Illicit Finance

A photo of shipping containers on a cargo ship

A record mismatch in official trade statistics is complicating efforts to measure how far the U.S. and China have “decoupled,” according to Bloomberg, which cited an $112-billion gap between what Beijing said it exported to the United States and what U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded as arriving.

An AI-generated collage using an aerial photo of Sydney with three large lines of cocaine spread across the photo.

Australia’s booming cocaine consumption among affluent professionals has helped turn the country into the world’s unlikely cocaine capital, fueling criminal networks linked to murder, human trafficking, and extortion.

Cyber-enabled fraud is rapidly expanding in scale and sophistication as criminals exploit digital platforms, instant payments, and virtual assets to move illicit proceeds across borders, an intergovernmental watchdog said on Tuesday.  

Photo of a young Russian man in winter tactical gear holding a 9K333 Verba shoulder-fired missile launch unit.

Iran has agreed to a €500-million contract with Russia for thousands of shoulder-fired air-defense missiles, in a deal that underscores both countries’ willingness to deepen military trade despite intensifying western sanctions and arms-export restrictions.

BNP Paribas bank branch

Jeffrey Epstein held a retail current account and a savings account at BNP Paribas from 2008 until mid-2018, according to documents released by the U.S. Justice Department and reported by Le Monde.