Sanctions

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday proposed new anti-money-laundering and sanctions-compliance rules for permitted payment stablecoin issuers, marking a major step in implementing the 2025 GENIUS Act and expanding federal oversight of the sector.

China has helped Iran blunt the impact of U.S. sanctions over the past five years by buying the bulk of its oil exports and supporting a complex financial and shipping network that has allowed Tehran to keep earning billions of dollars in revenue.

A Georgia-based company has inked a deal with Russian-installed authorities in occupied eastern Ukraine to export coal, chemicals, and metals, opening what Le Monde described as a new channel for Moscow to skirt international sanctions. 

A Russian cryptocurrency payments network founded by sanctioned actors is expanding into Africa as Moscow seeks new channels to move money around western restrictions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.

Several senior Binance compliance officials overseeing sanctions, investigations, and financial-crime monitoring have left the company in recent months as the crypto exchange faces renewed scrutiny over alleged sanctions evasion and illicit-finance risks.

A politically connected blockchain project that partnered with the Trump family’s crypto firm promoted a proposed resort in Timor-Leste involving three people later sanctioned by the United States for ties to the Prince Group, an alleged Southeast Asian scam syndicate.

Asian countries hit by acute energy disruptions from the Gulf conflict are increasingly turning to Russia for emergency oil supplies after the United States granted a temporary sanctions waiver on Russian crude.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he has pressed Binance for records over concerns the cryptocurrency exchange may have given Congress misleading information about reported money laundering and terrorist financing tied to Iran. 

The Trump administration on Wednesday lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, removing a key barrier that had prevented Americans from doing business with her and potentially clearing the way for fresh U.S. investment in the country. 

Rwanda has threatened to withdraw its troops from northern Mozambique, where they have spent the past five years containing Islamic State-linked militants, after the U.S. imposed sanctions on Kigali over its alleged support for the M23 insurgency in neighboring Congo.