Virtual-currency companies now have a set of Treasury Department guidelines on how to ensure they comply with U.S. sanctions, the latest salvo in an effort by the Biden administration to combat ransomware and other nefarious uses of cryptocurrencies.

The Treasury issued the best practices last week, a move that came after several other major developments. In mid-September, the Treasury for the first time sanctioned a virtual-currency exchange, the Russian-owned SUEX OTC, for allegedly helping launder ransomware payments. In early October, the Justice Department said it was creating a national cryptocurrency enforcement team to tackle investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of digital currencies.

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In creating guidance for cryptocurrency companies, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, has taken sanctions-compliance principles and practices that have long been the standard in other areas of business and tailored them to the virtual-currency sector.

The guidance is helpful for the industry given the continual emergence of new companies and service providers, said Nirvana Patel, chief compliance officer of Prime Trust LLC, which makes tech tools for fintech companies including cryptocurrency exchanges.

“For some of the larger players in the space, this wasn’t really much of a blip on their radar,” Mr. Patel said. “It’s useful for new participants or even other players who are looking to get involved.”

Cooperation by corporate victims of ransomware attacks is key to the Justice Department’s efforts to combat a surge in activity by increasingly brazen cyber criminals, a senior department official said Wednesday.

Companies that report incidents will have the full support of law enforcement, which can attempt to recover ransom payments, said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. Companies that don’t could find themselves in a different position, she warned.

“Those who come forward will see that we are determined to bring our authorities to bear to be nimble in our response to employ tools that go after the ecosystem that lets these bad actors flourish,” Ms. Monaco said.

“If companies don't come forward in this threat environment, with the stakes being as high as they are in many cases, I think legitimate questions will be and should be asked of companies, [such as] why didn't you come forward and help prevent the next victim,” she added.

—Dylan Tokar

A Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission criticized the agency’s approach to regulating the cryptocurrency industry, which Chairman Gary Gensler, a Democrat, has likened to the Wild West.

Hester Peirce, one of two Republicans on the five-member commission, said Wednesday that the agency should be making more of an effort to work with cryptocurrency firms to establish rules that they can comply with.

“I think it’s safe to assume that crypto is going to grow in size,” Ms. Peirce said at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference. “And so what we can do now to invest in building a reasonable framework, I think, will pay off down the line.”

His office said it was the first time a U.S. regulator has specifically named Mr. Zuckerberg in a complaint.

Related: Facebook Fined $70 Million in U.K. Over Giphy Merger Breach

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has proposed a new measure that would empower creditors in chapter 11 cases to pursue allegations of self-dealing by private-equity owners, rights that currently lie with corporate directors selected by those investment firms.
   
• A brief exchange between President Biden and Merrick Garland over the prospect of prosecuting witnesses who defy congressional subpoenas points to tension over the independence the president promised the attorney general when he took the job.
   
• Local prosecutors are investigating financial dealings at a Trump Organization golf course north of New York City, according to people familiar with the matter, compounding the legal pressure on former President Donald Trump’s company, which is already under indictment.
   
• A U.S. Navy employee and his wife pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of trying to sell nuclear-submarine secrets to a foreign country, during a hearing that included testimony from an FBI agent about how an undercover operation to catch the couple unfolded over the past year.

Exxon Mobil Corp.’s remade board of directors is debating whether to continue with several major oil and gas projects as the company reconsiders its investment strategy in a fast-changing energy landscape, according to people familiar with the matter.

Members of the board—which includes three directors successfully nominated by an activist investor in May and two other new members—have expressed concerns about certain projects, including a $30 billion liquefied natural gas development in Mozambique and another multibillion-dollar gas project in Vietnam, the people said.

Oil and gas prices are at multiyear highs, and the world is experiencing a shortage of fossil fuels as economies emerge from the pandemic. But it takes years for such energy megaprojects to produce additional supplies, and more years after that for the investments to pay off.

• China Evergrande Group called off plans to sell a majority stake in its property-management unit for the equivalent of $2.6 billion, a major setback in the real-estate giant’s attempts to ease its liquidity crunch. Meanwhile, dollar-bond defaults from Chinese property developers are rising quickly as the country’s housing market slumps, and the problem could worsen as a wave of debt from the beleaguered industry comes due in the coming months.

The Commerce Department on Wednesday unveiled export controls intended to curb the sale of hacking tools to countries including China and Russia.

The near-final rule from the agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security will require companies to obtain a license to sell hacking technology to certain countries deemed threats to U.S. interests. It will take effect in 90 days.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday the controls aim to balance national security with the expansion of a cybersecurity industry that creates tools to defend computer networks and has grown at a breakneck pace as the global economy becomes increasingly digitized.

Related: Microsoft Calls on Governments, Companies to Cooperate to Fight Cybercrime

A group of protesters gathered outside one of Netflix Inc.’s Los Angeles offices Wednesday to express anger over the streaming giant’s Dave Chappelle comedy special, as some employees released demands for management and staged a walkout.

In the special, “The Closer,” Mr. Chappelle made jokes and remarks regarding gender that many in the transgender community, including some Netflix staffers, found offensive. The company has defended the special, citing reasons including the company’s commitment to artistic freedom.

• The San Francisco Department of Public Health shut down indoor dining at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant last week after it found out the burger joint wasn’t checking customers’ vaccination status, violating a city and county mandate.
   
• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an order mandating that all municipal workers must get vaccinated against Covid-19, setting up a conflict with unions that said they opposed the new rule.

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