Greetings!  It's February 1, and we’re tracking today's top stories: Hollywood's bank to the stars fined $65M, $112M stolen from Ripple founder, Russian military equipment originating in Taiwan, families of Hamas victims launch legal assault on Binance and rogue states, and much more...

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Featured Story

🎯 Hollywood’s Bank to the Stars Fined $65M for Risk Control Failures. City National Bank, the Los Angeles-based lender owned by Canada’s largest financial institution, has failed to keep proper risk controls. Bloomberg 

Top Stories

🌎 $112M stolen from founder of Ripple cryptocurrency platform. 213 million coins of Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP were moved and laundered through Binance, Kraken and other crypto platforms. Record

🌎 Precision equipment for Russian arms makers came from U.S.-allied Taiwan. Since January 2023, I Machine Technology has imported over $20M of sophisticated equipment called CNC machine tools made in Taiwan. WaPo

🌎 Three families of October 7 victims sue Iran, Syria, Binance in New York. The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, is the first of what will likely be a flood of cases tied to the Hamas assault. Semafor

🌎 CISA Warns of Active Exploitation of Flaw in Apple iOS and macOS. It's currently not known how the vulnerability is being weaponized in real-world attacks. Hacker News

🌎 U.S. Charges Four Chinese Nationals For Exporting Banned Electronics To Iran. The four used front companies in China to funnel electronics for drones and ballistic missile systems. Reuters

🌎 Tesla, VW at Risk of Ties to Uyghur Forced Labor in China. Aluminum has faced scrutiny before, but the complexity of the supply chain — the metal is bought and sold by commodity traders and processed into alloys — makes it easy to obscure a product’s origins. Bloomberg

🌎 Putin’s secret 10K-acre lair near Finnish border has $10K bidets, a brewery and air-defense systems. The lair, located on the shores of Lake Ladoga, also includes three modern-style homes, two helicopter pads, yacht piers and a trout farm. NYP

🌎 EBay to pay $59M to settle US charges over illegal pill-making machines. Pill presses and encapsulating machines can be used to produce counterfeit pills that are indistinguishable from legitimate prescription drugs. USA Today

🌎 Police seize record 50,000 Bitcoin from now-defunct piracy site. The figure corresponds to over $2.1B at today's Bitcoin-USD exchange rate. Bleepingcomputer

🚩 FinCEN Assesses $100,000 Civil Money Penalty against Gyanendra Kumar Asre for BSA Violations FinCEN

IN THE NEWS

China

🇨🇳 China warns Ukraine over naming its firms 'sponsors of war' Reuters

🇨🇳 US Accuses Chinese Memory Chipmaker, AI Firms of Aiding PLA Bloomberg

🇨🇳 FBI disrupts Chinese botnet by wiping malware from infected routers Bleepingcomputer

🇨🇳 Chinese hackers ready to ‘wreak havoc’ on critical US infrastructure with 50-to-1 cyber personnel advantage NYP

MORE TOP STORIES...

Russia

🇷🇺 Turkish Banks Close Russian Corporate Accounts Over Secondary Sanctions Moscow Times

🇷🇺 Russia’s New Threats to Exiles: Seized Assets and Forced Returns NYT

🇷🇺 Putin ally arrested in London by Britain’s FBI Sun

🇷🇺 Aviation lessor settlements with Russia over trapped planes Reuters

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 SkyCity braces for $73m penalty after probe by financial crime watchdog SMH

💸 Donald Trump’s ‘sex and bribes’ data protection case rejected by UK court Guardian

💸 Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan is convicted again, days before elections AP

💸 U.S. investor Calvey rejects Russian claim he pleaded guilty to embezzlement charge Reuters

MORE TOP STORIES...

Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Binance Code and Internal Passwords Exposed on GitHub for Months 404

🔐 FTX says it will pay back customers Verge

🔐 Mexican leak of journalists' personal data raises security worries Reuters

🔐 Two new Ivanti bugs discovered as CISA warns of hackers bypassing mitigations Record

Trafficking

🚚 Mexican president denies drug cartel financing in first campaign Semafor

🚚 Myanmar hands over three junta-backed Chinese warlords to Beijing BBC

🚚 Brazil authorities crack down on illegal pesticides trade Reuters

"It is legal because I wish it." --Louis XIV

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