Illicit Finance

Dubai has cultivated an image as the safest haven for global capital in the Middle East, but Iranian strikes on the emirate are putting that image to a test.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said that stablecoins are now commonly used in money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing schemes, and warned that peer-to-peer transfers via unhosted wallets represent a key vulnerability for the crypto ecosystem. 

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. 

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said a special committee investigating anti-graft chief Azam Baki’s shareholdings is expected to release its findings soon, Bloomberg said. 

Kyrgyzstan is prepared to take the European Union to court if Brussels imposes sanctions on the Central Asian state over allegations it has helped funnel restricted goods to Russia.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday imposed sanctions on Rwanda’s military and four senior officials, accusing them of backing the March 23 Movement (M23) armed group in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Western governments are being urged to tighten controls on cryptocurrency after new research warned that criminals and hostile states have laundered an estimated $350 billion using crypto over the past two decades.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is facing a sharp rise in suspected fraud linked to the EU’s pandemic recovery fund, with estimated losses tied to the program approaching €5 billion, Follow the Money reported, citing figures in the office’s annual report released Monday.

Luxembourg authorities raided the premises of EFG Bank last week as part of a preliminary investigation into the institution’s compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and counterterrorism financing (CTF) laws.

Russia continues to receive large volumes of Western-made aviation parts through third-country intermediaries despite EU and U.S. sanctions.