Illicit Finance

Thousands of seemingly legitimate UK high street shops are being used by organized-crime groups to launder illicit cash, sell illegal goods, and feed wider criminal networks, with at least £47 billion a year drained from the British economy by the schemes.

A former Deutsche Bank executive who went public with allegations that the lender’s asset-management arm overstated its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) credentials has been denied a U.S. whistleblower award because regulators say they first learned of her claims through the press.

Elon Musk has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allegations that he cheated Twitter shareholders in 2022 by failing to properly disclose his growing stake in the social media company.

Thailand’s main international airport has become a reluctant hub in a sprawling illegal trade funneling wild animals to India, where social media “petfluencers” and exotic cafes are fueling a boom in demand for rare creatures.

Customers of the Claude artificial-intelligence chatbot are being targeted by a fraud scheme in which scammers use compromised accounts to buy hundreds of pounds’ worth of gift cards.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order authorizing penalties against foreign banks and other companies anywhere in the world that do business with the Cuban government. 

Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange was founded and is controlled by two brothers from the Kharrazi family, one of the Islamic Republic’s most influential clerical dynasties and now closely tied to new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

Canada is moving to create a powerful new law enforcement agency dedicated to investigating and prosecuting financial crime, a step that places Ottawa on a sharply different course from Washington, where the Trump administration has scaled back federal fraud enforcement.

Russia has emerged as Syria’s dominant oil supplier, with shipments rising about 75 percent to roughly 60,000 barrels per day this year despite Damascus’s pivot toward the West and lingering public anger over Moscow’s military backing of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

The United States imposed sanctions on former Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila, accusing him of supporting armed groups that Washington says have fueled conflict and instability in eastern Congo.