Proliferation Financing

Ukraine is seeing early signs that sanctions are disrupting Russia’s access to some foreign technology used in Shahed drones, although newly manufactured Western and Asian components are still being found in the weapons.

Drift Protocol, the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange on the Solana blockchain, was exploited for about $286 million in a hack that blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said bore multiple indicators of a possible North Korean link.

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.

Gaps in the international oversight of offshore virtual-asset firms have made it possible for criminals to commit large-scale fraud, money laundering, and terrorism financing beyond the reach of most supervisory bodies, according to FATF.

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. 

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on Thursday proposed a Section 311 “special measure” that, if finalized, would cut MBaer Merchant Bank AG off from the American financial system.

U.S. and Iranian officials are describing progress in their ongoing nuclear negotiations even as both sides accelerate visible preparations for a conflict that officials and analysts now frame as a genuine near-term risk.

A shipment of about 1,000 tons of uranium moved out of northern Niger in recent months and is now stranded at a military airbase in the capital, Niamey, where it faces heightened security risks after an attack by Islamic State militants.

The Council of Europe’s anti-money-laundering body on Tuesday published a new report on how criminals exploit crypto-assets to launder illicit proceeds, fund terrorism, and evade sanctions.