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Greetings! It’s June 22, and we’re tracking today’s top stories: FATF debates blind eye on UAE money laundering, Kodak Black lawyer criticizes Hunter Biden deal, TikTok confirms some user data actually is stored in China, UK banks ramp up data sharing to fight financial crime, and much more…

Featured Story

🎯 West's Blind Eye on UAE Money Laundering? Despite indications of persistent illicit transactions in the UAE, some Western countries are pushing for a clean bill of health. Politico

Top Stories

🔸 Kodak Black Lawyer Criticizes Hunter Biden Plea Deal: Kodak's lawyer criticizes disparity in sentencing for similar crimes, suggesting a two-tiered justice system. Fox News

🔸 TikTok Confirms Some U.S. User Data Is Stored In China: Contradicting previous statements, TikTok confirms convenient exceptions for creators in their China data storage policy. Forbes

🔸 UK Banks to Ramp Up Data Sharing in Dirty Money Crackdown: Advanced talks between British law enforcement, government agencies, and several banks aim to tackle financial crimes in groundbreaking new pilots. Reuters

🔸 EU Sanctions Against Russia Over Ukraine War: The latest batch of sanctions aims to close loopholes for goods vital to Putin’s war effort. AP

🔸 Monero: The Privacy Coin of Choice for Extremists: Monero's multi-signature encryption technology remains unbroken, making it a preferred choice for extremists and illicit actors. Fast Company

🔸 British Universities Investigated for Potential Collaboration with Iran: Universities may have breached UK sanctions by helping upgrade Iran’s suicide drone program. Telegraph

🔸 Inside China’s Spy War on American Corporations: Theft by Chinese government and state-run companies seen as more malicious than competitive. CNBC

🔸 Apple Addresses Two Zero-Days Exploited in Operation Triangulation Spyware Campaign: A campaign was brought to light after Russia’s FSB claimed it was used by U.S. intelligence to target iPhones of Russian diplomats. The Record

🔸 Global Network of Sadistic Monkey Torture Exposed: Undercover journalists expose a Telegram group commissioning extreme torture ideas from various Asian countries. BBC

🔸 Fake Psychic Faces Up to 280 Years in Prison for Defrauding Elderly Americans in $175M Scheme: Patrice Runner was found guilty of stealing more than $175 million from victims through a mass-mailing scheme. NY Post

IN THE NEWS

China

💠 Congress Wants Increased Transparency of Chinese Funding to U.S. Universities [more]

💠 What genocide? Volkswagen’s morally expensive bet on China [more]

💠 China’s ChatGPT Opportunists – and Grifters – Are Hard at Work [more]

💠 China’s Cloud Computing Firms Raise Concern for U.S. [more]

💠 Foreign companies are shifting investment out of China as confidence wanes [more]

…and more

Corruption & Financial Crime

💠 Libyan Central Bank Failed to Account for Billions of New Bills [more]

💠 Director ‘mismanagement’ enabled Isabel dos Santos to illegally divert millions [more]

💠 Bolsonaro goes on trial over electoral fraud claims [more]

💠 Businessman Caught in Bob Menendez Probe Has Mob Ties [more]

💠 ‘They’ll Figure Out Where You Live’: The Rise of Europe’s New Drug Cartels [more]

💠 The mysterious swindling of the EU and the Bank of Italy [more]

…and more

Russia

💠 Putin turns on the pandas! Russia bans WWF amid civil society crackdown [more]

💠 Sanctioned Russian Bank to Begin Money Transfers to Turkey [more]

💠 Ballsy EU Commission moves to make Russia pay for Ukraine [more]

💠 Oligarchs’ cash could help rebuild Ukraine – but don’t let them buy their way out of sanctions [more]

…and more

Cyber & Crypto

💠 Why Malware Crypting Services Deserve More Scrutiny [more]

💠 Binance Exec May Be Called to Testify in Brazil [more]

💠 Kremlin-backed hacking group puts fresh emphasis on stealing credentials [more]

💠 Police raid Iranian opposition camp in Albania, seize computers [more]

…and more

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. --Benjamin Disraeli

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