Greetings! It’s January 16, and we’re tracking today’s top stories: Cash App owner to pay $80M over AML deficiencies, judge orders BitMEX to pay $100M over U.S. banking law violations, Chinese hackers accessed thousands of Treasury files, Feds seize over $21M from dead Miami man accused of corrupt dealings with Venezuela, and much more…

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Featured Story

🎯 Cash App Owner to Pay $80M Over Anti-Money-Laundering Deficiencies. A number of state regulators entered into a coordinated settlement with Block, the Jack Dorsey-led Cash App parent company. WSJ

Top Stories

🌎 Judge orders BitMEX to pay $100M fine over U.S. banking law violations Cointelegraph

🌎 Chinese hackers accessed thousands of Treasury files, including Yellen’s Politico 

🌎 Feds seize over $21M from dead Miami man accused of corrupt dealings with Venezuela MH

🎙️ Did you know that Venezuela’s president is a narco-terrorist? Illicit Edge

🌎 Trump Team Readies Oil Sanctions Plan for Russia Deal, Iran Squeeze Bloomberg

🎙️ What should the Trump sanctions regime look like? Illicit Edge

🌎 Spy vs. AI: How Artificial Intelligence Will Remake Espionage Foreign Affairs 

🌎 Biotech Battlefield: Weaponizing Innovation in the Age of Genomics FDD 

📕 Featured Report: Huione: the company behind the largest ever illicit online marketplace has launched a stablecoin Elliptic

🌎 Drug smugglers used planes, trains, US mail to sneak Mexican cartel drugs to Indianapolis streets CBS

🎙️ How cartels move funds without detection Illicit Edge

🌎 Mexican cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in plea talks with U.S. CBS

🌎 Toyota agrees to $1.6B settlement of U.S. emissions fraud case CBS

🌎 Ransomware sanctions, software security among key points in new Biden executive order Record

🌎 U.S. to impose sanctions on Sudanese army chief Burhan Reuters 

🎙️ The fight for power and money in Sudan? Illicit Edge

🌎 Treasury Targets IT Worker Network Generating Revenue for DPRK Weapons Programs U.S. Treasury 

🌎 I Joined TikTok Refugees on RedNote. Here’s What It’s Like. Free Press

China

🇨🇳 U.S. Further Tightens Chip Restrictions, Adds Chinese Firms to Blacklist WSJ 

🇨🇳 Chinese citizens stand trial for fentanyl-related charges in landmark US case CNN

🇨🇳 Chinese tech firm founded by Huawei veterans in the FBI's crosshairs Reuters

🇨🇳 China imposes provisional duties on US, EU, Japan, Taiwan industrial plastics Reuters

Russia

🇷🇺 Putin Allies Scramble as Russians Fret Losing All Their Money Newsweek

🇷🇺 Tanker under US sanctions discharges oil at Chinese port Reuters

🇷🇺 Trump's Treasury pick Bessent calls for stronger sanctions on Russia Reuters

🇷🇺 U.S. steps up Russia sanctions, placing threat of more sanctions on businesses partnering with Russia AP

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 LAFD team tasked with preventing wildfires accused of corruption before blazes devastated city NYP

💸 Inside Biden’s Billion-Dollar Broadband Boondoggle Free Press

💸 Kyrgyz lender Keremet Bank to appeal after being hit with US sanctions Reuters

💸 Former German Lawmakers on Trial Over Bribes From Azerbaijan OCCRP

💸 Cooper announces 'rapid national audit' into grooming gangs BBC

Crypto & Cyber

🔐 PowerSchool data breach victims say hackers stole ‘all’ historical student and teacher data TC

🔐 Upbit, South Korea's Largest Crypto Exchange, May Face Sanctions CoinDesk

🔐 UnitedHealth hid its Change Healthcare data breach notice for months TC

🔐 U.S. Prosecutors Ask Court to Green-Light Return of 95,000 Stolen Bitcoin to Bitfinex CoinDesk

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