Good morning. Erin West, a deputy district attorney in California’s Santa Clara county, has been raising the alarm in crypto law-enforcement groups on “pig-butchering,” an online grift in which trusting individuals are duped into bogus crypto investments.

Risk & Compliance Journal's Mengqi Sun spoke with West.

• New SMS 'friends': The scheme goes like this: offshore criminals befriend victims via text messages, sometimes sent by “mistake,” perhaps seeking a professional contact or approaching via social media. The scammers will then persuade their marks to put money into phony crypto investments, allowing them at first to make some money, then vanishing with the bulk of it. The scams target people with disposable cash, leaving them emotionally shaken.
   
• Growing network: West built a group called the Crypto Coalition, which now has 1,200 members. It hosts webinars every three weeks and has had support from crypto platform Binance and blockchain analytics provider Chainalysis.
   
• Bringing the money home: "We found that actually there were cooperative exchanges located outside the United States that would submit to U.S. authority," West said. "We were able to recover money so far for 26 victims and over $2 million and we’ve been able to get that back to victims."

​Note to readers: We will not publish a newsletter on Monday in observance of the U.S. Labor Day holiday. We will be back on Tuesday.

U.S. sanctions Russian company over alleged support for North Korean weapons programs.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions aimed at a Russian company’s alleged support for North Korean development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, part of a coordinated move with South Korea and Japan.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday that it added three names to its sanctions list: Moscow-based company Intellekt, Russian national Sergey Mikhaylovich Kozlov and Russia-based North Korean national Jon Jin Yong. Intellekt is linked to Kozlov, Treasury said.

Microsoft to unbundle Teams software in Europe.

Microsoft says it will change the way it sells its Teams videoconferencing service to business customers in Europe in a push to address concerns raised in a European Union antitrust investigation.

The software giant said Thursday that it plans to offer business customers the chance to buy a lower-price version of its productivity suites that doesn’t include the videoconferencing app. New customers would still have the option of purchasing Teams separately if they want the service.

• The U.K.’s sanctions office dinged money transfer company Wise for letting an employee of a sanctioned person’s company withdraw £250 cash from a business account. It was the first U.K. enforcement action related to the fresh round of sanctions imposed on Russia last year.

China’s economy shows fresh weakness in factories, housing and consumer spending.

China’s economy limped through August. A prolonged slump in the real-estate market deepened. Factories were hit by sinking exports, and consumers kept a tight leash on spending.

A new batch of data on Thursday heaped further pressure on China’s policy makers to do more to revive crumbling growth, with a dizzying mix of targeted measures so far showing little effect. On Thursday evening, the country’s central bank lowered the minimum down payment for some borrowers, an attempt to spur home buying. It also said banks can lower the rates they charge on existing mortgages.

• Chinese Banks Plan Deposit Rate Cuts to Cushion Pain From Faltering Economy
• China’s Slowing Economy Spells Trouble for Dry-Bulk Shipping

• Moody’s Analytics on Thursday put the preliminary cost for Idalia at between $12 billion and $20 billion, mostly from damaged property but also lost output. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has estimated that Ian last year caused about $113 billion in damage, by comparison.

• Generative AI Promises an Economic Revolution. Managing the Disruption Will Be Crucial.
• AI Fuels New Brand-Safety Worries, and Would-Be Solutions, for Marketers
• Chatbots Are Trying to Figure Out Where Your Shipments Are
• Artificial Intelligence Steps In to Lower Carbon Footprint of Buildings

• The Energy Department said it is planning to provide up to $12 billion in funding for automakers to retrofit existing manufacturing facilities in the U.S. for the production of electric and hybrid vehicles.
   
• Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” cultural phenomenon is coming to movie theaters this fall.
   
• Justice Clarence Thomas, under scrutiny for accepting free trips and other financial dealings with conservative billionaires, on Thursday vigorously defended his failure to disclose those matters in past years.
   
• As the number of migrant families illegally crossing the border grows, the Biden administration is trying a new approach to monitor them at home with ankle bracelets and to process them for potential deportation in just a few weeks.
   
• Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to the charges against him in the Georgia election case.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun, Dylan Tokar @dgtokar and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

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