Emerging Threat

The United States is tightening its oversight of the tens of billions of dollars resident and undocumented migrants send home each year through Western Union, MoneyGram, and other money services businesses (MSBs), according to a recent U.S. Treasury Department warning.  

Fugitive former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek has been linked to a sprawling, multibillion-dollar money laundering network that British investigators say connects street-level drug dealers in the UK to sanctioned Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin’s security services, the Financial Times reported.

Albanian organized crime groups have tightened their grip at home and expanded across Europe while drawing minimal pushback from Brussels, according to a Follow the Money investigation conducted with media partner BLAST. 

ID thieves based in California’s San Fernando Valley and Glendale have been using the Social Security Numbers of foreign scholars who left the U.S. years ago to file hundreds of bank and credit-card applications, according to a cybercrime expert who spoke with the Los Angeles Times.

Blacklisted charities affiliated with Hezbollah have been directing supporters to send money through Lebanon’s booming digital payments sector, routing contributions to wallets held by private individuals rather than official charity accounts, the Financial Times reported.

Al Qaeda’s West Africa affiliate is edging toward a historic first: control of a national capital. JNIM have tightened a monthslong blockade of Bamako, choking off fuel and food in a strategy European security officials describe as a creeping takeover rather than an all-out assault.

Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office accused the National Liberation Army (ELN) of running a two-decade money-laundering network that washed more than $225 million (COP 885 billion) in illicit proceeds through a web of shell and front companies across the country, according to a statement cited by Colombia Reports.

Belgium is in danger of evolving into a “narco-state” as organized crime penetrates key institutions and exploits Antwerp’s giant port to smuggle cocaine into Europe, an investigating judge warned in an open letter cited by the Financial Times.

Nation-state hackers gained “long-term, persistent access” to systems at cybersecurity vendor F5 Inc., stealing portions of BIG-IP source code, internal vulnerability information, and limited customer configuration data, Bloomberg reported, citing regulatory filings. 

Microsoft is warning organizations about an active campaign dubbed “Payroll Pirate” that hijacks employee accounts on cloud HR platforms and diverts direct-deposit paychecks, Ars Technica reported.