Illicit Finance

The messaging platform Telegram has become a hub for job scams and other forms of fraud, Revolut is warning.

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.

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.

Germany will overhaul its core federal security agencies and deploy artificial intelligence as part of a crackdown on organized crime, related money laundering, and other financial crimes, Reuters reported Wednesday. 

Waste crime and trafficking is expanding globally, fueled by profit incentives in a fast-growing waste-management industry and compounded by major blind spots in official data, according to a newly released report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 

Newly released U.S. Justice Department emails and documents offer a deeper look at Jeffrey Epstein’s unusual relationship with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG courted, reports by Bloomberg and the Financial Times show. 

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.

A senior U.S. senator has opened an inquiry into Binance seeking records on alleged transactions that funneled nearly $2 billion to Iran-linked terrorist organizations and other entities and payments that helped circumvent sanctions on Russian oil, Bloomberg said. 

The head of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo, appears to own a portfolio of property in Dubai valued at approximately $1.7 million, according to new research by The Sentry. 

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.