Breaking News for Financial Crime Professionals

Hello Wednesday! It’s September 18, and we’re tracking today’s top stories: China sanctions U.S. over Taiwan, president of hair testing company sentenced to 41 months, Swiss regulators seize $15M from private bank Mirabaud, the prosecutor taking on pig butchering scams, and much more…

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Featured Story

🎯 China announces sanctions on US companies selling arms to self-ruled Taiwan.  Along with buying weapons from the U.S., Taiwan has been reviving its domestic arms industry, with a fleet of submarines underway. AP 

Top Stories

🌎 President Of Hair Testing Company Sentenced To 41 Months For Defrauding 88,000 Customers.  Kyle Tsui defrauded thousands of innocent victims, risking health with false allergy testing results. DOJ

🌎 Swiss regulator seizes $15M from private bank Mirabaud over laundering case. FINMA said Mirabaud had not made sufficient checks on customer relationships and transactions linked to a now deceased businessman. Reuters

🌎 ‘Pig-Butchering’ Scams Cost Americans Billions. This Lawyer Is Taking Them On. Prosecutor Erin West has been one of the few to have any success against the criminals perpetrating a new type of fraud. WSJ

🚩 SEC Charges 3 Individuals, 5 Companies With Operating Pig Butchering Scams CoinDesk

🌎 Texas officials declare Venezuelan gang a terrorist group.  The Tren de Aragua is an international criminal organization that operates in several Latin American countries and engages in a panoply of crimes. CBS

🌎 Meet Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ‘manipulator in chief,’ who was once compared to Ghislaine Maxwell. Diddy once called his Chief at Combs Enterprises Staff Kristina Khorram his “right hand.” NYP 

🌎 US alleges sanctioned Russian oligarch’s niece made payments for his $300M yacht. Amadea was seized in 2022, and billionaire Putin ally Suleiman Kerimov is the ultimate beneficial owner. ICIJ

🌎 The cement company that paid millions to ISIS: Was Lafarge complicit in crimes against humanity? When ISIS took over the region, Lafarge paid them protection money so it could keep trading. The consequences are still playing out. Guardian

🌎 University of Maryland President Copied Rocket Science Paper From Aussie Student. Revelation comes weeks after Darryll Pines claimed AI-generated text as "faculty scholarship." Daily Wire

📕 Educate Americans First Tablet

Russia

🇷🇺 What Wasn’t Sanctioned? Why Russia and the West Continued Trading AEI

🇷🇺 West funding Putin’s soldiers with growing Russian fuel purchases Politico

🇷🇺 Russian Man Arrested in Florida Over Smuggling US Parts for Putin's Drones Newsweek 

🇷🇺 Russia targets Harris campaign with wave of fake videos Record 

🇷🇺 EU sanctions focus expands to financing of Russia's battlefield products Reuters

China

🇨🇳 US probes uranium imports from China to prevent circumventing Russian ban Reuters 

🇨🇳 HK Chief Says US Companies Will Suffer If Trade Offices Shut Bloomberg

🇨🇳 New FDNY chief’s ties to China emerge amid federal probe into foreign influence on New York officials NYP

🇨🇳 Temu denies breach after hacker claims theft of 87 million data records Bleepingcomputer

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Danske Bank reaches settlement in France after AML probe Reuters

💸 US SEC fines 12 municipal advisors for record-keeping violations Reuters 

💸 Mahathir Sons Declare Assets in Malaysian Corruption Probe Bloomberg 

💸 Venezuela’s government says 4th US citizen detained in alleged plot to kill president Politico

💸 Indonesian president's son visits anti-graft body over private jet use Reuters

Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Prager Metis to pay $745K to settle SEC charges over FTX audit misconduct Cointelegraph

🔐 Binance denies blame in $230M WazirX hack, urges user repayments Cointelegraph 

🔐 What you need to know about Telegram, the app Hamas uses to spread its message TOI

🔐 France uses tough, untested cybercrime law to target Telegram's Durov Reuters

🔐 AT&T to pay out $13M over hack that affected millions Daily Mail

Trafficking

🚚 $500,000 Worth of Cocaine Uncovered in Avocado Shipment at US-Mexico Border Newsweek 

🚚 Tracking organized crime’s dirty money and illicit operations in Latin America ICIJ 

🚚 Homeland Security boss Mayorkas ‘intentionally’ opened southern border NYP 

🚚 Border arrests rose slightly in August; Encounters at ports of entry hold steady Border Report

“He who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.” — Machiavelli

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