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Greetings! It’s October 9, and we’re tracking today’s top stories: Citi pushes back against New York lawsuit over fraud claims, hundreds of millions of USD funding China’s military, 86-year-old to pay $14M for running crypto scam, Iraqis funnel billions to terrorists from U.S. Federal Reserve, and much more…

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Featured Story

🎯 Citi pushes back on New York lawsuit over fraud scams.  The lawsuit comes as consumers are losing billions to scammers using AI to dupe victims. Bloomberg

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Elaine Dezenski breaks down emerging threats with Juan Zarate on launch episode of Coercive Capital. Watch and Listen!

Top Stories

🌎 'Lack of Legal Guardrails': Hundreds of Millions of U.S. Research Dollars are Helping China's Military. Taxpayer-funded grants to state-tied Chinese academic provide 'back-door access' to CCP. Free Beacon

🌎 86-year-old to pay $14M for running crypto Ponzi scheme. Kagel lured victims into investing in a fraudulent crypto bot trading scheme, promising high returns and no risk. Cointelegraph 

🌎 Iraq’s Dollar Auction: The ‘Monster’ Funneling Billions to Terrorists Through the U.S. Federal Reserve. A system set up to channel dollars from Iraqi oil sales to importers has been exploited for years. OCCRP

🌎 UK sanctions Russian troops over chemical weapons in Ukraine. The chemical's use in war is expressly banned under the CWC and listed as a choking agent. BBC 

🌎 Cartel Double-Cross Turns a Mexican State Into a War Zone. An explosive deception has ripped apart one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal groups and ignited a war between rival factions. NYT

🚚 US-Mexico relations and the fight against fentanyl trafficking Brookings

🌎 Some of the Web’s Sketchiest Sites Share an Address in Iceland. Reykjavik building that houses an eccentric museum and H&M is also the virtual home to an array of perpetrators of identity theft and ransomware. NYT

🌎 DPRK's Deep Roots in Crypto. North Korean developers have worked for a surprisingly large number of crypto projects. CoinDesk 

🧐 Anger at UK’s ‘bonkers’ plan to reach net zero by importing fuel from North Korea Guardian

🌎 Largest U.S. water utility hit by cyberattack. A cyber incident prompted it to disconnect certain systems. Hill 

🌎 MoneyGram customer information stolen during September attack. MG investigation in early stages to see which consumers were affected. TechCrunch

Terror

💥 Afghan man in Oklahoma plotted ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack Fox 

💥 ISIS is back, says UK spy chief Politico

💥 LA County man arrested for violating sanctions against Iran CBS

Russia & China

🇷🇺 Russia Fast-Tracks Economic Fixes as War Costs Bite Newsweek

🇷🇺 EU looks to sanction Russia for election interference and cyber warfare Euro News 

🇷🇺 Singapore’s OCBC to Stop Russia-Linked Transactions to Cut Risk Bloomberg

🇨🇳 Intel community’s report on wealth and corruption of China’s rulers is overdue Wash Times 

🇨🇳 TikTok sued by 14 attorneys general over harm to children CNN

🇨🇳 China is oversupplying lithium to eliminate rivals Reuters

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 ‘Mockery Of Education’: Dean of Michigan State’s Top-Ranked Ed School Is a Serial Plagiarist Free Beacon

💸 Jury selection begins in corruption trial of longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history AP

💸 EU Court Ruling Could Open Door to More ‘Golden Passport’ Schemes OCCRP

💸 Treasury Sanctions Sudanese Rapid Support Forces Procurement Director U.S. Treasury

💸 The fraud-accused businessman selling illegal therapies to terminally ill cancer patients El Pais

Crypto & Cyber

🔐 SE Asia Groups Using Crypto to Carry Out 'Larger Scale and Harder to Detect' Crimes Decrypt

🔐 Crypto.com Sues SEC, Gensler After Receiving Wells Notice CoinDesk

🔐 Hacker stole ADT encrypted internal employee data after compromising business partner Record

“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments… The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth.” —Lord Byron

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