Illicit Finance

An AI-edited image of Claude on a phone being asked to commit securities fraud.

U.S. lawyers are increasingly warning clients not to treat artificial-intelligence chatbots as confidential sounding boards after a federal judge in New York ruled that a former financial-services executive could not withhold chatbot-generated materials from prosecutors in a securities-fraud case.

EVERGRANDE INTERNATIONAL CENTER IN GUANGZHOU

Hui Ka Yan, the founder of embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande, pleaded guilty this week to multiple charges including embezzlement of assets and corporate bribery, in a major milestone in the unraveling of one of China’s biggest corporate collapses.