Hello! It’s November 21, and we’re tracking today’s top stories: TD and RBC hold mortgages for Toronto mafia boss; billionaire Gautam Adani charged in New York with massive fraud; the shadowy fleet of tankers moving Iranian oil to China; the model, British tech and Russia's war machine; and much more…

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🎯 Major Canadian Banks TD and RBC Hold Mortgages for Toronto Mafia Boss. Angelo Figliomeni was at the center of a media storm when police brought organized crime and money laundering charges against him in 2019. OCCRP

💸 Illicit Edge Originals: Inside TD Bank’s $3 Billion Money Laundering Disaster

Top Stories

🌎 Billionaire Gautam Adani charged in New York with massive fraud. Adani paid $250M in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain “lucrative solar energy supply contracts with the Indian government.” CNBC

🌎 The Shadowy Fleet of Tankers Moving Iranian Oil to China. Every year, billions of dollars of sanctioned Iranian oil finds its way to China, even though on paper the country hasn’t imported a single drop in more than two years. Bloomberg

🌎 The model, British tech and Russia's war machine.  Beck Optronic Solutions, which has worked on British Challenger 2 tanks and F35 fighter jets, said it hasn’t breached sanctions. BBC

🌎 Raimondo’s urgent mission: Leave no cash for Trump. With a massive legacy program hanging in the balance, the Commerce secretary wants to get billions in microchip money out the door. Politico

🚀 Adversarial Finance: How the Defense Department Meets China on the Financial Battlefield Coercive Capital 

📌 How the US is bankrolling Beijing’s ambitions Hill

🌎 Bill Hwang Sentenced to 18 Years Over Archegos Collapse. Hwang was found guilty of fraud and market manipulation in a case linked to the failure of his investment fund. Reuters

🌎 A Federal Agent’s Laptop Held the Keys to Seize $3.6B in Stolen Bitcoin. Here’s How It Ended Up at the Smithsonian. Smithsonian

🌎 How a brutally repressive African country freely raises money in the U.S. Eritrea’s ruling party is under U.S. sanctions. WaPo

🌎 U.S. charges five men in Scattered Spider hacking operations. The group has stolen millions in crypto and duped employees across the nation. Axios

🌎 After 97 UN aid trucks in Gaza are ‘violently looted’ by armed men, food prices soar. Armed men attacked and robbed 100 U.N. aid trucks that crossed over from Israel. Fox

🌎 The Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone. Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to target political opponents. Could it happen here? New Yorker 

🌎 Inside the Booming ‘AI Pimping’ Industry. AI-generated influencers based on stolen images of real-life adult content creators are flooding social media. Wired

Russia & China

📌 Gov. Greg Abbott issues this week’s third executive order targeting China DMN

📌 China’s chip advances stall as U.S. curbs hit Huawei AI Product Fortune

📌 Cash-Starved Russian Ally Detains Western Miners’ Staff in Tax Raid WSJ

📌 Russian sanctions busting linked to British Overseas Territories FT

📌 US deports a third group of Chinese nationals on repatriation flight SCMP

Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 US recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as president CNN

💸 Trump pick for Manhattan's top federal prosecutor urges focus on national security, money laundering Reuters

💸 Mystery L.A. celebrity says lawyer for accusers of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs tried to extort a payout LAT

💸 Laboratory Owner Charged for $79M Fraud Scheme DOJ

Crypto & Cyber

🔐 Fintech Giant Finastra Investigating Data Breach Krebs 

🔐 Bankman-Fried's ex-deputy Wang avoids prison Reuters

🔐 Scammers are making thousands through blockchain typosquatting FC 

🔐 Founder of AI education chatbot charged with defrauding investors of $10M USAT 

🔐 DOJ Seizes Cybercrime Website and Charges Its Administrators DOJ

Trafficking

🚚 Over 11M illicit and counterfeit products seized in South American operation Interpol 

🚚 Italy recovers Etruscan artifacts worth $8.5M bound for black market AP

🚚 Fifteen Defendants Charged in Operation Targeting Conversion of Bulk U.S. Cash Proceeds to Crypto for Mexican Cartels DOJ 

🚚 Two Honduran Men Convicted In Human Smuggling Conspiracy DOJ

“Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.” —George S. Patton

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