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Happy Monday! It’s November 4, and we’re tracking top stories to start your week: Forbidden luxury enters Russia from the south, Black Axe cyber gang launders millions through Irish banks, Texas AG says Catholic charity is smuggling migrants into US, Biden’s sanctions legacy, and much more…

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Featured Story

🎯 Forbidden luxury enters Russia from the south. The constant flow of high-end cars, jewelry, and watches shows the limits of Western sanctions. El Pais

Top Stories

🌎 Swindler’s List of Cons: Gardai identify 1k people linked to ultra-violent Black Axe cyber gang as over €84m laundered through Irish banks. Sun 

🌎 Texas AG says Catholic charity is smuggling migrants into US, running a ‘stash house’. Paxton launched an investigation, demanding the immediate release of documentation about its migrant clients, which it has refused to do. NYP

🌎 Biden’s Biggest Foreign Policy Legacy Will Be in Economic Warfare. His administration has pushed back harder against rivals and adversaries and done so with more potent tools. Bloomberg

📌 Joe Biden’s Iran Oil Sanctions Failure National Interest

🌎 Russian Tycoon Usmanov Pays €4 Million to Settle German Criminal Probe. The probe will be dropped after Usmanov pays millions to charities. Bloomberg 

🌎 Disgraced Lebanese Central Banker Who Was a Fugitive Now Awaits His Fate. Riad Salameh was arrested on graft charges and accused of undermining Lebanon’s economy, as the Israel-Hezbollah war further destabilizes the country. WSJ

🌎 The west must outdo rival efforts to build an alternative financial system. Technological and geopolitical competition between democracies and autocracies are two sides of the same coin. FT

🌎 Biden Wanted to Fix Immigration, but Leaves Behind a System That Is Still Broken. President Biden’s his actions have moved the problem deeper into the country. NYT 

🌎 ‘Official Partners’ of Azerbaijan’s COP29 Climate Summit Linked To Ruling Aliyev Family. If you’re traveling all the way to Azerbaijan to attend the world’s most important climate change conference, you might as well do it in style. OCCRP 

🌎 A Luxury Giant, a Reclusive Heir and the Case of the Missing $13 Billion. A member of the Hermès family says his fortune is gone. WSJ 

🌎 Britain’s art-loving elite fumes at money laundering crackdown. Experts fear tough rules for the art world meant to root out criminals will send business to New York and Hong Kong. Politico

Russia

🇷🇺 Patterns in sanctions on Russian individuals CEPR

🇷🇺 Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims CNN 

🇷🇺 Russia to launch two Iranian satellites on Nov. 5 Reuters

🇷🇺 As North Korean troops march toward Ukraine, does a Russian quid pro quo reach space? Ars

China

🇨🇳 Chinese Hedge Fund Manager Indicted by US in Trade Secrets Case Bloomberg 

🇨🇳 Chinese solar firms go where US tariffs don't reach Reuters 

🇨🇳 Report finds China targeted AstraZeneca in fraud probe over cancer treatment SCMP

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Australian Mining Billionaire Ellison to Step Down After Probe Into Payments Bloomberg 

💸 Facebook, Nvidia ask US Supreme Court to spare them from securities fraud suits Reuters

💸 Malaysia Orders Sovereign Fund Audit on Loss-Making Venture Bloomberg

💸 How One of the Tiniest Oil Markets Cost Trafigura Over $1B Bloomberg

Crypto & Cyber

🔐 How the US is tightening restrictions on foreign crypto mining and data operations DLN 

🔐 Bitfinex hack launderer ‘Razzlekhan’ wants time served as sentencing looms Cointelegraph

🔐 October crypto losses reach $129M from hacks and exit scams Cointelegraph

Trafficking

🚚 Stubbornly glamorous cocaine lures us into addiction Guardian 

🚚 Starmer Urges World to Treat People Smugglers Like Terrorists Bloomberg

🚚 California drug bust yields enough fentanyl to kill quarter of state’s population Guardian

“Our job is only to hold up the mirror – to tell and show the public what has happened.” —Walter Cronkite

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