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Happy Monday! It’s December 16, and we’re tracking top stories to start your week: The sanctions busters funding Iran bankers are fueling terror, the hunt for the Assad dynasty’s missing billions begins, the fintech company that collapsed and took $90M of people’s life savings with it, sanctions and governance in post-Assad Syria, and much more…

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Featured Story

🎯 The sanctions busters funding Iran bankers are fueling terror. Four years of Democratic rule has seen Iranian oil exports more than treble, from 400,000 barrels a day in 2020 to over 1.5M barrels a day this year. UnHerd

Top Stories

🌎 The Hunt for the Assad Dynasty’s Missing Billions Begins WSJ

🌎 After Assad's ouster in Syria, U.N. envoy calls for end to sanctions CBS

🌎 The fintech company that collapsed and took $90M of people’s life savings with it Independent

🌎 Our Man in Damascus? Sanctions and Governance in Post-Assad Syria. Lawfare

🚀 Illicit Edge Originals: Experience insider stories on the most provocative financial crime issues impacting your work and life – sanctions, fentanyl, corruption, China, bank fraud, kleptocracy, and much more. Watch and listen with our hosts Elaine Dezenski and Yaya Jata Fanusie.

🌎 U.S. Prepares New AI Chip Restrictions to Close China’s Backdoor Access WSJ 

🌎 EU issues first-ever sanctions over ‘Russian hybrid threats’ Record

🌎 Victims ‘shocked’ after Biden grants clemency to ‘kids-for-cash’ judge and $54M embezzler CNN

🌎 Consulting firm McKinsey to pay $650M to resolve US criminal opioid probe CNN

🌎 Court indicts 14 North Korean IT workers tied to $88 million in illicit gains Cyberscoop 

🌎 How an 836-pound ‘cursed’ emerald traveled the Americas, ruining lives and bankrupting men LAT

🌎 Court denies TikTok’s request to halt U.S. ban Politico

Russia

🇷🇺 Assad airlifted £200 million cash to Russia in 21 flights before fleeing Daily Mail

🇷🇺 EU adopts new Russia sanctions targeting China, shadow fleet Reuters

🇷🇺 Shadow fleet could aid Moscow in other ways too – not just oil revenue Politico

🇷🇺 Serbia’s main gas supplier controlled by Russia faces US sanctions AP

🇷🇺 RUSI Maritime Sanctions Taskforce: First Meeting Report RUSI

China

🇨🇳 Meet the Judge Who Ordered Release of a Chinese National Arrested for Taking Drone Shots of a Military Base Free Beacon

🇨🇳 DOJ indicts China sentences former Premier League soccer star to 20 years CNN

🇨🇳 Xi Jinping urges party to ‘turn knife inward’ to tackle corruption Guardian

🇨🇳 US Sanctions Disrupt Iranian Crude Flows to China Bloomberg

🇨🇳 Oil Slips as Lackluster Chinese Data Outweighs Sanctions Threat Bloomberg

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 He faked his own death in 2020. A trail of fraud allegations finally caught up to him. NBC 

💸 Australian regulator sues Ladbrokes owner Entain's local unit for money laundering Reuters’

💸 Nigerian cyber fraud suspect extradited to US from Ghana DW

💸 Ex-Bolsonaro Cabinet minister arrested in Brazil over alleged coup plot AP

Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Memecoins like Fartcoin are riding Trump's victory to huge valuations NBC

🔐 Hackers hit Rhode Island benefits system in major cyberattack AP

🔐 Three arrested in Kosovo for operating Rydox cybercriminal marketplace Record

Trafficking

🚚 Cash-Strapped California Considers $15M Plan To Fight Trump Deportations Free Beacon 

🚚 Blood and Ore: Mexican Cartel Violence Silences Mine Opponents OCCRP

🚚 Forensic technology aids Brazil's crackdown on illicit Amazon gold trade Reuters

“There can be neither today without yesterday nor tomorrow without today.” —Kim Jong Un

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