Transactions

Mexican officials are facing renewed scrutiny following the discovery of a ledger purportedly showing a series of bribes paid by slain Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera to police, security forces, and other authorities.

The United Arab Emirates is considering freezing billions of dollars in Iranian assets held in the Gulf state, a move that could sharply restrict Tehran’s access to foreign currency and global trade networks.

Kyiv’s assets-declaration watchdog missed multiple red flags in the filings of former Ukrainian energy minister Herman Halushchenko, according to Transparency International Ukraine. 

As the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran continues, there’s a bit of split-screen in Iranian online activity at the moment. On the one screen, crypto usage has spiked sharply since the launch of the attacks. On the other, most of Iran’s state-sponsored cyber groups are nowhere to be found. 

The family of Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for Palestine, sued President Trump and senior U.S. officials on Wednesday, challenging sanctions imposed on her over her advocacy for the prosecution of Israeli leaders and international companies connected to the war in Gaza.

A senior U.S. senator has opened an inquiry into Binance seeking records on alleged transactions that funneled nearly $2 billion to Iran-linked terrorist organizations and other entities and payments that helped circumvent sanctions on Russian oil, Bloomberg said. 

Western governments marked the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine with new measures targeting the Kremlin’s revenue streams and enabling networks, despite stalled efforts by the EU to approve a broad sanctions package.

Blockchain forensics firm Elliptic has identified four cryptocurrency exchanges that allegedly facilitate Russia sanctions evasion, including by helping to convert rubles into crypto-assets and move value across borders without the direct aid of traditional banking channels. 

Jeffrey Epstein held a retail current account and a savings account at BNP Paribas from 2008 until mid-2018, according to documents released by the U.S. Justice Department and reported by Le Monde. 

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance who was pardoned by President Trump in October, returned to the U.S. this week and attended a Trump-backed crypto conference alongside the president’s sons and senior administration officials.