Podcasts about foreign assets control

Host Dave Sobel discusses significant cybersecurity developments involving the U.S. Treasury Department and its recent breach linked to Chinese hackers. The breach, which was discovered on December 8, 2024, involved unauthorized access to unclassified documents within the Office of Foreign Assets Control, raising alarms about the potential exposure of sensitive information related to economic sanctions. The episode highlights the ongoing investigations and the U.S. government's response, including sanctions imposed on a Chinese cybersecurity firm involved in the Flax Typhoon cyber attacks that compromised numerous internet-connected devices globally.Sobel also addresses the national security concerns surrounding TP-Link internet routers, which hold a dominant market share in the U.S. The Commerce, Defense, and Justice Departments are investigating the company due to its alleged ties to Chinese cyber threats and its failure to rectify security vulnerabilities. The episode emphasizes the importance of securing cloud systems, as CISA has mandated federal agencies to conduct security assessments in light of recent breaches attributed to foreign hackers. This directive aims to enhance the security posture of federal cloud environments and protect sensitive information.The discussion shifts to the leadership transition at PIA, where CEO Jerwai Todd has stepped down after a year, passing the reins to an executive group. Sobel reflects on the challenges of dual CEO roles and the importance of operational stability during this transition. He notes Todd's contributions to the company, including the launch of an AI-driven help desk ticketing system, and emphasizes the need for a capable leader to navigate the competitive landscape of help desk automation.Finally, the episode covers OpenAI's recent announcements regarding its new reasoning models, O1 and O3, which aim to enhance AI capabilities and approach artificial general intelligence. Sobel discusses the implications of OpenAI's shift towards a for-profit model and the potential impact on the development of AI technologies. He highlights the need for practical applications of these advancements and the importance of addressing concerns about the ethical implications of AI development. The episode concludes with a reminder of the significance of these developments in the broader context of technology and national security. Three things to know today 00:00 From Treasury Hacks to Router Risks: The U.S. Grapples with China's Cyber Onslaught06:31 Dual CEO Role Dilemmas: Gerwai Todd Passes the Torch at Pia08:51 AI Gets a Power Boost: OpenAI's Big Plans, Bigger Models, and a Push for Profits All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want to be a guest on Business of Tech: Daily 10-Minute IT Services Insights? Send Dave Sobel a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/businessoftech Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessof.tech

Forecast: Cyber conditions are turbulent with two major Chinese state-sponsored storms impacting U.S. infrastructure, with aftershocks expected into mid-January. ‍ In today's episode of Storm Watch, we cover two major cybersecurity incidents that have significantly impacted U.S. infrastructure. The BeyondTrust breach, initially discovered in early December 2024, involved a compromised Remote Support SaaS API key that allowed attackers to reset passwords and access workstations remotely. The Treasury Department was notably affected, with attackers accessing unclassified documents in the Office of Financial Research and Office of Foreign Assets Control. The incident exposed critical vulnerabilities, including a severe command injection flaw with a CVSS score of 9.8, and over 13,500 BeyondTrust instances remain exposed online. The conversation then shifts to the extensive telecommunications breaches known as the Salt Typhoon campaign, where Chinese state actors successfully infiltrated nine major U.S. telecom companies. This sophisticated espionage operation gained the capability to geolocate millions of individuals and potentially record phone calls, though actual communication interception was limited to fewer than 100 high-profile targets. The breach revealed shocking security lapses, such as a single administrator account having access to over 100,000 routers and the use of primitive passwords like "1111" for management systems. Major carriers including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies were among the affected companies, with varying degrees of impact and response effectiveness. T-Mobile stands out for their quick detection and mitigation of the attack. In response to these incidents, the FCC is preparing to vote on new cybersecurity regulations by mid-January 2025, while the White House has outlined key areas for improvement including configuration management, vulnerability management, network segmentation, and enhanced information sharing across the sector. The episode wraps up with insights from recent Censys Rapid Response posts and the latest GreyNoise blog entry about profiling benign internet scanners in 2024, along with VulnCheck's analysis of the most dangerous software weaknesses and a discussion of the Four-Faith Industrial Router vulnerability being exploited in the wild. Storm Watch Homepage >> Learn more about GreyNoise >>  

Hello, and welcome to episode 120 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. On sanctions this week, there is the typical range of designations and updates across the principal sanctions-imposing bodies. On bribery and corruption, more on the ‘tuna bonds' case only this time from the US with a conviction in a criminal action. The money laundering news comes in the shape of output from the Counter ISIS Finance Group. On fraud, from the US action against bank fraudsters, and from the EU, action against investment scammers. The National Crime Agency in the UK has announced the outcome of its action against the wife of former Azerbaijan banker, Jahangir Hajiyev, and news of a possible massive cyber breach in the US. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Attorney-General's Department, 2024 Australian Dialogue on Bribery and Corruption.BitcoinBlog.de, FATF: Cryptocurrencies continue to be used for terrorism financing.Council of the European Union, Belarus: EU lists further 28 individuals for participation in internal repression.Department for Education, Policy paper: DfE counter-fraud strategy overview: 2024 to 2027.Department of Justice, Six people charged in bank fraud scheme involving an insider sharing account information that caused more than $345,000 in theft.Department of Justice, Six Members of Transnational Fraud Network Indicted for Scheme to Steal Millions from American Consumers' Bank Accounts.Department of Justice, Former Finance Minister of Mozambique Convicted of $2B Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme.Department of State, Reinforcing Sanctions on Former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes.Department of the Treasury, Counter ISIS Finance Group Leaders Issue Joint Statement.Eurojust, Financial scammers detained following actions coordinated by Eurojust.Europol, Corrupt Spanish lawyer arrested for €4.5 million fishery project bribe in Equatorial Guinea.Financial Action Task Force, Targeted Update on Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers.Information Commissioner's Office, Provisional decision to impose £6m fine on software provider following 2022 ransomware attack that disrupted NHS and social care services.Insolvency Service, Bedfordshire construction contractor banned as company director after Covid loan abuse.National Crime Agency, Luxury properties forfeited after six year NCA investigation.Norton Rose Fulbright, Financial Crime Spotlight: Money Laundering Controls in the Art Market.Norton Rose Fulbright, Financial Crime Spotlight: Money Laundering Controls in the Gambling Sector.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence: Payments to Local Authorities INT/2023/3781228.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – East-West United Bank – Insolvency related payments and activities INT/2024/5028385.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence: Permitted Payments to UK Insurance Companies INT/2022/2009156.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Belarus.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Designates Tobacco Company for Supporting Paraguay's Sanctioned Former President.Pinsent Masons, ‘Failure to prevent bribery' offence will soon take effect in Australia.Royal United Services Institute, What's the Point of the Financial Action Task Force Standards?Spotlight on Corruption, NCA forfeits over £17 million in luxury properties from first-ever McMafia order.Student Loan Company, SLC Economic Crime Unit Statement of Intent.Transparency International, Transparency International UK welcomes forfeiture of millions of pounds of assets from Azerbaijan banker, Jahangir Hajiyev.UK Financial Intelligence Unit, SARs Reporter Booklet August 2024. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 119 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. There has been an unusual uptick, certainly for the summer months, in financial crime news this week. On sanctions this week, the NCA secures its first sanctions-related forfeiture, and the EU and US have added to their designations. On bribery and corruption, the SFO in the UK has announced charges against five former executives of Glencore, and the High Court has some tough words regarding the behaviour of professionals and institutions in the ‘tuna bond' action brought by Mozambique. On fraud news, there's more Covid-19 recovery fund abuse from the US, and the imprisonment of a tech scammer. There is also a decent amount of market abuse news from the SEC in the US, and the Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong, and in other news, the NCA in the UK has announced a new data sharing scheme and the SFO has published its annual report and accounts. There is also a round-up of the cyber-attack news this week. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Cayman Islands, Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act 2023.Commodities and Futures Trading Commission's Office of Customer Education and Outreach, CFTC Warns Customers to Watch for Follow-on Frauds.Council of the European Union, Sanctions against terrorism: Council renews the EU Terrorist List and designates a new entity.Department of Justice, Caledonia man sentenced for COVID loan fraud.Department of Justice, KC Woman Pleads Guilty to $900,000 Covid Fraud Scheme.Department of Justice, United States v. Andrew Left.Department of Justice, Leader Of Tech Support Fraud Scheme Sentenced To Seven Years In Prison.Department of Justice, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco Delivers Remarks on New Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program.FinCEN, FinCEN Issues Notice to Financial Institution Customers on Beneficial Ownership Information Requirements.FinCEN, Notice to Customers: Beneficial Ownership Information Reference Guide.Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, The UK Sanctions List: Search Function.Information Commissioner's Office, Reprimand: The Electoral Commission.National Crime Agency, NCA recovers £780,000 in the first UK forfeiture of sanctioned funds.National Crime Agency, Ground breaking public private partnership launched to identify criminality using banking data.National Crime Agency, Cross-System Professional Enablers Strategy 2024-2026.National Crime Agency, NCA shuts down major fraud platform responsible for 1.8 million scam calls.Ocorian, Cayman Islands modernises beneficial ownership regime to align with global standards.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Continuation of Business of Evraz Plc's North American Subsidiaries: INT/2022/1710676.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Yemen.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: OFSI General licence INT/2024/4919848.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Iranian Missile and UAV Procurement Facilitators.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Houthi Weapons Procurement Networks.Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Charges Andrew Left and Citron Capital for $20 Million Fraud Scheme.Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Charges Founder of Social Media Company “IRL” with $170 Million Fraud.Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, Former banker ordered to disgorge $3 million illegal gains from insider dealing.Serious Fraud Office, Annual Report & Accounts 2023-24 (press release).Serious Fraud Office, Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024.Serious Fraud Office, SFO charges five former Glencore employees.Spotlight on Corruption, New report finds UK's enforcement of sanctions is “all bark and no bite” (press release).Spotlight on Corruption, All Bark and No Bite: Taking Stock of the UK's Enforcement of Sanctions.UK government, National Crime Agency main estimate memorandum 2024 to 2025.UK judgments, The Republic of Mozambique v Credit Suisse International and Others [2024] EWHC 1957 (Comm).

Summary In this episode of Chattinn Cyber, Mark Schein chats with John Morrissey, Cryptocurrency Operating Compliance Director for Arete, focusing on various aspects of the cryptocurrency industry and the challenges associated with ransomware attacks. John explains how he ended up in his current role, combining his cybersecurity background with his passion for trading and investing. He discusses the volatility of the cryptocurrency market and the impact it has on ransom demands. He also highlights the increasing scrutiny and compliance requirements imposed by organizations like OFAC when it comes to making ransom payments. John emphasizes the importance of taking cybersecurity seriously and investing in the right tools and processes to protect organizations from cyber threats. John shares his journey of how he becomes the Cryptocurrency Operating Compliance Director for Arete. He mentions that he met Joe Mann, the founder of Arete, while working in the Virginia DC area. John became Arete's first client when he ran a DFIR (Digital Forensics and Incident Response) services organization. With his background in cybersecurity and his passion for trading and investing, John found a perfect fit in his current role, where he manages crypto relationships and helps clients navigate the complexities of the market. The conversation then shifts to the concept of crypto puzzles and the volatility of the cryptocurrency market. John explains that crypto is the most volatile asset in the world, and its value can fluctuate significantly in response to market conditions. He gives an example of how Bitcoin's value dropped from $69,000 to $16,000 during a market crash. John highlights the challenges of working with a new industry that lacks regulation and dealing with assets that are highly volatile. He emphasizes the need to understand how all these factors fit together. The discussion then turns to ransomware attacks and the changing demands of adversaries. John mentions that during previous market crashes, ransom demands were often made in Bitcoin. However, after the crash, there has been a shift towards demanding cash instead of Bitcoin. He notes that the ransoms are increasing year over year, with some groups demanding even higher amounts. John also mentions the increasing scrutiny and compliance requirements imposed by organizations like OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) when it comes to making ransom payments. He explains the steps Arete takes to ensure compliance, including analyzing threat actor wallets, conducting blockchain analysis, and verifying the absence of sanctions. Mark asks John how Arete can help in situations involving ransomware attacks. John explains that Arete is a full-service organization specializing in digital forensics and incident response (DFIR). They offer assistance from the moment a hack is discovered, providing a 24/7 phone number and email for immediate response. Arete's team helps clients through the entire process, from triage to recovery, and even offers guidance on planning and prevention. If necessary, Arete can also assist with the process of making ransom payments. In conclusion, the conversation between Mark Schein and John covers various aspects of the cryptocurrency industry and the challenges associated with ransomware attacks. John shares his background and how he ended up in his current role. He discusses the volatility of the cryptocurrency market and the impact it has on ransom demands. He also highlights the increasing scrutiny and compliance requirements imposed by organizations like OFAC. John emphasizes the importance of taking cybersecurity seriously and investing in the right tools and processes to protect organizations from cyber threats. Arete's role in assisting clients with ransomware attacks is also discussed, highlighting their full-service approach and expertise in digital forensics and incident response. Key Takeaways

Hello, and welcome to episode 118 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. On sanctions this week, designations from the US, and extension of existing sanctions from the EU. On bribery and corruption, the anti-corruption body in Zambia is cleared out, and another pressure group gives its two penn'orth on the new Labour government's approach to corruption. The money laundering news comes from the IMF, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and MONEYVAL has published a report on Jersey. There is also a round-up of the cyber-attack news this week. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Council of the European Union, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: Council renews economic sanctions for a further 6 months.Europol, Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) 2024.Europol, Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) 2024 (Report).International Monetary Fund, Panama: Financial Sector Assessment Program - Technical Note on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).MONEYVAL, MONEYVAL acknowledges Jersey's progress in improving measures to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism.MONEYVAL, Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures Jersey: Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation Report.National Crime Agency, NCA infiltrates world's most prolific DDoS-for-hire service.National Cyber Security Centre, "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." (Blog post).National Cyber Security Centre, New legislation will help counter the cyber threat to our essential services (Blog post).New Zealand Serious Fraud Office, Phone scam.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, GENERAL LICENCE - Russian Banks – UK subsidiaries – Guernsey subsidiary – EU subsidiaries - Basic needs, routine holding and maintenance, the payment of legal fees and insolvency related payments: INT/2022/1280876.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General licence - INT/2022/1280876.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets PRC-based Procurement Network Supporting DPRK Ballistic Missile and Space Programs.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Implements REPO for Ukrainians Act Reporting Requirement.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Rebel Alliance Driving Instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Solicitors Regulation Authority, Annual report by the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) for the year ended 5 April 2024 (Annex).Spotlight on Corruption, Thin gruel for anti-corruption campaigners – the new government's King's Speech.UKFIU, SARs in Action: Issue 26.US Department of Justice, Leader of $200 Million Ponzi Scheme Pleads Guilty to Mail and Wire Fraud Conspiracy and Faces 20 Years' Imprisonment. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 117 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. On sanctions this week, designations from the US, and extension of existing sanctions from the EU. On bribery and corruption, the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition has published its post-election agenda, urging the new Labour government to take action across a range of areas. On money laundering, the Financial Conduct Authority has PEPs and their treatment by financial institutions in its sights. There is also a round-up of the cyber-attack news this week. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Council of the European Union, Extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as violent activists, blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza: five individuals and three entities sanctioned under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime.Council of the European Union, Iran: Council prolongs EU restrictive measures in view of Iran's military support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and for armed groups and entities in the Middle East and the Red Sea region.Financial Conduct Authority, FCA calls on firms to improve treatment of politically exposed persons (PEPs).Financial Conduct Authority, Review: The treatment of politically exposed persons.Financial Conduct Authority, GC24/4: Proposed amendments to Guidance on the treatment of politically exposed persons.Financial Conduct Authority, Court sets dates for ‘finfluencer' trials.Financial Conduct Authority, Three charged over CFD trading pension fraud.National Cyber Security Centre, Cyber Essentials 'Pathways': From experiment to proof of concept.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: UK Financial Sanctions FAQs.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Maintains Pressure on Houthi Illicit Shipping and Finance Schemes.Royal United Services Institute, Sanctions and the Next Financial Crisis.UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, Time to ramp up the fight against corruption.UK House of Commons Library, Sanctions against countries supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.US Department of Justice, Two Foreign Nationals Plead Guilty to Participating in LockBit Ransomware Group.US Department of State, United States Imposes Sanctions Targeting Iran's Chemical Weapons Research and Development.US Department of the Treasury, Treasury and the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council Publish New Resources on Effective Practices for Secure Cloud Adoption. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 116 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. Money laundering takes centre stage again this week with stories from Europe and the UK. On fraud news, a range of actions from the European Public Prosecutor's Office across Romania, Malta, and Italy. The sanctions news has new designations from the US and Switzerland, and the UK has updated sanctions guidance for a number of countries. There is also a round-up of the cyber-attack news this week. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: AUSTRAC, Spotlight on our work with international partners.AUSTRAC, Discover purpose behind the Fintel alliance.Bank of England, A multi-tool for cross-border payments: the power of Legal Entity Identifiers − speech by Victoria Cleland.Commonwealth, New Commonwealth model law to help countries regulate virtual assets.Council of Europe, Georgia: anti-corruption body calls for stronger oversight and accountability in top executive functions and the police.Council of Europe, Fifth Round Evaluation: Georgia.Delegation of the European Union to Namibia, EU supports Namibia to tackle money laundering, terrorist financing and related crimes.Eurojust, Eurojust supports searches into bribery and money laundering.European Public Prosecutor's Office, Romania: Three individuals and five companies indicted for €1 million fraud involving IT project.European Public Prosecutor's Office, Malta: Eleven charged in investigation into customs fraud and corruption of public officials.European Public Prosecutor's Office, Italy: EPPO seizes assets in €1.3 million fraud and money laundering investigation.Europol, French and Spanish authorities crack down on Chinese money laundering gang.Financial Action Task Force, Public Consultation on Recommendation 16 on Payment Transparency.Financial Action Task Force, Targeted Update on Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers.Financial Conduct Authority, Quarterly Consultation CP24/11 No 44.National Crime Agency, National Crime Agency leads international operation to degrade illegal versions of Cobalt Strike.National Cyber Security Centre, The NCSC and partners issue alert about evolving techniques used by China state-sponsored cyber attackers.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Cyber-related Designation Removal; Russia-related Designation Removal; Issuance of Venezuela General License 40C.Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE Facilitates Training Course on Investigation of Corruption in Chisinau.The Federal Council, Ukraine: Switzerland adopts further sanctions against Russia.UK government, Zimbabwe sanctions guidance.UK government, Venezuela sanctions guidance. UK government, Guinea-Bissau sanctions guidance.UK government, Bosnia and Herzegovina sanctions guidance.UK government, Nicaragua sanctions guidance.UK government, Global Anti-corruption sanctions guidance.UK government, Global Human Rights sanctions guidance.United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Bribery becoming less accepted in Nigeria, says new report on corruption patterns and trends in the country.United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends.US Department of State, Sanctions on Individuals and Entities Contributing to Violence and Instability in the West Bank.  

Hello, and welcome to episode 115 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. Money laundering takes centre stage this week with Singapore announcing updates to National Risk Assessments (‘NRAs'), and the FATF announcing public consultation on its NRAs. The fall-out from the FATF Singapore Plenary last week with a response from South Africa respecting its timetable for removal from the ‘Grey List'. On sanctions, here is the usual mix of updates to designations and licences, and on bribery and anti-corruption an update on Andorra from GRECO. We then end with a round-up of the cyber-attack news this week. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Council of Europe, Andorra: GRECO report on preventing corruption in top executive functions and the police.Department of Justice, Vice President of Kansas Company Pleads Guilty to Crimes Related to Scheme to Illegally Export U.S. Avionics Equipment to Russia and Russian End Users.EU Directorate-General for Trade, EU protects sanctions against Russian and Belarussian investors under Energy Charter Treaty.European Banking Authority, The EBA issues ‘travel rule' guidance to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing in transfers of funds and crypto assets.European Commission, EU further extends the scope of sanctions on Belarus to fight circumvention.European Council, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: EU lists two individuals and four entities for circumventing EU sanctions and materially supporting the Russian government.European Council, Belarus' involvement in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: new EU restrictive measures target trade, services, transport and anti-circumvention.European Securities and Markets Authority, New MiCA rules increase transparency for retail investors.Federal Bureau of Investigation, Private Industry Notification: Expansion of US Renewable Energy Industry Increases Risk of Targeting by Malicious Cyber Actors.Federal Register, Reimposing Certain Sanctions with Respect to Iran.Financial Action Task Force, Public consultation on FATF Money Laundering National Risk Assessment Guidance Update.Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, ICAEW joins forces with the International Federation of Accountants and the Basel Institute to offer anti-corruption guidance for accountants.Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore Refreshes the Terrorism Financing National Risk Assessment and National Strategy for Countering the Financing of Terrorism.National Health Service, Update on cyber incident: Clinical impact in south east London – Thursday 4 July.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General licences - INT/2024/4423849, INT/2023/3074680, INT/2022/2470156 and INT/2022/2470056.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Sale, divestment and transfer of financial instruments held by the National Settlement Depository and payment of safe keeping fees to the National Settlement Depository INT/2024/4919848.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence: Payments for Visa Application Services INT/2024/4907888.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Russian Oil Services ban.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Oil Price Cap: Exempt Projects and Countries INT/2022/2470156.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence: Payments to Revenue Authorities INT/2024/4881897.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Mexico- and China-Based Money Launderers Linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.South African Government, Treasury on Financial Action Task Force greylisting.The Wolfsberg Group, The Wolfsberg Group Statement on Effective Monitoring for Suspicious Activity.The Wolfsberg Group, The Wolfsberg Group Statement on Effective Monitoring for Suspicious Activity (Document).US Department of State, Imposing Sanctions on Entities and Vessels Trading in Iranian Petroleum or Petrochemical Products.US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Financial Action Task Force Identifies Jurisdictions with Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism, and Counter-Proliferation Finance Deficiencies. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 114 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. A quieter than typical week this week, but there will be no complaints from me about that. A range of sanctions designations, including of those allies to the Kaspersky software provision. In the first bit of news respecting Turkey this week, the OECD has reported on Turkey's anti-foreign bribery enforcement, while on money laundering, the big news is the FATF Singapore Plenary, at which Turkey's fate and place on the ‘Grey List' was finally announced. There are a couple of fraud stories, and a brief cyber-attack news. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Council of Europe, 14th package of sanctions on Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: EU lists additional 69 individuals and 47 entities.Council of Europe, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: comprehensive EU's 14th package of sanctions cracks down on circumvention and adopts energy measures.Council of Europe, Cyber-attacks: six persons added to EU sanctions list for malicious cyber activities against EU member states and Ukraine.Eurojust, Eurojust leads efforts to step up judicial response to money laundering and asset recovery.European Banking Authority, The EBA welcomes the entry into force of the framework establishing the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism authority.European Commission, EU adopts 14th package of sanctions against Russia for its continued illegal war against Ukraine, strengthening enforcement and anti-circumvention measures.Financial Action Task Force, Vietnam's progress in strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.Financial Action Task Force, Palau's progress in strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.Financial Action Task Force, Outcomes FATF Plenary, 26-28 June 2024.Financial Action Task Force, Women in FATF and the Global Network.Financial Conduct Authority, Teamwork: A Smart way to tackle financial crime.Government of Singapore, Singapore Publishes National Asset Recovery Strategy.Information Commissioner's Office, Blog: Addressing concerns on the use of AI by local authorities.Interpol, USD 257 million seized in global police crackdown against online scams.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General licence - INT/2023/2711256.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence: Payments for Statutory Audits INT/2024/4888228.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Kaspersky Lab Leadership in Response to Continued Cybersecurity Risks.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Shadow Banking Network Moving Billions for Iran's Military.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Counter Terrorism and Iran-related Designations; Counter Narcotics Designations Removals (Specially Designated Nationals List Update).Official Journal of the European Union, Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1779 of 24 June 2024 amending Decision (CFSP) 2019/797 concerning restrictive measures against cyberattacks threatening the Union or its Member States.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Türkiye's foreign bribery enforcement remains poor and needs urgent overhaul despite some legislative improvements, says OECD Working Group on Bribery.Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE hosts panel discussion on asset recovery at the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Vilnius.Spotlight on Corruption, The unfinished business of accountability for Glencore's corruption.The Guardian, DWP algorithm wrongly flags 200,000 people for possible fraud and error.Transparency International, Seven Steps to Restore Trust in the Political Class.United Nations Development Programme, Prime Minister Launches Revised National Anti-Corruption Strategy for Solomon Islands.US Department of Industry and Security, Commerce Department Prohibits Russian Kaspersky Software for U.S. Customers. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 113 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. Another exceptionally busy week for financial crime this week. In the EU, the 14th package of sanctions against Russia has been agreed, while there are further designations by the UK, US, and Canada. In the UK, there are more releases of submissions to the Treasury's review of the Money Laundering Regulations, and Hungary and Gibraltar get their money laundering follow-up reports from MONEYVAL. The market abuse comes from the UK, with an update on the charges against the finfluencers, and fines from the Swedish and US authorities against a market and a trading company. There is also a round-up of the cyber-attack news this week. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: AUSTRAC, Welcome to our refreshed website.Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, May 2024 — Monthly analysis of Russian fossil fuel exports and sanctions.Check Point Research, Threat Intelligence Report.Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, CFTC Orders Trafigura to Pay $55 Million for Fraud, Manipulation and Impeding Communications with the CFTC.Financial Conduct Authority, 'Finfluencers' charged for promoting unauthorised trading scheme.Financial Conduct Authority, Update on the FCA's review of treatment of Politically Exposed Persons.Finansinspektionen, Nasdaq Stockholm receives a remark and an administrative fine.FINMA, FINMA proceedings: HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA violated money laundering regulations.Francine Pickup, Corruption is criminal, immoral, and the ultimate betrayal of public trust.Government of Canada, Canada announces additional sanctions against Russian government for its responsibility in death of Alexei Navalny.Ministry of Finance, Singapore Publishes Updated Money Laundering National Risk Assessment.Ministry of Finance, Money Laundering Risk Assessment Report 2024.MONEYVAL, Gibraltar improves compliance with international agreements on money laundering and terrorist financing.MONEYVAL, Hungary improves its measures in relation to virtual assets and virtual assets service providers.OECD, The OECD Working Group on Bribery announces new Chair.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence - Payments to the FCA INT/2024/4836676.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Houthi Weapons Procurement and Funding Networks.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Milorad Dodik's Network of Wealth Generating Companies, Including Prointer.Official Journal of the European Union, Regulation on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing ((EU) 2024/1624) (AML Regulation).Official Journal of the European Union, Regulation establishing the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) ((EU) 2024/1620) (AMLA Regulation).Official Journal of the European Union, Sixth Money Laundering Directive ((EU) 2024/1640) (MLD6).S&P Global, Russia's shadow fleet − Formation, operation and continued risks for sanctions compliance teams.Spotlight on Corruption, Spotlight on Corruption's submission to HM Treasury's consultation: ‘Improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations'.Starling Bank, Annual Report and Accounts 2024.The White House, Statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the Global Effort to Strengthen the Cybersecurity of Energy Supply Chains.US Department of Energy, Supply Chain Cybersecurity Principles.Wolfsberg Group, Wolfsberg Response to the MLRs Consultation (press release).Wolfsberg Group, Consultation on Improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations (Submission).

Hello, and welcome to episode 112 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. I fear that things are getting busy again, as this week is typical of so many recent weeks for this podcast in that there is a wealth of news. The sanctions news comes in the form of a host of stories concerning oil exports from both Iran and Russia, with the latter being the subject of an investigation into possible sanctions evasion in relation to the oil price cap. On fraud news, action taken across the European Union against fraudsters abusing EU funds and citizens by an old-fashioned Ponzi scheme. On money laundering news, in the UK, two bodies have published their submissions to HM Treasury's consultation on the Money Laundering Regulations. In other news, the European Union Innovation Hub for Internal Security, with assistance from Europol and others, has published its first report on encryption, and finally, there is a round-up of the cyber-attack news this week. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Association for Financial Markets in Europe, Consultation Response: AFME response to HM Treasury's consultation on improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology, CFIT Forms Industry Coalition – ‘Fighting Economic Crime Through Enhanced Verification'.Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, War profiteering: Eight UK-insured tankers violate price cap, boosting Kremlin revenues by GBP 87 mn.Chartered Institute of Taxation, Improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations Response by the Chartered Institute of Taxation.Eurojust, Eurojust supports authorities in dismantling EUR 113 million fraudulent investment scheme.European Public Prosecutor's Office, EPPO conducts searches in Romania and Spain in probe into €10 million fraud.European Public Prosecutor's Office, Italy: EPPO arrests a third suspect in investigation into €50 million VAT fraud.European Union Innovation Hub for Internal Security, First Report on Encryption.Europol, First Report on Encryption.HM Treasury, Improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Myanmar.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Financial sanctions, Myanmar.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Who is subject to financial sanctions in the UK?Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Personal Staff Payments Licensing Guidance.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Companies and Vessels Behind Illicit Houthi Shipments.Office of Foreign Assets Control, As Russia Completes Transition to a Full War Economy, Treasury Takes Sweeping Aim at Foundational Financial Infrastructure and Access to Third Country Support.Royal United Services Institute, Weaponisation of the FATF Standards: A Guide for Global Civil Society.Royal United Services Institute, Suppression Laundering: Using FATF as a Fig Leaf to Target Civil Society (Policy Brief).Royal United Services Institute, Weaponisation of the FATF Standards: A Guide for Global Civil Society (publication).The White House, Bilateral Security Agreement Between the United States of America and Ukraine.UK Government, New UK sanctions to crack down on Putin's war machine.US Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce Announces Additional Export Restrictions to Counter Russian Aggression.US Department of Justice, Two Individuals Sentenced to Prison in Connection With $7.5 Million Multi-State PPP Fraud Scheme.US Department of Justice, Defendants Sentenced to Prison for Conspiracy to Sell Sanctioned Iranian Petroleum to China.US Department of Justice, Founder and Former CEO of Artificial Intelligence Company Charged with Securities Fraud.US Department of State, Imposing Sanctions on Corrupt Actors in Guyana.US Department of State, Taking Additional Measures to Degrade Russia's Wartime Economy.US Government Accountability Office, What are the Biggest Challenges to Federal Cybersecurity? (High Risk Update).World Economic Forum, Paris Olympics 2024: Cybersecurity experts sound the alarm on cyber threats.

Hello, and welcome to episode 111 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. This week has been, relative to the last few weeks, a quiet week for financial crime news. That is always welcome for a host of reasons. The sanctions news has the usual updates on further action against Russia from the EU and US, but new of an update in relation to sanctions against the International Criminal Court by the US House of Representatives. On bribery news, a former US Admiral has been charged with bribery, as well as some indications from research in the UK suggesting that business may be lost if a bribe is not paid. The money laundering news brings more from Turkey on its moves to come off the FATF's ‘Grey List', and a story from the UK about an end to the criminal investigation into Monzo Bank. There is also some market abuse news from the US, and the usual round-up of cyber-attack news. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Association of Chartered Accountants, Bribery and corruption – The hidden social evil on your doorstep.Council of the European Union, DPRK: EU sanctions nine additional individuals and entities involved in the country's activities related to illegal weapons programmes and supporting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.Delegation of the European Union to the Russian Federation, Sanctions: Joint Statement on DPRK-Russia.Interpol, INTERPOL action leads to anti-corruption operation in Moldova.Monzo Bank, Annual Report 2024.National Crime Agency, NCA uncovers corrupt officials who helped wanted criminals to circumvent international Red Notice system.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Iran-related Designations; Non-Proliferation Designations.Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Kosovo's judiciary to treat organized crime and corruption cases more vigorously, OSCE Mission report says.Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Former Arista Networks Chairman Andy Bechtolsheim for Insider Trading.Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Charges Former Lumentum Executive with Insider Trading.Spotlight on Corruption, Letter from the National Crime Agency highlights problems with the UK's political finance enforcement regime.Spotlight on Corruption, National Crime Agency Letter to Spotlight on Corruption.US Department of Justice, Retired Navy Admiral and Business Executives Arrested for Bribery Scheme.US Department of Justice, Pharmacy Owner Sentenced for Paying Illegal Kickbacks and Engaging in a Money Laundering Conspiracy.

Hello, and welcome to episode 110 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. This week's mass of financial crime news looks at action across the globe on sanctions, with the principal target being Russia and its overseas operations in Africa. The bribery and anti-corruption news comes from Nigeria where Glencore is centre stage, and an interesting story from Queensland, Australia. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the US has raised a scan email warning. On money laundering news, more on Turkey's attempts to come off the FATF's ‘Grey List', and MONEYVAL has news on Bulgaria, the Vatican City, and San Marino. There is also the usual round-up of cyber-attack news, which includes aggressive action from the US on the 911 S5 Botnet. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Council of Europe, Stricter regulation is needed to prevent corruption in top executive functions of central governments, says the Council of Europe's GRECO.Council of Europe, GRECO Annual Report.Council of the European Union, Russia: EU sets up new country-specific framework for restrictive measures against those responsible for human rights violations, and lists 20 persons.Council of the European Union, G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Communiqué, Stresa, 23-25 May 2024.Council of the European Union, Anti-money laundering: Council adopts package of rules.Eurojust, Major operation to take down dangerous malware systems.European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA reminds on rules for sharing information during pre-close calls.Europol, Largest ever operation against botnets hits dropper malware ecosystem.General Court of the European Union, Farkhad Teimurovich Akhmedov v Council of the European Union.Europol, Crackdown on money mule service providers laundering over EUR 10 million.HM Treasury, Policy paper: Joint EU-UK Financial Regulatory Forum.Homeland Security Investigations, HSI Joins the Department of Treasury in Announcing Sanctions Against Wagner Group-linked Companies in the Central African Republic.MONEYVAL, MONEYVAL publishes follow-up reports on Bulgaria, the Holy See and San Marino.MONEYVAL, Bulgaria strengthened its preventive framework to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism, says Council of Europe body.MONEYVAL, The Holy See (including Vatican City State) improved Anti-Money Laundering and combating the financing of terrorism measures with respect to banking and legal persons.MONEYVAL, San Marino strengthened its sanctions for breaches of application of some of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of terrorism measures.National Crim Agency, National Crime Agency part of international operation to destroy cyber crime services.National Cyber Security Centre, Raising the cyber resilience of software 'at scale'.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: OFSI General licence INT/2024/4761108.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Funds of non-designated third parties involving designated credit or financial institutions (“Personal Remittances”) INT/2024/4761108.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Russian Oil Services ban.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General licences - INT/2024/4423849, INT/2023/3074680, INT/2022/2470156 and INT/2022/2470056.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence - Russian Banks – UK subsidiaries – Guernsey subsidiary – EU subsidiaries - Basic needs, routine holding and maintenance, the payment of legal fees and insolvency related payments: INT/2022/1280876.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Oil Price Cap  INT/2024/4423849.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Somalia.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Counter Terrorism and Iran-Related Designations Removals and Updates.Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Fictitious Regulatory Notifications: Fictitious Notification Regarding the Release of Funds Supposedly Under the Control of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.Queensland government, Independent review into the Crime and Corruption Commission's (CCC) reporting on the performance of its corruption functions.UK legislation, The Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2024 SI No. 695.UK legislation, The Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2024 SI No. 644.US Department of Justice, 911 S5 Botnet Dismantled and Its Administrator Arrested in Coordinated International Operation.US Department of State, Imposing Sanctions on Entities Supporting Russia's Malign Activities in Africa.US Department of the Treasury, G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Communiqué.US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Sanctions a Cybercrime Network Associated with the 911 S5 Botnet.US Internal Revenue Service, Ukrainian national pleads guilty to money laundering charge stemming from attempt to export dual-use high precision jig grinder to Russia.White & Case, EU launches new sanctions framework targeting Russia regarding human rights violations.

pWotD Episode 2575: Ebrahim Raisi Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.With 1,188,373 views on Monday, 20 May 2024 our article of the day is Ebrahim Raisi.Ebrahim Raisolsadati (Persian: ابراهیم رئیس‌الساداتی; 14 December 1960 – 19 May 2024), commonly known as Ebrahim Raisi (Persian: ابراهیم رئیسی [ebɾɒːˈhiːm-e ræʔiːˈsiː] ), was an Iranian politician who served as the eighth president of Iran from 2021 until his death in 2024. A Principlist and a Muslim jurist, he became president after the 2021 election.Raisi began his clerical studies at age 15, but his exact qualification is disputed. Raisi served in several positions in Iran's judicial system, including as Prosecutor of Karaj, Prosecutor of Hamadan and Deputy Prosecutor and Prosecutor of Tehran. Raisi was criticized for his role in the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners; United Nations special rapporteurs and other organizations accused him of crimes against humanity. The U. S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned him after Iran shot down an American drone in 2019.He was later Deputy Chief Justice (2004–2014), Attorney General (2014–2016), and Chief Justice (2019–2021). He was Custodian and Chairman of Astan Quds Razavi, a bonyad, from 2016 until 2019. He was a member of Assembly of Experts from South Khorasan Province, being elected for the first time in the 2006 election. He was the son-in-law of Mashhad Friday prayer leader and Grand Imam of Imam Reza shrine, Ahmad Alamolhoda.Raisi ran for president in 2017 as the candidate of the conservative Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces, losing to moderate incumbent president Hassan Rouhani, 57% to 38%. Raisi successfully ran for president a second time in 2021 with 63% of the votes, succeeding Rouhani. According to many observers, the 2021 Iranian presidential election was rigged in favour of Raisi, who was considered an ally of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Considered a hardliner in Iranian politics, Raisi's presidency saw deadlock in negotiations with the U. S. over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and large-scale protests throughout the country in late 2022, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September. During Raisi's term, Iran intensified uranium enrichment, hindered international inspections, and supported Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Iran also launched a missile and drone attack on Israel during the Gaza conflict and continued arming proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthi movement. Often seen as a frontrunner to succeed Khamenei as Supreme Leader, Raisi died in 2024 following a helicopter crash near Varzaqan.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:44 UTC on Tuesday, 21 May 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Ebrahim Raisi on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Salli Standard.

Hello, and welcome to episode 108 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. A busy week this week, but they are all busy weeks. New designations and guidance issued by OFSI in the UK, and new designations directed at Russia, Sudan, and North Korea. On bribery, action taken against the political and military establishments in Ukraine and Russia from OFAC in the US. A host of money laundering news, including a new strategy report on terrorist and illicit financing from the US Treasury. Action against finfluencers in the UK for promoting CFD while not authorised to do so, and a round-up of this week's cyber-attack news. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Federal Register, Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations.Financial Action Task Force, Urgent action needed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, say Heads of FATF, INTERPOL and UNODC.Financial Conduct Authority, Stuart Bayes sentenced for insider dealing.Financial Conduct Authority, Three charged over CFD trading pension fraud.Financial Conduct Authority, 'Finfluencers' charged for promoting unauthorised trading scheme.Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, FINTRAC imposes an administrative monetary penalty on Binance Holdings Limited.Home Office, Circular 022/2015: Money laundering: the confidentiality and sensitivity of suspicious activity reports (SARs) and the identity of those who make them.House of Commons' Justice Committee, Work of the Serious Fraud Office - Oral evidence (recording).Information Commissioner's Office, Organisations must do more to combat the growing threat of cyber attacks.Information Commissioner's Office, Learning from the mistakes of others – A retrospective review.INTERPOL, Urgent cooperation needed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.Law Commission, Annual Report 2023-24.National Cyber Security Centre, Guidance for organisations considering payment in ransomware incidents.National Cyber Security Centre, NCSC ramps up support for those at high risk of cyber attacks ahead of election.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial sanctions general guidance amended.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: OFSI General Licence INT/2022/1839676.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Notice: General Licence – Russian Travel INT/2022/1839676.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, UK financial sanctions general guidance.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial sanctions guidance for Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Counter-Terrorism sanctions: guidance.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial sanctions enforcement and monetary penalties guidance.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Reporting information to OFSI – what to do.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Democratic People's Republic of Korea.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Financial sanctions, Democratic Republic of the Congo.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Financial sanctions, ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida organisations.Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Exposes Attempted Sanctions Evasion Scheme Connected to Russian Oligarch.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Sudanese Rapid Support Forces Commanders Expanding War.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Nicaragua-Based Russian Institution and Gold Companies.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Designates Sanctions Evaders Facilitating Illicit Arms Transfers between the DPRK and Russia.Politico, EU prosecutors threaten to sue Commission in spending spat.Treasury Select Committee, Are the UK's Russian financial sanctions working? – Oral evidence.United National Office on Drugs and Crime, Urgent action needed to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, say heads of FATF, INTERPOL and UNODC.US Department of Justice, U.S. Law Enforcement Takes Action Against More Than 3,000 Money Mules in Initiative to Disrupt Transnational Fraud Schemes.US Department of State, Imposing Sanctions in Response to DPRK-Russia Weapon Deals.US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Announces 2024 National Illicit Finance Strategy.

Hello, and welcome to episode 107 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. This week has been yet another busy week for financial crime. To be frank, they are almost always busy. Perhaps I need to be a bit more brutal in the edit. On sanctions, actions against human rights abuse of Palestinians, and coordinated action against the head of the LockBit ransomware group. On bribery and anti-corruption GRECO reports on progress made by Belgium, and some interesting research on Ukraine and anti-corruption. The money laundering news provides progress from the Council of Europe's anti-money laundering body, MOVEYVAL on Georgia and Slovenia, and the market abuse news is focused on the publication of Market Watch 79 by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. There is also a round-up of this week's cyber news. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: American Bankers Association, ABA Letter to FATF re: R.16 Revision Proposal.Baker McKenzie, US: Sanctions Enforcement in 2024: A Fireside Chat with OFAC Associate Director, Lawrence Scheinert.Council of Europe, Council of Europe evaluates anti-corruption progress in Belgium.Council of Europe (MONEYVAL), Council of Europe anti-money laundering body: Georgia strengthened preventive measures applicable to politically exposed persons, further progress needed.Council of Europe (MONEYVAL), Slovenia has improved its criminal legislation against terrorist financing, says Council of Europe body.Europol, New series of measures issued against the administrator of LockBit.EY, Cybersecurity fears on the rise among US workers, with a vast majority concerned about AI in cybersecurity.Financial Action Task Force, Türkiye.Financial Conduct Authority, Market Watch 79.Financial Conduct Authority, CP24/2: Our Enforcement Guide and publicising enforcement investigations - a new approach.Financial Services Regulation Committee, Committee examining FCA consultation CP24/2 on publicising enforcement investigations.Information Commissioner's Office, Statement in response to reports of a cyber breach at the Ministry of Defence.National Crime Agency, LockBit leader unmasked and sanctioned.National Cyber Security Centre, Blog Post: What's happened to my data?Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Global Human Rights.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Financial sanctions, Global Human Rights.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Financial sanctions, Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Cyber.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Financial sanctions, Cyber.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Who is subject to financial sanctions in the UK?Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Financial sanctions guidance for ransomware.Office of Foreign Assets Control, United States Sanctions Senior Leader of the LockBit Ransomware Group.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Formal Launch of New OFAC Sanctions List Service Application.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Sanctions List Service.Royal United Services Institute, The FATF Gains Momentum in Breaking Africa's Cycle of Grey Listing.Securities and Exchange Commission, "Adam Smith, the SEC, Data, and the Public Good" Prepared Remarks Before the 11th Annual Conference on Financial Market Regulation.Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Corruption in Ukraine and EU Accession.The Commonwealth, Landmark anti-corruption conference in Ghana.United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals.UK government, Second US-UK Strategic Sanctions Dialogue: joint statement.US Department of Justice, U.S. Charges Russian National with Developing and Operating LockBit Ransomware.US Department of State, Joint Statement by the U.S. Department of State and UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Second U.S.-UK Strategic Sanctions Dialogue. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 106 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. This week has been yet another busy week for financial crime – the busiest ever – at least I'm no longer ill. Sanctions news brings US action against China for its aid to Russia, and some enforcement action against a sanctions-evader and a member of a sanctioned organisation. In the UK, sanctions designations against senior political figures in Uganda, and updates to a range of sanctions guides. On anti-corruption, the 25th anniversary of GRECO is marked, and the NCA in the UK is judged on the effectiveness of its anti-corruption action. On money laundering, MONEYVAL updates on several European countries' AML/CFT frameworks, and stories from China and Venezuela. The significant fraud news comes in the form of news from Australia on the scale of losses to scams, and the FBI publishes a report on Elder Fraud in the US. There is also a round-up of this week's cyber news. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Attorney-General's Department (Australia), Progressing reforms to Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.Attorney-General's Office (UK), Attorney General's Code of Practice issued under Section 377A of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.Australia Competition and Consumer Commission, Scam losses decline, but more work to do as Australians lose $2.7 billion.Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, New laws to protect consumers from cyber criminals come into force in the UK.Europol, Operation Pandora shuts down 12 phone fraud call centres.Eversheds Sutherland, National Security Act of 2024 extends statute of limitations for sanctions violations to 10 years.FBI, Elder fraud reports to FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center rose by 14% in 2023.Hansard, National Crime Agency: Dealing with Corruption (Volume 749: debated on Tuesday 30 April 2024).His Majesty's inspectorate of constabulary and fire and rescue services, Vetting and anti-corruption part 2: How effective is the National Crime Agency at dealing with corruption?Joint Money Laundering Steering Group, Consultation – Part II Sector 18 (Wholesale markets).Joint Money Laundering Steering Group, Consultation April 2024 – Part II Sector 18 (Wholesale markets).MONEYVAL, Poland improved its AML/CFT guidance and feedback for reporting institutions.MONEYVAL, Cyprus improved AML/CFT measures with respect to virtual asset service providers and virtual asset related activities.MONEYVAL, Croatia strengthened its preventive framework to combat money laundering.MONEYVAL, Anti-money laundering and terrorist financing: Lithuania has improved coordination and co-operation, according to new report.National Crime Agency, Gold and art worth millions and linked to crime is forfeited.National Cyber Security Centre, Business email compromise: defending your organisation Guidance.National Cyber Security Centre, CYBERUK Digital Loft: The Future of Cyber Security for Small Organisations (Sign-Up).Pymnts, Venezuelan Opposition Politician Warns of Crypto Use for Money Laundering.UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK sanctions corrupt politicians in Uganda who stole from vulnerable communities (press release).UK Home Office, New powers to seize cryptoassets used by criminals go live.UK Home Office, 004/2024: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act – cryptoasset confiscation order provisions.UK Home Office, 005/2024: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act – cryptoasset forfeiture provisions chapters 3C to 3F.UK Home Office, Certain information orders: code of practice.UK Home Office, Investigations: code of practice issued under section 377.UK Home Office, Recovery of cryptoassets: code of practice issued under section 303Z25.UK Home Office, Search, seizure and detention of property (England and Wales).UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Global Anti-Corruption.UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: ISIL (Da'esh) and Al-Qaida.UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories Humanitarian Activity: INT/2023/3749168.UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial sanctions enforcement and monetary penalties guidance.UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial sanctions guidance for Russia.UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, UK Financial Sanctions FAQs.UK Parliament, Social and psychological implications of fraud (press release).UK Parliament, Report: Social and psychological implications of fraud.US Congress, National Security Act 2024.US Department of Justice, Brooklyn Resident Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Unlawfully Export Dual-Use Electronics Used in Russian Military Drones.US Department of Justice, Regional Leader of Sanctioned Russian Organization Pleads Guilty to Lying to FBI.US Department of Justice, Binance and CEO Plead Guilty to Federal Charges in $4B Resolution.US Department of State, Imposing New Measures on Russia for its Full-Scale War and Use of Chemical Weapons Against Ukraine.US Department of State, Recognizing the 25th Anniversary of the Council of Europe's Group of States Against Corruption.US Department of the Treasury, U.S. Continues to Degrade Russia's Military-Industrial Base and Target Third-Country Support with Nearly 300 New Sanctions.US Department of the Treasury, Remarks by Under Secretary Brian Nelson at ACI's Annual Flagship Conference on Economic Sanctions Enforcement and Compliance.US Office of Foreign Assets Control, Russia-related Designations Removals.US Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Sanctions Evaders Supporting Key Hizballah Financial Advisor.Wolfsberg Group, Wolfsberg Group Response to FATF public consultation on R.16/INR.16.World Economic Forum, Cryptocurrency regulations are changing across the globe. Here's what you need to know.

Hello, and welcome to episode 105 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. This week has been yet another busy week for financial crime, which as I've still been ill, I still have done without. Sanctions news brings coordinated action against the Iranian drone production, and its suppliers. On bribery, more news on China and Ukraine getting their houses in order. The money laundering news comes with warnings on the role of cash couriers in funding terrorism, and some trouble in the EU over the FATF's grey list and jurisdictions recently removed from it. There are also stories on the scale of government fraud in the US, and in the UK, the Serious Fraud Office has published its strategy for the next five years. There is also a round-up of this week's cyber news. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Council of the European Union, Why the EU adopts sanctions.Delegation of the European Union to Uzbekistan, European Union, EU Consortium and UNDP join efforts to support the anti-corruption effort of the Government of Uzbekistan.Department for Education, Policy paper – DfE counter-fraud policy: summary.European Parliament, Adoption of new rules to combat money laundering.European Parliament, New EU rules to combat money-laundering adopted.Financial Conduct Authority, Consultation Paper CP24/9***: Financial Crime Guide Updates.National Cyber Security Centre, Exploitation of vulnerability affecting Palo Alto GlobalProtect Gateway.National Cyber Security Centre, Pathways: exploring a new way to achieve Cyber Essentials certification.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Iran.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Legal Services General Licence.Serious Fraud Office, SFO Strategy 2014 – 2019.South African Government, Non-profit Sector in South Africa Assessed for Exposure to Terrorist Financing Risk (press release).South African Government, Terrorist Financing: Risk Assessment for the Non-profit Organisation Sector in South Africa.The Guardian, Peter Hain calls for inquiry into MoD's alleged role in Saudi bribes scandal.Transparency International, Unfinished Business: Despite FATF Money Laundering List exit, UAE has much to prove.UK government, UK targets Iran's ability to launch drones through new round of sanctions.US Department of Justice, Two Florida Steel Traders Sentenced for Money Laundering and Russia-Ukraine Sanctions Violations.US Department of Justice, Former Comptroller General of Ecuador Convicted for $10M International Bribery and Money Laundering Scheme.US Department of Justice, Laboratory Owners Charged in $36M COVID-19 Testing Fraud Scheme.US Department of State, United States Imposes Sanctions on Suppliers Contributing to Ballistic Missile Proliferation.US Department of State, U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Suppliers to Pakistan's Ballistic Missile Program.US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Designates Entities Involved in Raising Funds for Violent Extremists in the West Bank.US Department of the Treasury, G7 Cyber Expert Group Conducts Cross-Border Coordination Exercise in the Financial Sector.US Department of the Treasury, G7 Cyber Expert Group Conducts Cross-Border Coordination Exercise in the Financial Sector.US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Targets Networks Facilitating Illicit Trade and UAV Transfers on Behalf of Iranian Military.US Government Accountability Office, Fraud Risk Management: 2018-2022 Data Show Federal Government Loses an Estimated $233 Billion to $521 Billion Annually to Fraud, Based on Various Risk Environments.US Government Accountability Office, Report to Congressional Committees: Fraud Risk Management.US Office of Foreign Assets Control, Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and SCG Plastics Co., Ltd.US Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Designates Iranian Cyber Actors Targeting U.S. Companies and Government Agencies.World Bank, Unveiling the hidden: The crucial role of beneficial ownership registers in promoting transparency and accountability.

Hello, and welcome to episode 102 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. It has been a remarkably busy week this week. While the sanctions news was a limited, further action has been taken by the US against those facilitating Iranian sanctions evasion, but the main content this week comes in the form of bribery and market abuse news. In fact, there has been a noticeable trend over recent weeks in the number of stories relating to bribery and market abuse. Why? Maybe it's the cost of living, but that argument falls down when you think of the wealth of some of the individuals concerned. Maybe it's because they might be seen, wrongly in my view, as victimless crime. At least that used to be the view in relation to market abuse. Anyway, there is a load of news from those areas. In other news, the Financial Action Task Force has updated on the implementation of recommendation 15 by all FATF members and materially important virtual asset service providers. What else? Well, there's a big report from Europol and the usual round-up of cyber-attack news. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Ajax, Supervisory Board suspends Alex Kroes due to strong indications of insider trading.Cyber Safety Review Board, Review of the Summer 2023 Microsoft Exchange Online Intrusion.Cyber Safety Review Board, Cyber Safety Review Board Releases Report on Microsoft Online Exchange Incident from Summer 2023 (press release).Department of Justice, Swiss Commodities Trading Company Pleads Guilty to Foreign Bribery Scheme.Department of Justice, Justice Department's Investigation into International Commodities Trading Companies' Foreign Bribery Schemes Results in Six Corporate Resolutions and 20 Individuals Convicted.Department of Justice, United States Seeks Forfeiture of Former Mongolian Prime Minister's Luxury New York City Apartments Purchased with Proceeds of Corruption Scheme.Department of Justice, Justice Department Seeks Forfeiture of $14 Million Manhattan Apartments Purchased with Proceeds of Mongolian Corruption Scheme.Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Announces Charges In Four Separate Insider Trading Cases Against 10 Individuals, Including Drug Company Employees, Investment Firm Executive Director, And SPAC Investors.European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA publishes latest edition of its newsletter (press release).European Securities and Markets Authority, Spotlight on Markets.Europol, Europol report identifies the most threatening criminal networks in the EU (press release).Europol, Report: Decoding the EU's most threatening criminal networks.Europol, Europol press conference: Decoding the most threatening criminal networks (YouTube).Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Countering Cyber Threats Through ‘Joint, Sequenced Operations,' Director Says (press release).Federal Bureau of Investigation, Director Wray's Remarks at the FBI and University of Kansas Cybersecurity Conference.Financial Action Task Force, Status of implementation of Recommendation 15 by FATF Members and Jurisdictions with Materially Important VASP Activity.Financial Conduct Authority, Stuart Bayes found guilty of insider dealing.Gambling Commission, Bet365 to pay £582,120 for regulatory failures.Home Office, Response to consultation on changes to bodies granted investigatory powers.National Anti-Corruption Commission, Guidelines for participating in anti-corruption and investment confidence in Thailand.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Network Facilitating Shipments Valued in Hundreds of Millions for Iranian Military.Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 25962 / April 2, 2024: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Treusch, No. 1:24-civ-01050 (E.D.N.Y. filed Feb. 11, 2024).The White House, Water and Wastewater cyber-attack letter.UK Statutory Instruments, The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (References to Financial Investigators) (England and Wales and Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 2024 SI No 425. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 101 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. It has been a busy week this week. There is a broad range of sanctions news this week, with coordinated action relating to the Chinese cyber security breaches in the US and UK. On bribery and corruption, lots from the OECD. The money laundering news brings updates from the FATF on Australia and the US concerning their actions following their last MERs. There is also market abuse and cyber news. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Council of the European Union, Death of Alexei Navalny: EU sanctions 33 individuals and two entities under its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime.Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, FBI, and MS-ISAC Release Update to Joint Guidance on Distributed Denial-of-Service Techniques.Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Understanding and Responding to Distributed Denial-Of-Service Attacks.Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of the Treasury Releases Report on Managing Artificial Intelligence-Specific Cybersecurity Risks in the Financial Sector (press release).Department of the Treasury, Managing Artificial Intelligence-Specific Cybersecurity Risks in the Financial Services Sector.Financial Action Task Force, Australia's progress in strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.Financial Action Task Force, United States' progress in strengthening measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing.Financial Conduct Authority, FCA warns firms and finfluencers to keep their social media ads lawful.Financial Conduct Authority, Finalised Guidance FG24/1: Finalised guidance on financial promotions on social media.Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, UK holds China state-affiliated organisations and individuals responsible for malicious cyber activity.National Crime Agency, The SAR Portal FAQs.National Crime Agency, The SAR Portal Overview.National Crime Agency, The SAR Portal: How to register provides guidance.National Crime Agency, Operation Henhouse: over 400 arrests and £19m seized in national campaign tackling fraud.National Cyber Security Centre, UK calls out China state-affiliated actors for malicious cyber targeting of UK democratic institutions and parliamentarians.National Cyber Security Centre, Defending democracy: Guidance.Norton Rose Fulbright, Horizon Scanning: Investigations and Enforcement.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, OFSI Threat Assessment: Threats to Financial Sanctions Compliance in the UK.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Counter-Terrorism (Domestic).Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, General Licence – Active Denizcilik and Beks Ships Transit to Port and Wind Down.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions China-Linked Hackers for Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Financial Facilitators and Illicit Drug Traffickers Supporting the Syrian Regime.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Hamas-Aligned Terrorist Fundraising Network.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Actors Financing the North Korean Weapons of Mass Destruction Program.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Resilient integrity frameworks are key to mitigating new corruption risks from global challenges.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2024.Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Charges Former Arista Networks Chairman Andy Bechtolsheim with Insider Trading.Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 25955 / March 26, 2024.Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 25956 / March 26, 2024: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jordan Qsar, Grant Witherspoon, Austin Bernard, and Chase Lambert, No. 3:24-cv-00570 AJB BLM (S.D. Cal. filed Mar. 26, 2024).The Guardian, UK faces ‘extraordinary' $1bn claim from mining company.Transparency International, OECD Anti-Bribery Convention at 25: Time to Step Up Enforcement.UK courts, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Limited v Dechert LLP and Others [2023] EWHC 3280 (Comm).UK government, Financial Sanctions: Cyber.UK government, New sanctions on persons linked to Hamas-supporting media network.Wolfsberg Group, Principles for Auditing a Financial Crime Risk Management Programme for Effectiveness under the Wolfsberg Factors. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 100 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. It has been a relatively quiet week this week, which is always good for me. Sanctions designations from the US, some news from the OECD relating to Luxembourg and its progress in implementing the OECD's anti-bribery convention, and the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK has published its Business Plan for 2024/25. I also round-up the limited cyber-attack news this week. Let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Financial Conduct Authority, Business Plan 2024/25.National Crime Agency, SARs in Action: Issue 25.National Cyber Security Centre, Responding to a cyber incident – a guide for CEOs.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Vessel Shipping Iranian Commodities for Houthis and Qods Force.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Actors Supporting Kremlin-Directed Malign Influence Efforts.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Nicaragua's Attorney General.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Luxembourg should build upon recent achievements in the fight against foreign bribery by substantially strengthening enforcement efforts and resources.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Monitoring the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in Sweden: Call for contributions.Public Sector Fraud Authority, Government Counter Fraud Functional Strategy 2024-2027.Transparency International, 12 Countries to Watch on the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index.UK Government, Cyber security longitudinal survey: wave three results.US Department of State, Sanctions on Nicaragua's Attorney General.US Embassy and Consulates in Russia, Imposing Sanctions on Actors Supporting Kremlin-Directed Disinformation Efforts. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 99 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. It is yet another busy week for financial crime, with content across all areas. Sanctions updates from the US and UK, a little money laundering news in terms of a consultation in the UK, and technical advice sought by the European Commission from the EBA. There's also a wide range of bribery and corruption and fraud news, with the usual round-up of cyber-news this week. Lots to get through, so let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are:British Library, Learning Lessons from the Cyber-Attack.Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption, Republic of Moldova: GRECO calls for improvements in preventing corruption in the central government and the police.Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption, Fifth Round Evaluation Report on the Republic of Moldova.European Commission, Provisional request for advice to the European Banking Authority (EBA) regarding regulatory technical standards and guidelines under the future anti-money laundering / countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) framework.European Parliament, EU sanctions: new rules to crack down on violations.European Parliament, Amendments by the European Parliament to the Commission proposal on the definition of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures and amending Directive (EU) 2018/1673.Financial Action Task Force, Guidance on Beneficial Ownership and Transparency of Legal Arrangements.High Court of Australia, AB (a pseudonym) v Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission [2024] HCA 10.Financial Conduct Authority, FCA progresses market abuse claim against Globo Plc chiefs.Financial Conduct Authority, FCA discontinues civil proceedings against Konstantinos Papadimitrakopoulos and Dimitris Gryparis.HMRC, HMRC email updates, videos and webinars for money laundering supervision.HM Treasury, Open consultation: Improving the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.Interpol, INTERPOL Financial Fraud assessment: A global threat boosted by technology.Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, Response from HM Government's to Committee's Ransomware Inquiry.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Democratic People's Republic of Korea.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Who is subject to financial sanctions in the UK?Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Companies and Individuals Advancing Russian Malign Activities in Africa.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Designates Transnational al-Shabaab Money Laundering Network.Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Targets Al-Ashtar Brigades Operatives.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) Operative.Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine take promising steps to fight corruption but should improve enforcement and promote business integrity.UK government, Global Fraud Summit Communiqué: 11 March 2024.UK government, Wrongful Post Office convictions to be quashed through landmark legislation: 13 March 2024.UK government, “Criminals should be aware” says Minister as Government upgrades AI fraud detection tool.UK Parliament, Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill.UK Parliament, The Russia (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) (Amendment) Order 2024 No 370.US State Department, Imposing Further Sanctions to Promote Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank.

Hello, and welcome to episode 98 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. It is yet another busy week for financial crime, so I think we'll just get on with it. Lots to get through, so let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Bailiwick of Guernsey Financial Intelligence Unit, Annual Report 2023.Companies House, Companies House begins phased roll out of new powers to tackle fraud.Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Statement Regarding the Cyberattack on Change Healthcare.Department of Justice (Office of Public Affairs), Commodities Trading Company Will Pay Over $661M to Resolve Foreign Bribery Case.Department of Justice, Leesburg man pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud scheme.Department of Justice, Brooklyn Woman Sentenced To 33 Months In Prison For Multifaceted COVID-19 Fraud Scheme.Department of Justice, Broward Sheriff's Office deputy convicted at trial of COVID-19 relief fraud.Department of Justice, Man Charged for $10M COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme.Department of State, Sanctioning Human Rights Abusers and Corrupt Actors, and Termination of Zimbabwe Sanctions Authority.Department of the Treasury, Treasury Sanctions Zimbabwe's President and Key Actors for Corruption and Serious Human Rights Abuse.Eurojust, Support to halt money laundering in Italy via tax fraud and fake invoices.European Public Prosecutor's Office, Annual Report 2023: EPPO warns that serious organised crime continues to feast on EU revenue.European Public Prosecutor's Office, Annual Report 2023.Federal Communications Commission, FCC & U.K. Ofcom to Partner in Fight Against Scam Calls & Texts.Financial Conduct Authority, FCA warns firms over anti-money laundering failings (press release).Financial Conduct Authority, Dear CEO Letter: Annex 1 Firms.Financial Conduct Authority, High Court allows the FCA to pause civil case against WealthTek LLP.Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Policy paper – Post-Legislative Scrutiny Memorandum: Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.Home Office, Biggest ever crackdown on money mules in the UK.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Members of the Intellexa Commercial Spyware Consortium.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Targets Companies and Vessels Facilitating Qods Force and Houthi Commodity Shipments.UK legislation, The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2024 SI No 269.National Cyber Security Centre, Connected Places Cyber Security Principles.National Cyber Security Centre, New 'Connected Places' infographic published.Serious Fraud Office, SFO secures conviction of former MoD official for taking £70k in secret kickbacks.Spotlight on Corruption, Acquittal of two men for making corrupt payments on UK-Saudi arms deal must lead to full independent inquiry into UK government's role.White House, Statement by National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson on U.S. Sanctions on Zimbabwean Individuals and Entities.Wolfsberg Group, Publication of the updated Country Risk FAQs.Wolfsberg Group, Country Risk Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

Over the past several decades, financial sanctions have become one of the most widely used tools in the U.S. foreign policy arsenal. And since Russia's invasion of Ukraine two years ago, the Biden administration has wielded them in a number of innovative ways. At the same time, some of these uses have also triggered concerns about U.S. overreach, something that could have consequences for both U.S. national security and the health of the U.S. economy. To better understand how the U.S. government is approaching its financial sanctions policies today, Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson and Lawfare Contributing Editor Brandon Van Grack sat down with the man who manages them: Brad Smith, the Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (or “OFAC”) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A veteran of U.S. sanctions policy, Smith walked through some of the history of sanctions, lessons the Biden administration has learned from past efforts, and how these lessons are being applied to new challenges, including from Russia. This is the latest entry in our special “The Regulators” series, co-sponsored with Morrison Foerster, in which Brandon and Scott sit down with some of the senior officials working at the front lines of U.S. national security policy. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

America's use of sanctions has grown by almost 1,000% since 9/11. So why isn't Congress giving the office in charge of them more resources?Today on the Big Take DC podcast, host Saleha Mohsin talks to John Smith, a former director of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Bloomberg National Security editor Nick Wadhams about OFAC's scrappy operation and why lawmakers aren't giving it more to work with.Get this episode and Big Take DC episodes a day earlier by subscribing to Big Take DC.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, and welcome to episode 94 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. It is yet another busy week for financial crime. A range of stories across the whole of financial crime, with sanctions, money laundering, bribery, and cyber-attack news. In sanctions, there is some heavy focus on oil and Iran. In money laundering, a new economic crime agency in the UK focussed on money laundering in the environmental context. On bribery, more allegations of public sector corruption. Lots to get into, so let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air, Evading the sanctions: UK imports EUR 660 mn of oil products made from Russian crude.European Affairs Committee, Call for UK and EU to continue support for Ukraine, and sanctions on Russia.European Affairs Committee, The Ukraine Effect: The impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the UK-EU relationship (Report).European Securities and Markets Authority, ESA's Joint Board of Appeal confirms ESMA's decision to withdraw the recognition of Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation.European Securities and Markets Authority, Requirements when posting investments recommendations on social media.European Securities and Markets Authority, Warning: For people posting Investment Recommendation on social media.Financial Conduct Authority, Reducing and preventing financial crime.Financial Conduct Authority, Market Watch 76.Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN Proposes Rule to Combat Money Laundering and Promote Transparency in Residential Real Estate.HM Revenue and Customs, High value dealer guidance for money laundering supervision.HM Revenue and Customs, Number of live Corporate Criminal Offences investigations.National Crime Agency, SARs Reported Booklet: February 2024.National Cyber Security Centre, QR Codes - what's the real risk?Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Who is subject to financial sanctions in the UK?Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, OFSI General Licence INT/2023/2711256.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, OFSI General licence - INT/2022/2009156.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Russian Oil Services ban (Updated).Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Transnational Procurement Network Supporting Iran's Ballistic Missile and UAV Programs.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Actors Responsible for Malicious Cyber Activities on Critical Infrastructure.Spotlight on Corruption, Regulators failing to hold senior executives to account for economic crime, new analysis reveals.Spotlight on Corruption, Power Without Responsibility: The state of senior executive accountability for economic crime in the UK today.UK government, Ensuring crime doesn't pay: New Economic Crime Unit to tackle money laundering and carry out financial investigations.UK government, Economic crime survey 2024.UK judgments, AerCap Ireland Ltd v AIG Europe SA & Ors [2024] EWHC 144 (Comm).US Department of Justice, Justice Department Announces Terrorism and Sanctions-Evasion Charges and Seizures Linked to Illicit, Billion-Dollar Global Oil Trafficking Network That Finances Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Its Malign Activities.US Department of Justice, United States Unseals Civil Forfeiture Complaint for Seizure of Iranian Oil.US Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Announces Terrorism And Sanctions-Evasion Charges Against Leaders Of A Billion-Dollar Oil Laundering Network Orchestrated By Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.US Department of Justice, Three Men Charged with Running Hawala Scheme Responsible for Illicitly Moving more than $65 Million Between the United States and the Middle East.US Department of Justice, 70 Current and Former NYCHA Employees Charged with Bribery and Extortion Offenses.US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Publishes 2024 National Risk Assessments for Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing.World Health Organisation, WHO reports outline responses to cyber-attacks on health care and the rise of disinformation in public health emergencies (press release).World Health Organisation, Examining the threat of cyber-attacks on health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

America's use of sanctions has grown by almost 1,000% since 9/11. So why isn't Congress giving the office in charge of them more resources?Today on the Big Take DC podcast, host Saleha Mohsin talks to John Smith, a former director of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, and Bloomberg National Security editor Nick Wadhams about OFAC's scrappy operation and why lawmakers aren't giving it more to work with.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Justice Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control had a big year in 2023. Criminal and civil enforcement continue to increase. The DOJ has warned corporations that aggressive sanctions enforcement actions are coming -- to that end, the DOJ assigned 25 new prosecutors to the National Security Division to execute on its promise. Meanwhile, OFAC had a record year in collecting $1.539 billion in penalties, largely the result of two blockbuster settlements -- British American Tobacco and Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange.It's important for companies to ensure they have U.S. expertise to effectively address potential violations of U.S. sanctions laws, as unfamiliarity with these laws can hinder prompt identification and response. Having a strong compliance program based in the United States is a valuable lesson learned from OFAC.Global companies are facing unprecedented risks and challenges in today's economy, leading them to prioritize robust ethics and compliance programs. These programs play a crucial role in promoting positive corporate citizenship and mitigating legal and economic risks.In 2023, there was a significant increase in sanctions enforcement by the DOJ and OFAC, with plans for even more aggressive actions in the future. With 17 enforcement cases and $1.5 billion in penalties, it is evident that compliance areas such as third parties and internal controls are of utmost importance.Various countries, including Russia, Cuba, and Iran, continue to be the focus of global sanction schemes. While Venezuela's sanctions were temporarily relaxed, companies must stay vigilant and monitor the upcoming election. The British American Tobacco case, with its $629 million settlement, serves as a model for future enforcement actions.The Binance case, involving a $4.3 billion settlement, shed light on criminal violations in the cryptocurrency industry. This highlights the critical importance of compliance in this rapidly evolving sector.ResourcesMichael Volkov on LinkedIn | TwitterThe Volkov Law Group

Hello, and welcome to episode 93 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast, I'm Chris Kirkbride. It is yet another busy week for financial crime. A range of stories across the whole of financial crime, with sanctions, fraud, and money laundering all vying for top spot. Also this week, Transparency International has published its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. We'll also review this week's cyber-attack news, with a huge story out of the US. Lots to get into, so let's crack on. As usual, I have linked the main stories flagged in the podcast in the description. These are: British and Irish Legal Information Institute, R v Gross [2024] EWCA Crim 21.Council of the European Union, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine: Council renews economic sanctions for a further 6 months.Council of the European Union, Cyber: Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union, expressing solidarity with Australia on the impact of cyber-attacks against its health sector.Department of Justice, Three Individuals Charged for Roles in $1.89B Cryptocurrency Fraud Scheme.Elspeth Berry, Why We Still Don't Know Who Controls British Firms, and Why it Matters (Oxford Business Law Blog).European Parliament, Anti-corruption: MEPs to push for stricter EU-wide measures and penalties.Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN Finds Iraq-based Al-Huda Bank to be of Primary Money Laundering Concern and Proposes a Rule to Combat Terrorist Financing.Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Proposal of Special Measure regarding Al-Huda Bank, as a Foreign Financial Institution of Primary Money Laundering Concern.FT Adviser, Financial data from 53mn individuals involved in data breaches.National Crime Agency, $150m cryptocurrency seizure following US-UK cooperation.National Crime Agency, SARs in Action (Issue 24).Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Iran.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Guidance: Who is subject to financial sanctions in the UK?Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Statutory guidance – Russia sanctions: guidance.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Russia.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Price Cap Coalition - Oil Price Cap (OPC) Compliance and Enforcement Alert.Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Financial Sanctions Notice: Myanmar.Office of Foreign Assets Control, The United States and United Kingdom Target Iranian Transnational Assassinations Network.Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Treasury Takes Action to Protect Iraqi Financial System From Abuse.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Designates ISIS Cyber Facilitators and Trainers.Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury Sanctions Military Cronies and Companies in Burma Three Years after Military Coup.Office of the New York State Attorney General, Attorney General James Sues Citibank for Failing to Protect and Reimburse Victims of Electronic Fraud.Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Charges Founder of $1.7 Billion “HyperFund” Crypto Pyramid Scheme and Top Promoter with Fraud.Transparency International, CPI 2023: Corruption and (In)Justice (press release).Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index.United States District Court for the Southern District Of New York, THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, by LETITIA JAMES, Attorney General of the State of New York v Citibank N.A.US Department of Justice, Lexington Woman Sentenced for Wire Fraud and Money Laundering Related to COVID-19 Relief.US Department of Justice, U.S. Government Disrupts Botnet People's Republic of China Used to Conceal Hacking of Critical Infrastructure.

05th Oct: Crypto & Coffee at 8

Tune in for a quick update regarding: (1) the Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC) warning to U.S. businesses regarding tankers carrying Russian oil sold above the Biden Administration's $60 price cap spoofing their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and fraudulently changing export documentation to obtain prohibited services from U.S. companies and (2) EAR99 items and related export license requirements for Russia.  Thank you for listening.  

Global Trade Talks is a podcast that shares brief perspectives on key global issues on international trade, current events, business, law, and public policy as they impact our lives. In this podcast, hosts Nicole Simonian and Ambassador Robert Holleyman talk to Jason Prince, a Crowell & Moring Partner and immediate-past Chief Counsel to OFAC , about what it was like to be at the eye of the sanctions hurricane following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, what to expect in the Russia-related sanctions arena in 2023, and steps that companies should be taking now to mitigate the risks of potential future China-related sanctions.

02nd Feb: Crypto & Coffee at 8

21st Dec

This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Circle.   On this edition of the “Weekly Recap,” NLW looks at some small but potentially significant shifts to the Office of Foreign Assets Control's sanctions against Tornado Cash, the Securities and Exchange Commission's victory over LBRY and more.  - Nexo Pro allows you to trade on the spot and futures markets with a 50% discount on fees. You always get the best possible prices from all the available liquidity sources and can earn interest or borrow funds as you wait for your next trade. Get started today on pro.nexo.io. - Circle, the sole issuer of the trusted and reliable stablecoin USDC, is our sponsor for today's show. USDC is a fast, cost-effective solution for global payments at internet speeds. Learn how businesses are taking advantage of these opportunities at Circle's USDC Hub for Businesses. - “The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with today's editing by Eleanor Pahl and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. Music behind our sponsors today is “War” by Enoch Yang. Image credit: Staff/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

But not enough to stop lawsuits, says Coin Center. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io and Circle.On this edition of the “Weekly Recap,” NLW looks at some small but potentially significant shifts to the Office of Foreign Assets Control's sanctions against Tornado Cash, the Securities and Exchange Commission's victory over LBRY and more. -Nexo Pro allows you to trade on the spot and futures markets with a 50% discount on fees. You always get the best possible prices from all the available liquidity sources and can earn interest or borrow funds as you wait for your next trade. Get started today on pro.nexo.io.-Circle, the sole issuer of the trusted and reliable stablecoin USDC, is our sponsor for today's show. USDC is a fast, cost-effective solution for global payments at internet speeds. Learn how businesses are taking advantage of these opportunities at Circle's USDC Hub for Businesses.-“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with today's editing by Eleanor Pahl and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. Music behind our sponsors today is “War” by Enoch Yang. Image credit: Staff/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tornado Cash is an open source, decentralized cryptocurrency tumbler that was introduced in 2019. The service allows users to mix identifiable Ethereum cryptocurrency funds with others, thus obscuring the trail back to the funds original source. On August 8, 2022, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, making it illegal for United States citizens, residents, and companies to receive or send money through the service. OFAC claims that Tornado cash is responsible for laundering more than $7 billion in virtual currencies, including money believed to be stolen by North Korea and criminal groups.As opposed to sanctioning people, organizations, or particular addresses associated with rogue regimes, OFAC has sanctioned the code of Tornado Cash itself, causing critics to claim that OFAC has exceeded its statutory authority .In this podcast, experts discuss OFAC's blacklisting of Tornado Cash, potential litigation from opponents, and the broader implications for financial privacy, national security, and free speech.Featuring:Paul Brigner, Head of U.S. Policy and Strategic Advocacy, Electric Coin Company.Michael Mosier, General Counsel, Espresso SystemsKevin Werbach, Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School, University of PennsylvaniaModerator: J.W. Verret, Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Tornado Cash is an open source, decentralized cryptocurrency tumbler that was introduced in 2019. The service allows users to mix identifiable Ethereum cryptocurrency funds with others, thus obscuring the trail back to the funds original source. On August 8, 2022, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, making it illegal for United States citizens, residents, and companies to receive or send money through the service. OFAC claims that Tornado cash is responsible for laundering more than $7 billion in virtual currencies, including money believed to be stolen by North Korea and criminal groups.As opposed to sanctioning people, organizations, or particular addresses associated with rogue regimes, OFAC has sanctioned the code of Tornado Cash itself, causing critics to claim that OFAC has exceeded its statutory authority .Join our experts as they discuss OFAC's blacklisting of Tornado Cash, potential litigation from opponents, and the broader implications for financial privacy, national security, and free speech.Featuring:Paul Brigner, Head of U.S. Policy and Strategic Advocacy, Electric Coin Company.Michael Mosier, General Counsel, Espresso SystemsKevin Werbach, Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School, University of PennsylvaniaModerator: J.W. Verret, Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

UPDATE ON US SANCTIONS Moderator: Mr. Joseph E.M. Hughes , Chairman – The American Club Panelists: Mr. Tanner Johnson, Policy Desk Team Leader – Office of Russia, Ukraine & Eurasia, Global Markets-U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, International Trade Administration - U.S. Department of Commerce Mr. Michael Lieberman, Assistant Director for Enforcement, Office of Foreign Assets Control – U.S. Department of the Treasury Capital Link's 14th Annual New York Maritime Forum Wednesday, September 21, 2022 Metropolitan Club in New York City For more information on the program please visit here: https://forums.capitallink.com/shipping/2022NYmaritime/

THE ECONOMICS & IMPLEMENTATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN OIL PRICE CAP Moderator: Mr. Bruce G. Paulsen, Partner - Seward & Kissel LLP Panelists: Mr. Michael Lieberman, Assistant Director for Enforcement, Office of Foreign Assets Control – U.S. Department of the Treasury Mr. Eric VanNostrand, Senior Advisor for Russia/Ukraine, Office of Economic Policy – U.S. Department of the Treasury Capital Link's 14th Annual New York Maritime Forum Wednesday, September 21, 2022 Metropolitan Club in New York City For more information on the program please visit here: https://forums.capitallink.com/shipping/2022NYmaritime/

When does economic policy become industrial policy, and has the Biden administration crossed that line? In this episode of Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I'm talking with industrial policy skeptic Scott Lincicome about the CHIPS and Science Act, how competition with China complicates the argument for free markets, and more.Scott is the director of general economics and the Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. He is the author of numerous reports on industrial policy and international free trade, including "The (Updated) Case for Free Trade" with Alfredo Carrillo Obregon and “Questioning Industrial Policy” with Huan Zhu. He's also the author of Capitolism, a Dispatch newsletter.In This Episode:* Is Bidenomics really about boosting productivity? (1:19)* We're all industrial policy enthusiasts now (3:37)* The climate change exception (9:34)* Thinking about China (17:29)* Can the US play the semiconductor game and win? (21:35)Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.Is Bidenomics really about boosting productivity?James Pethokoukis: The Biden administration has been doing quite a bit: this infrastructure bill, we've had a chips and R&D bill, now we have the Inflation Reduction Act. The president has said that one thing he's trying to do is boost the productive capacity of the economy. Do you view that as the main thrust of these bills?Scott Lincicome: No. I think it's actually much more about picking and choosing specific sectors. You can maybe argue for infrastructure: to the extent that roads and bridges are going to actually lead to the expansion of the national productive capacity, okay. But particularly with semiconductors and the IRA, this is just classic industrial policy. “The market has failed. We don't like the sectoral composition of the United States economy. In particular, we are not making enough semiconductors. We are not making enough solar panels and wind turbines and electric vehicles, and government needs to get involved. We need to not only encourage the consumption of these goods, but we need to actually forcibly, or through a lot of subsidies and sweeteners, incentivize onshoring of these critical industries.” I know that there are some attenuated ideas that this will then boost the overall productive capacity after several years. This is the whole idea that the Inflation Reduction Act will actually reduce inflation by spending all this money. But let's be clear: the immediate effects, the ones that don't require stretching the economic imagination beyond all recognizable length, are about a sectoral composition. It's about changing the shape of the US economy.We're all industrial policy enthusiasts nowA more market-oriented approach would focus on things like creating a favorable tax code that's neutral to sectoral composition and funding basic research. But with industrial policy, you care about sectoral composition. You care about what the economy looks like, rather than just GDP growth. Is America now doing full-throated industrial policy?No, but we definitely have pushed the envelope. That actually gets to one of the big myths that is pushed by industrial policy advocates here in the United States: this idea that we lived through this grand or terrible — depending on your viewpoint — era of free market fundamentalism in which Milton Friedman got a hold of the economy and ran it like a textbook. That's absolute nonsense. We have experimented with industrial policy for ages, going back to the ‘60s, the ‘70s, then into the ‘80s. We really liked it in the ‘80s and ‘90s. We backed off a little bit in the ‘90s and 2000s but still had tons of industrial policy initiatives to encourage certain types of manufacturing, certain types of jobs, to protect certain sectors. And some of this was new; some of it was longstanding stuff like the Jones Act. So the idea that we weren't engaging in industrial policy is pretty silly. But we certainly have pushed the accelerator down a little bit in the last few months, starting with the infrastructure bill which has local content provisions: “Buy American” this, “Use these American workers,” “Produce these types of charging stations,” that kind of stuff. Specific things, not just infrastructure as we normally consider it. But then really ramping up with the CHIPS Act, which certainly has some basic research stuff in it. But throws $80 billion — potentially more, depending on how these tax credits shake out — to domestic semiconductor manufacturers to actually put more fabs in the United StatesIt's a subsidy to build these plants in the United States.Correct, and with several strings attached even further. But the idea, generally, is (so the argument goes) the United States has experienced a dramatic collapse in semiconductor productive capacity over the last 30 years — thanks, again, to the Milton Friedmanites, us at Cato, we libertarians always run Washington so it's all our fault. And we need to tilt the scales. We need to do industrial policy like the Koreans and the Taiwanese and the Chinese are doing, and we need to get more fabs, semiconductor manufacturing facilities, here in the United States. That's the idea. And then the IRA basically turned the knob to 11. The IRA went and did very much the same thing with tens of billions of extra dollars — hundreds of billions, really — looking into renewable energy: all sorts of programs, advanced manufacturing, tax credits, grants, you name it. Again, this is not new. Most of the stuff that the IRA did was expand Obama-era programs that went on during the 2009 stimulus bill, essentially revitalizing some of these programs, for example at the Department of Energy, that had been in place for more than a decade.Industrial policy can refer to a lot of things: protecting industries from foreign trade, cutting checks to businesses or sectors deemed "important," or offering strategic tax breaks and the like. Is what we're doing now closer to classic industrial policy?This is classic industrial policy. And in a sense, I'm relieved. Because for the last two years, before the CHIPS bill and the IRA and a little bit on infrastructure, we had this very painful debate that we wonks have to have about definitions. If you listen to some industrial policy advocates out there, like Mariana Mazzucato, the Italian economist who's all the rage in Europe with industrial policy, to them — and there are some folks here in the United States who do this too — industrial policy is anything and everything. WTO reform was industrial policy, basic research gets thrown in, military spending … You get these ridiculous statements like, “Everything that goes into an iPhone was the result of government industrial policy.” That's a lot of nonsense. There's plenty of free-market, market-oriented, libertarian, whatever you want to call it, stuff that just does not meet the traditional definition of industrial policy, meaning targeted and directed government action — tariffs, subsidies, whatever — to achieve a specific microeconomic advantage over what the market could produce within national borders. And always pursuant to some strategic plan. This is not the NIH just giving out some grants. No, you have a big plan, a strategic plan, and you're going to go out and determine winners and losers. That is very much what we're doing in the CHIPS Act and the IRA. It's nice in the sense that we're getting back to a discussion of traditional industrial policy.The climate change exceptionCertainly some would argue, even if they're generally skeptical of industrial policy, they would say, “Well, sometimes we have to do it. Maybe for defense-related reasons we need to do it. Maybe there's some other emergency. People think climate change is that kind of thing: We can't wait for the market to figure it out. It's a pressing emergency, as much as a geopolitical conflict would be. It's that kind of thing. Therefore, we must act.Even zany libertarians like me acknowledge a national defense exception to all of this stuff. There's actually a lot of literature I've written about, about how national defense is quite different from socially related industrial policy. And for those reasons, and for very legitimate national security reasons, you tend to push defense-related stuff over the side. Even I am not going to say we should be outsourcing our nuclear weapons technologies to China. That kind of stuff is obvious. Just as importantly, or almost as importantly, there are pretty huge differences between defense procurement and commercial industrial policy. One is, there's no other buyer for defense-related stuff. The market is the government's market. That makes the government uniquely positioned and attuned as the consumer to care about how it's spending its money, to actually have sophisticated, detailed information about the sector. The government knows a lot more about tanks than basically anybody else, because the government is in the tank consumption business. Finally, the public tends to give the government a lot more of benefit of the doubt about failures, about dollar figures and the rest. It's kind of the government's unique, constitutional responsibility. National defense works. Climate change, though, I think is a problem. Because climate change is very much a consumption issue as much as it is a production issue. And it's very little of a domestic production issue. Of course we care about coal-fired electricity plants and the rest. But at the end of the day, all we really care is that we want to increase domestic consumption of renewable energy. With respect to all of these products, there's no need that solar panels be made in America. Quite frankly, there's a very strong argument that by raising the prices of our renewable energy goods — by slapping tariffs on them, by localization mandates like Buy American policies — we're actually raising the prices of these goods and then discouraging consumption of renewable energy. So there's a really tough tension between classic economic nationalist industrial policy and environmental goals. You don't have to take it from me. A big initiative of the Obama administration was to liberalize trade in environmental goods. The Obama administration quite rightly observed that production of these things is not nearly as important as consumption of these things. And what helps maximize consumption? Free trade. That deal never got finished. It's been shelved because, of course, everybody hates trade these days. But I think that it's a lot tougher argument on the climate change side that we need industrial policy, because it just doesn't have the same dynamic as something like national defense.Let me frame it somewhat differently. What if the policy was, “Here's how we're going to deal with climate change: We need to pull carbon from the air”? Carbon removal technology is something that doesn't really exist right now, other than in some very experimental forms. “We're going to fund it, just like Apollo, just like the Manhattan project.” Would you favor something like that, assuming you thought there was the actual need to pull carbon from the sky?This is a great example of where you have the industrial policy approach and the more market-oriented approach. The industrial policy approach is that we need that carbon capture technology to be made by Americans in America. And not just deployed by Americans; we need it made in America. Whereas the more free-market approach would be a prize: We don't care how it's made. We don't care who makes it, with a few security-related exceptions. If tomorrow the Korean government or Samsung or whatever comes up with the most amazing carbon capture technology in the world — it's like Mr. Fusion from Back to the Future, you just slap it on a power plant and suddenly we're zero emitters — you win the prize. We don't care that it was made by a Korean company. We don't care that they are going to be Korean jobs and not American jobs. No, the industrial policy side says, “We care a lot about who makes this stuff and that it's made in America, using American materials.” The pandemic, for all of its terribleness, provided us a pretty good example of the industrial policy approach to pandemic stuff and the market approach. And that's in the vaccines. The more free-market approach, essentially a prize but a procurement contract, was we went to Pfizer and BioNTech, and if you look at the contract for those vaccines, it said we have nothing to do with your supply chain. “We don't care how you do it. We don't care what you do. Just get an FDA-approved vaccine and we are all in, we're going to pay.” That's it. There are clauses in that contract that literally say we will have no control over how you make this whatever. A ton of global collaboration, of course. BioNTech is a German company, blah, blah, blah. Totally different approach: There's another company in Maryland called Emergent BioSolutions. Emergent BioSolutions is a heavily government-connected contract manufacturer that has been essentially put here for pandemic preparedness. Lots of government involvement over the years. Emergent was the kind of all-American government contractor model. It is very much similar to a lot of the stuff we hear today about what we need, not just for pandemics, but for other stuff as well: We need to put this factory in America; we need to put it right outside of Washington. Well, Emergent hasn't made a handful of finished doses, and in fact has had a ton of problems with sanitation issues. They've had to destroy a bunch of doses. It's a nice contrast between a more market-oriented approach and a very domestic-oriented approach, one being much more industrial policy than the other. We can argue on the margins about how we funded mRNA research back in the day… But look, comparatively, there are two very different approaches to economic policymaking.Thinking about ChinaIt was kind of easy to defend free markets during the Cold War, but have things become more complicated with China given the interdependence of our economies? How easy is it for you to maintain your pro-market views on industrial policy questions with China?China certainly makes it a little bit harder, and the nature of technology makes it a little bit harder. But we have existing laws and processes for a lot of that. You used a word there that sets off my libertarian Spidey senses. You said “important.” The issue there is, who decides what's important? The idea is not that we allow mass proliferation of dual-use technologies, we rely on China for weapons systems or critical inputs to weapon systems. But it's also that we have to have a lot of skepticism about what is and isn't important. I have very little problem allowing the Office of Foreign Assets Control and all the guys that commerce and whatever to apply the export control regime. We have US laws that require the Department of Defense to look at defense procurement and look at weak links in the chain. In fact, the Defense Production Act, before it was used to make baby formula, used to be used correctly. DOD used to look at its defense supply chain and say, “We don't have a stable producer of widgets that are important for our weapon systems. We need to subsidize that. We're going to give them $20 million.” You know what? No problem. The problem is that now the word “important” has become so distorted from its original meaning that steel rebar is being restricted on national security grounds. Not to mention all of the other areas. Certainly there is a need to consider China, to consider the natures of technologies and all that. But we've gone way, way beyond what is in any way a rational policy. And you have to be very concerned about politics. One of the little-known secrets about the global chip shortage is how American export control policy contributed to the global chip shortage. The Trump administration started restricting pretty basic semiconductor technologies to China and Huawei and the rest. That reduced the global supply of bulk semiconductors. I'm not talking about the fancy three nanometer or whatever stuff. I'm talking about the junky stuff that we put 100 of them in a car for not a great reason, but we do. Not only did that reduce global capacity, but it also caused all these Chinese companies to start hoarding chips because they were scared to death of being cut off from these chip supplies.Believe it or not, China remains very dependent on the United States for a lot of semiconductor stuff. That, of course, made things worse. The Biden administration quietly rolled some of that back in response to shortages. But that's the type of stuff we need to be really worried about. We also need to be concerned about, if we restrict these exports, is that just going to harm American tech champions like Qualcomm or whatever while bolstering French competitors, European competitors, Korean competitors, that are still going to sell to China anyway? There needs to be a very rational, skeptical approach to all this stuff. You can't just scream “China!” and then suddenly protect, subsidize, and do the rest. Of course, there are going to be exceptions. The goal is to get back to a saner approach to those exceptions.Can the US play the semiconductor game and win?How do you see this experiment with semiconductor subsidies playing out? When we look back at it in 10 years, will we say, “We learned that we can do that; we learned the United States can play that game and win,” or are we going to say, “It didn't really quite work out the way we'd hoped”?It's always hard, because any time there's a new industrial policy announcement, you're going to get companies that are beneficiaries making all these investment announcements. The goal and the hard part is then tracking and determining whether those announcements were made because of the subsidy or whether they were already going to do it and they're just trying to get government cash or curry favor with the administration and the rest. The other problem is determining what would've happened in the absence of the program. One of the things I was yelling about before the CHIPS Act was implemented was that semiconductor companies and big consumers, like Apple and Ford and GM, had realized years ago that they needed to rebalance a little bit. That, because of the pandemic, geopolitical stuff, and just other reasons, they were a little top heavy in Taiwan or in Asia. They started planning to invest back in the United States. Apple was saying, “We're willing to pay more to have Samsung right next to our big facility in Austin,” for example. All these investments were already planned before the CHIPS Act ever became a thing. Of course, the government is going to take credit for all of this. “We did all of this. Feast upon our works.” That's a challenge. I'm pretty confident, quite frankly, that they're going to run into a lot of problems. One problem is, like I said, they've attached strings to this stuff. There are prevailing wage requirements and other rules and regulations about favoring disadvantaged communities and all the usual stuff. These things always tend to gum up the works a little bit. The other big issue is that we run into preexisting policies that didn't fix: immigration bottlenecks, other labor supply problems. There was a big story in the AP last week that Intel in Ohio can't find construction workers. That's because we didn't liberalize immigration along with all this industrial policy money we just threw at the economy. We have, of course, plenty of tariffs on stuff that you need to build factories. We have tax policy with respect to expensing that discourages long-term investments in capital-intensive manufacturing. I can go down the list. We didn't fix any of that. At the end of the day, will we move the needle a little bit? Maybe. Government is very powerful; we're throwing a lot of money at this. But will there be a great global rebalancing? Color me quite skeptical. The other thing we have to consider are the risks. If we are successful and there is suddenly a glut in global semiconductors — reading the news right now, the semiconductor industry is actually kind of in some trouble globally right now. Gluts are popping up, people stockpiled, like I mentioned. And now they realize that actually Americans' consumption or the world's consumption of chips isn't insatiable. There are concerns there. If we have a chips-related glut, because the United States and Europe and Korea and others all threw subsidies at this, what are we going to do with all those extra chips? If you look back at the ‘80s and ‘90s, we had trade wars. We slapped tariffs on Japanese semiconductors and then Korean semiconductors, which caused all sorts of ripple effects throughout the US economy. It pushed the computer industry offshore, for example. Being a libertarian ideologue, but also a student of history and industrial policy, I remain pretty confident that we're going to look back on this and go: “Eh, that was not the greatest idea.” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

After the Toyota Land Cruiser Daria Dugina was driving exploded on a road 20 miles west of Moscow and burst into flames, Russia has opened a murder investigation into her assassination.According to TASS, When Dugina "turned onto the Mozhaiskoye road near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemi, there was an explosion, the car caught fire immediately. Forensic experts, investigators and experts in explosive engineering are inspecting the scene and they have found or concluded that approximately 400 grams of TNT were used to cause the explosion. If you like our content please become a patron to get our premium episodes and our public episodes ad-free. 1 Daria's father is Alexander Dugin, a right wing extremist and ultranationalist, is the figure who “inspired” and advised Putin to invade Ukraine. He helped lay the ideological foundation for Putin's invasion of Ukraine and is referred to as “Putin's brain” or “the architect of the Ukraine invasion”. He allegedly is Putin's spiritual advisor, based on his roots in the orthodox church. 2 Darya Dugina's father invented the concept of Eurasianism – a new flavor of fascism. He is to Putin what Steve Bannon / Alex Jones is to Trump. In March 2022, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Daria Dugina for her contribution to an article on the United World International website suggesting that Ukraine would "perish" if it is admitted to NATO. Dugina was UWI's chief editor. She also claimed that the atrocities of Bucha were American propaganda, chosen because of the phonological similarity to "butcher," a word she linked to US President Biden calling Putin a "butcher" earlier in March. 3 We are considering three theories regarding who's behind the assassination of Darya Dugina, based on one simple question: who stands to gain from her death? Ukraine did it – we explain why that is not the case, in fact this is the last thing Ukraine would do An inside Russian opposition faction did it to destabilize Putin's regime and cause unrest – this theory doesn't hold water either in our opinion. Putin's FSB did it, on his orders as he did with the Moscow apartment bombings, the Moscow theater hostage crisis, Litvinenko, Boris Nemtsov and Anna Politkovskaya. What would Putin stand to gain? Re-energizing popular support for his continued invasion of Ukraine A pretext to escalate tragedies in Ukraine A pretext to justify those war crimes and attacks, as being payback or a response to this assassination – to his people and to the western leaders, United Nations etc Creating a martyr, a new symbol to galvanize the troops An opportunity for him to make some strong worded statements, to come out as a powerful, strong leader who has to double down on killing Ukrainians to keep his own people safe Lastly, a great opportunity to use the grieving father, Aleksandr Dugin, the architect of the war in Ukraine, as a megaphone for his propaganda serving his political goals. Episode #DubiMeter 9.5 1. Russia Opens Murder Investigation After Blast Kills Daughter of Putin Ally. New York Times. August 2022. ⇤2. Mohammed Tawfeeq, Josh Pennington, Jonny Hallam and Tara John. Car bomb kills daughter of 'spiritual guide' to Putin's Ukraine invasion. CNN. August 2022. ⇤3. Annabelle Timsit and Rachel Pannett. A Putin ally's daughter was killed near Russia's capital. Washington Post. August 2022. ⇤

In this episode of Tangents, Peter and Jerry discuss the Tornado Cash sanctions list designation by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. As they explain in a legal analysis of the case, they believe that OFAC has overstepped its legal authority by adding certain Tornado Cash smart contract addresses to the SDN List, that this action potentially violates constitutional rights to due process and free speech, and that OFAC has not adequately acted to mitigate the foreseeable impact its action would have on innocent Americans.

Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, talks about Tornado Cash, why it was sanctioned, and what this means for privacy in crypto.    Show highlights: what Blender.io is and how it relates to Tornado Cash how hackers have used Tornado Cash to launder money whether the Office of Foreign Assets Control made a mistake, according to Jerry how Americans were affected by the sanctions why Jerry believes OFAC should have done an analysis to estimate how many people would be impacted by its decision whether the sanctions should have been aimed at North Koren wallets and not the protocol whether the sanctions are unconstitutional and whether Coin Center will litigate this how Jerry believes Circle freezing USDC complicated everything what the famous people who received 0.1 ETH from random accounts via Tornado Cash should do  what would happen if someone forked the Tornado Cash code and deployed a copycat smart contract to a new address whether the sanctions signal the beginning of a privacy war on crypto how regulators are applying the same traditional rules with crypto as they use with centralized entities   Thank you to our sponsors!   1inch: https://1inch.io/ Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021   Jerry Twitter: https://twitter.com/jerrybrito   Tornado Cash Tornado Cash Sanctioned: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/08/08/crypto-mixing-service-tornado-cash-blacklisted-by-us-treasury/ Coin Center's article authored by Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh: https://www.coincenter.org/u-s-treasury-sanction-of-privacy-tools-places-sweeping-restrictions-on-all-americans/ Circle freezes USDC in sanctioned wallets: https://www.theblock.co/post/162172/circle-freezes-usdc-funds-in-tornado-cashs-us-treasury-sanctioned-wallets  Crypto exchange dYdX blocked accounts that received funds from Tornado Cash: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/08/11/crypto-exchange-dydx-blocked-accounts-that-received-even-small-amounts-from-tornado-cash/ The possibility of forking Tornado Cash: https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/08/10/cloning-tornado-cash-would-be-easy-but-risky/ What the sanctions mean for privacy coins: https://www.coindesk.com/layer2/2022/08/09/what-the-tornado-cash-sanction-means-for-privacy-coins/ Tornado Cash laundered $1.5 billion, according to Elliptic: https://hub.elliptic.co/analysis/tornado-cash-mixer-sanctioned-after-laundering-over-1-5-billion/ Celebrities get Dusted: https://decrypt.co/es/107090/tornado-cash-dusts-public-wallets-jimmy-fallon-brian-armstrong-steve-aoki-logan-paul   Hacks linked to Tornado Cash Ronin: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/15/ronin-hack-north-korea-linked-to-615-million-crypto-heist-us-says.html Harmony: https://decrypt.co/104138/north-korean-attackers-behind-100m-harmony-hack-report Crypto.com: https://www.wired.com/story/crypto-hack-nso-group-security-news/ Nomad: https://decrypt.co/106459/crypto-bridge-nomad-exploited-190m-frenzied-free-for-all Previous Coverage of Unchained: Will the Nomad Mass Looting Change How Law Enforcement Treats DeFi Hacks?: https://unchainedpodcast.com/will-the-nomad-mass-looting-change-how-law-enforcement-treats-defi-hacks-ep-382/

This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Chainalysis, FTX US and NEAR.   In breaking news, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on Monday that it was adding Tornado Cash and associated addresses to its sanctions list. It is seemingly the first time that an entire technology protocol, rather than just an individual or group of individuals, has been added to the list. NLW explores the discussion in the crypto community as well as the legal and technological implications.  - Nexo is a security-first platform where you can buy, exchange and borrow against your crypto. The company safeguards your crypto by relying on five key fundamentals including real-time auditing and insurance on custodial assets. Learn more at nexo.io. - Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions and insurance and cybersecurity companies. Our data powers investigation, compliance and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world's most high-profile criminal cases. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com. - FTX US is the safe, regulated way to buy Bitcoin, ETH, SOL and other digital assets. Trade crypto with up to 85% lower fees than top competitors and trade ETH and SOL NFTs with no gas fees and subsidized gas on withdrawals. Sign up at FTX.US today. - NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR's fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org. - “The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore, aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsors is “The Now” by Aaron Sprinkle. Image credit: Nuthawut Somsuk/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

The U.S. Treasury Department's OFAC has added Tornado Cash and all associated addresses to the sanctions list. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, Chainalysis, FTX US and NEAR.In breaking news, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced on Monday that it was adding Tornado Cash and associated addresses to its sanctions list. It is seemingly the first time that an entire technology protocol, rather than just an individual or group of individuals, has been added to the list. NLW explores the discussion in the crypto community as well as the legal and technological implications. -Nexo is a security-first platform where you can buy, exchange and borrow against your crypto. The company safeguards your crypto by relying on five key fundamentals including real-time auditing and insurance on custodial assets. Learn more at nexo.io.-Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions and insurance and cybersecurity companies. Our data powers investigation, compliance and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world's most high-profile criminal cases. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.-FTX US is the safe, regulated way to buy Bitcoin, ETH, SOL and other digital assets. Trade crypto with up to 85% lower fees than top competitors and trade ETH and SOL NFTs with no gas fees and subsidized gas on withdrawals. Sign up at FTX.US today.-NEAR is a simple, revolutionary Web3 platform for decentralized apps, created by developers for developers. More than 700 projects are now building on NEAR's fast, secure and infinitely scalable protocol, from DeFi apps to play-and-earn games, NFT marketplaces and more. Start your developer journey now by visiting NEAR at near.org.-“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore, aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsors is “The Now” by Aaron Sprinkle. Image credit: Nuthawut Somsuk/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A Patreon-exclusive episode, now unlocked and free!  PPI's trade guru Ed Gresser joins the show to talk about the economic sanctions on Russia. What impact will they have on Russia and on us? Will Russia's economy collapse? Will this cause inflation in the United States? Can Europe survive without Russian oil and gas? Listen to find out! Further reading: Sign up for Ed's new Trade Fact of the Week newsletter at this link - https://tinyurl.com/tradefactoftheweek Office of Foreign Assets Control website - https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/office-of-foreign-assets-control-sanctions-programs-and-information Peterson Institute sanctions timeline - https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/russias-war-ukraine-sanctions-timeline   To make sure you hear every episode, join our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/neoliberalproject. Patrons get access to exclusive bonus episodes, our sticker-of-the-month club, and our insider Slack.  Become a supporter today! Got questions for the Neoliberal Podcast?  Send them to mailbag@neoliberalproject.org Follow us at: https://twitter.com/ne0liberal https://www.instagram.com/neoliberalproject/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1930401007051265/   Join a local chapter at https://neoliberalproject.org/join  

Michael Fasanello Long-time anti-money laundering and counter terror-finance expert Michael Fasanello helps us understand how Russia might use cryptocurrency to evade sanctions, what Ukrainians would need to turn crowdsourced crypto support into something useful and steps both the cryptocurrency industry and US government need to take to address illicit financing concerns. Michael Fasanello is an experienced counter-threat finance and compliance professional with over a decade of experience in the public and private sectors. He served in various posts within the US Department of Justice and the US Department of Treasury, including the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), before joining private sector financial institutions First National Bank (FNB), and PNC Bank (PNC). During his work with FinCEN, he advised the Office of Regulatory Policy in developing and interpreting federal regulations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Before that, he handled Global Economic Sanctions and embargo cases for OFAC's Licensing Division. At PNC, Michael was an Assistant Vice President and Manager of Anti-Money Laundering and Global Sanctions. With First National's Money Laundering and Risk Management Department, he oversaw a complete overhaul of the bank's sanctions program, from policy redevelopment to enhanced screening and adjudication. He specializes in Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF), global sanctions, and other illicit finance matters, with a current focus on the digital assets and blockchain intelligence space.

Office of Foreign Assets Control's (OFAC) advisory on ‘Guidance to Address Illicit Shipping and Sanctions Evasion Practices' of 2020 outlined a number of recommendations for financial institutions to manage shipping risk. The guidance relating to ‘dark' activity and ship-to-ship transfers have been challenging to implement within existing trade finance compliance screening programmes. ACSS, IIBLP and IHS Markit interviewed a number of banks and others to look at the actions taken by financial institutions in response to the OFAC advisory notice and offer a series of practical recommendations to best manage the new world of shipping risk. Download the whitepaper: https://cdn.ihsmarkit.com/www/prot/pdf/0222/Sanctions-advisories-for-the-maritime-industry_Feb2022.pdf This paper will offer an overview of the shipping industry and how it relates directly to financial institutions in light of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) advisories. We will cover the key aspects of Automatic Identification System (AIS) and discuss the main elements and steps in a typical ship-to-ship (STS) operation. A Working Group has been convened of trade finance experts in the banking, shipping and regulatory industries in order to answer and clarify the following points for compliance officers in financial institutions: 1. An understanding of AIS 2. How can data transmitted by AIS be manipulated 3. What are the items of information broadcast This paper recommends the following as major factors for discussion and consideration: 1. AIS outages and STS operations should be examined in closer detail if they occur for lengthy time periods of 10 hours or more. This would be a calculated average time taken to potentially conduct a port call or an at-sea cargo transfer. AIS outages below the 10-hour cut-off would potentially be insignificant from a risk and compliance perspective with the caveat that some DPRK ship-to-ship operations for petroleum products have been conducted in slightly less time 2. AIS outages are only important if the vessel could engage with another vessel of the same type or perform a port call in the time it was ‘dark'. If this is not possible then a potential red flag becomes downgraded Speakers: Saskia Rietbroek - CSS, Executive Director at Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS) Michael Byrne - CEO at International Institute of Banking Law & Practice (IIBLP) Byron McKinney - Director, Product Management at IHS Markit