Metals & Stones

Chilean authorities uncovered organized criminal networks that investigators say stole, processed, and shipped copper on a vast scale to Peru and China, exposing a trade worth an estimated 817 billion pesos, or about $917 million, between 2020 and 2025.

The Trump administration on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, removing a key barrier that had prevented Americans from doing business with her and potentially clearing the way for fresh U.S. investment in the country. 

An Irish alumina refinery owned by Russian metals group Rusal is part of a supply chain that appears to end with Russian arms manufacturers involved in the war in Ukraine, according to new reporting by The Guardian that cites leaked records and public trade data.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday granted a 90-day pause in the criminal case against Turkey’s state-run Halkbank, a first step toward a possible dismissal of charges that the bank helped launder billions of dollars in Iranian oil and gas proceeds.

Banks and investors are failing to adequately screen for illegal mining risks even when operating in sectors highly exposed to the trade, according to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature and financial-crime risk platform Themis.

More than 70 metric tons of Venezuelan gold worth over $2.2 billion were routed through Curaçao and refined in Switzerland between 2012 and 2018, despite evidence the metal originated in conflict-affected mining areas in Venezuela.

Russian diamonds may be entering Australia through intermediaries and processing hubs despite sanctions on Moscow’s state-owned diamond giant Alrosa.

A surge in gold and silver prices is drawing organized-crime groups to Mexico’s mining sector, forcing companies to absorb rising security costs and, in some cases, make “protection” payments or use suppliers linked to criminal groups.

The fallout of the release of the Epstein Files continued this week, with emergence of new details of the deceased sex trafficker’s finances, the launch of additional investigations into suspicious money flows and related sexual-abuse allegations, and the arrest of a former British royal.

An Asian cyber-espionage group spent the past year breaking into computer systems linked to governments and critical infrastructure organizations in more than 37 countries, according to new research from Palo Alto Networks Inc. cited by Bloomberg.