pieces of Chinese hacking operation, NSA official says Record

🇨🇳 China’s corruption watchdog zeroes in on cadres’ fake business investments SCMP

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Trafficking

🚚 Terror watchlisted migrant criminal from Colombia arrested at Texas border NYP

🚚 Dirty gold can still slip into London market Reuters

🚚 Colombia cops seize 7.3M gallons of crude in raids on illegal refineries Reuters

🚚 Morocco reports first legal cannabis harvest of 294 tons Reuters

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Binance Tasks Prime Brokers With Checks to Root Out US Investors CoinDesk

🔐 EU Lawmakers Vote for Three Major Texts in AML Package That Also Targets Crypto CoinDesk

🔐 Four big questions for DC following massive health care hack Politico

🔐 FTX Bankruptcy Trade Mints 200% Windfall and Sparks Legal Battle Bloomberg

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