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The Morning Risk Report: U.S. to Target Crypto Ransomware Payments With Sanctions
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The U.S. Treasury Department hopes to choke off access to a form of payment that has supported a booming criminal industry. PHOTO: STEFANI REYNOLDS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Good morning. The Biden administration is preparing an array of actions, including sanctions, to make it harder for hackers to use digital currency to profit from ransomware attacks, according to people familiar with the matter.
The government hopes to choke off access to a form of payment that has supported a booming criminal industry and a rising national security threat.
[Continued below...]
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The Treasury Department plans to impose the sanctions as soon as next week, the people said, and will issue fresh guidance to businesses on the risks associated with facilitating ransomware payments, including fines and other penalties. Later this year, expected new anti-money-laundering and terror-finance rules will seek to limit the use of cryptocurrency as a payment mechanism in ransomware attacks and other illicit activities.
The actions collectively would represent the most significant attempt yet by the Biden administration to undercut the digital finance ecosystem of traders, exchanges and other elements that cybersecurity experts say has allowed debilitating ransomware attacks to flourish in recent years.
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WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum
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Join us on Oct. 12 for the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum. The virtual program includes sessions on anti-money laundering laws, emerging risks, compliance and cryptocurrencies, lessons from Wirecard and workshops on ESG reporting and responding to ransomware. You can register here.
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SEC Issues $11.5 million to Two Whistleblowers
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that it awarded a total of about $11.5 million to two whistleblowers. The SEC didn’t name the case that the awards are connected to and didn’t identify the tipsters, in keeping with its policy.
One of the tipsters received almost $7 million for voluntarily providing information that led the SEC to open an investigation into continuing abusive practices that would have been difficult to detect otherwise and for providing substantial assistance thereafter, the agency said.
The other whistleblower, who reported the information several years after becoming aware of the alleged wrongdoing, received about $4.5 million, the SEC said.
The SEC whistleblower program last week crossed the $1 billion mark in total payouts since it was implemented in 2011, as the agency awarded a total of about $114 million to two tipsters.
—Mengqi Sun
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Taliban fighters patrolling a market in Kabul this week. PHOTO: BERNAT ARMANGUE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The U.S. is pushing to extend a United Nations waiver on a travel ban against the Taliban, Western officials say, an effort meant to facilitate negotiations with the group and part of the U.S.’s broader diplomatic overture to encourage the group to abide by its human rights and antiterror commitments.
If approved by the U.N. Security Council, the extension of the waiver would allow a Taliban delegation to travel to Doha, Qatar, where negotiations with U.S. officials have typically been held. The current waiver expires next week and the Security Council on Tuesday is expected to consider extending it. The waiver would also allow access to banking services while traveling.
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Tencent Holdings Ltd. said it would gradually remove some competitive barriers from its WeChat service, including making it easier for users to share e-commerce listings from major rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on the messaging app.
The change came after Beijing made it clear this week that companies must stop blocking links leading to rivals’ services on their apps, part of authorities’ efforts to curb the power of Chinese consumer giants by tearing down the virtual curbs they have built in recent years. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Tencent and Alibaba were considering opening up their services to one another, amid mounting regulatory pressure.
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A former technology executive of generic drugmaker Mylan NV pleaded guilty Friday to allegations that he illicitly traded in the company’s securities using tips from another company insider.
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A chemist who worked at Theranos Inc. testified Friday about the scientific failures that plagued the defunct blood-testing startup, as the high-stakes fraud case wrapped up a second week of witness testimony in a federal courthouse.
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The Justice Department has brought criminal charges against nearly 140 people, including medical professionals, for alleged healthcare fraud schemes that resulted in an estimated $1.4 billion in losses.
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GPB Capital Holdings LLC founder David Gentile, who faces criminal and civil fraud charges related to how he ran the private-equity firm, is asking for court-supervised mediation to obtain millions of dollars he says GPB owes him as its general partner and owner.
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Hong Kong is considering whether to allow listings of blank-check companies, potentially opening the doors to a wave of Chinese-focused deals involving special-purpose acquisition companies.
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Two empty liquor bottles were found this month on one of Boeing Co.'s new Air Force One planes under development in San Antonio, people familiar with the matter said.
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Tesla Inc. is readying a major upgrade of its driver-assistance software. The country’s top crash investigator says the move may be premature.
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A parade at the Universal Studios Beijing theme park during August testing. The park is set to open to the public this month. PHOTO: STRINGER/REUTERS
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Two decades in the making, one of the highest-profile American entertainment investments in China is set to make its public debut Monday, amid souring relations between the two countries.
Universal Beijing Resort, a multibillion-dollar bet on Chinese consumers’ demand for Hollywood experiences, is Universal Parks & Resorts’ fifth theme park globally. Opening day for the project, which includes the Universal Studios Beijing theme park and two hotels, comes 20 years after the U.S. company first signed its joint-venture agreement with Beijing, according to Chinese state media.
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Two months after Ben & Jerry’s said it would stop retailing its products in Jewish settlements located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, several state funds are selling or threatening to sell their investments in Unilever PLC, the ice cream brand’s parent company.
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The Earth is expected to be around 2.7 degrees Celsius warmer by the end of this century than in the preindustrial era under emissions plans drafted for the Paris climate accord, the United Nations said Friday, putting the world far off track from the agreement’s climate targets.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, shown in 2016, founded a public-health-focused philanthropy. PHOTO: JEFF CHIU/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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In mid-March, Mark Zuckerberg used his Facebook page to announce a goal that was both ambitious and personal. He wanted his company to use its formidable resources to push 50 million people toward Covid-19 vaccines.
In a post and a press release, the chief executive discussed Facebook Inc.’s initiatives to promote vaccines. He unveiled collaborations with global health organizations. And he touted that his company had “already connected more than 2 billion people to authoritative Covid-19 information.”
Inside Facebook, staffers were warning that Mr. Zuckerberg’s own platform, the globe-spanning powerhouse built on code he wrote 17 years ago, was compromising his effort.
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‘You are paying 50% more for less productivity,’ the CEO of a Burger King restaurant group told analysts, referring to his added use of overtime. PHOTO: PAUL WEAVER/SOPA/GETTY IMAGES
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Companies that can’t fill their many openings are relying on existing workers to stay late, come in early and pick up extra shifts to keep operations running. That’s making the nation’s current labor shortage even more challenging to solve.
Overtime means bigger paychecks. But it can also create higher stress and burnout. Employers and researchers say the demands for extra time are contributing to a broad wave of resignations sweeping across the country as more U.S. workers quit their jobs than at any time in the last two decades. That, in turn, places even more pressure on remaining employees.
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A climate risk survey by the Global Association of Risk Professionals Risk Institute received responses from 78 financial institutions. A newsletter extra in Thursday's Morning Risk Report incorrectly said that 71 institutions responded to the survey. The figure represented the number of respondents to the prior year's survey.
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