Oversight Agency

The United States and Ecuador have begun joint military operations in the South American nation against “designated terrorist organizations,” the Pentagon said Tuesday night.

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 UK’s current system of supervisors overseeing the anti-money-laundering (AML) programs of law firms, accountancies, and other professional bodies is failing to take “sufficiently dissuasive disciplinary measures” against those that fail to meet compliance standards, according to a new report. 

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).

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.

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

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it has frozen about $4.2 billion of its USDT tokens over links to “illicit activity,” with most of the freezes occurring in the past three years, as authorities worldwide intensify efforts to curb crypto-related crime.

Two cryptocurrency exchanges registered in the United Kingdom and marketed as processing more than $1 billion a day were fronted by a purported executive who “doesn’t seem to exist” and was instead portrayed using stock footage, OCCRP reported.