Good morning. U.S. law enforcement linked the Lazarus Group, an online crime syndicate connected to the North Korean government, to the $540 million hack of the online game Axie Infinity last month.

The theft, infiltrating the network upon which the game is run, was one of the largest in the 13-year history of cryptocurrencies. The perpetrators stole 173,600 ether and 25.5 million of the stablecoin USD Coin, or USDC, worth about $540 million at the time of the attack.

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The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains a database of sanctioned groups that are illegal to do business with. On Thursday, the agency updated sanctions to say that the Lazarus Group is the owner of the cryptocurrency address that was used in the hack.

Adding the address indicates OFAC has concluded Lazarus Group was behind the attack.

Brian Nelson, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence and the senior U.S. Treasury official for sanctions, will be speaking at the Risk & Compliance Forum on May 10. We’ve also added a breakout session to discuss navigating sanctions imposed on Russia due to the Ukraine war. You can register for a complimentary ticket here.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network warned financial institutions against efforts by kleptocratic regimes and corrupt public officials to launder their illicit gains, reports Mengqi Sun of Risk & Compliance Journal, and cited Russia as a particular area of concern.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s anti-money-laundering unit in an advisory Thursday urged banks and other financial institutions to focus their efforts on detecting the proceeds of foreign public corruption, which could potentially be laundered through shell companies, offshore financial centers and professional service providers, according to the statement.

The Commerce Department said Thursday it has added 10 aircraft owned by Russian and Belarus entities to a list of airplanes that likely have violated U.S. export controls, in an action aimed at grounding more flights from the two countries.

The department warned that anyone providing service to the aircraft on the list without U.S. authorization risks enforcement actions, including substantial jail time and fines.

With Thursday’s action, the U.S. list now has 153 commercial and private aircraft, including 146 Russian-owned or operated planes and seven Belarusian ones. This is the first time Belarusian planes were added to the list first released in February.

Mr. Kott alleged that he was dismissed after making serial reports of possible misconduct to Fresenius’s leadership during a legally fraught period for the company, after it had begun an internal investigation in 2012 into bribery allegations and was seeking a resolution with U.S. authorities.

Elon Musk on Thursday said he was coerced into settling a securities-fraud investigation in 2018, doubling down on his fight with regulators and potentially violating the terms of the deal.

Mr. Musk’s latest broadside at an agency he has feuded with for years, the Securities and Exchange Commission, came as he explained his rationale for wanting to buy the rest of Twitter Inc.  Speaking at a TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Mr. Musk said he “was forced to concede to the SEC, unlawfully, those bastards.”

• Judge in Tesla Racism Suit Cuts Damages Awarded to Black Former Worker

The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into Norway’s PetroNor E&P ASA, reports Risk & Compliance Journal's Dylan Tokar, which follows allegations of corruption at the oil-and-gas company’s operations in West Africa.

The U.S. probe comes after a December raid by Norwegian authorities of PetroNor’s offices in Oslo and the arrest of its then chief executive, Knut Søvold. The company said at the time it understood that the raid was related to criminal charges against individuals involved with the company.

• The widespread use of industry-average emissions figures to fill gaps in companies’ carbon accounts enables greenwashing and may even discourage climate action, according to academics who want an overhaul of the accounting standards.
   
• Oil industry groups and wildlife conservation advocates are squaring off over Biden administration plans to adopt new federal rules for the accidental killing of migratory birds.

President Biden will nominate Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official, to serve as the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, the White House said, after Mr. Biden’s first pick for the job withdrew amid opposition from Republicans and a key Democratic senator. If confirmed, Mr. Barr would serve as the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, charged with overseeing the largest U.S. financial firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.

The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the warship Moskva, sank Thursday from damage suffered from a fire onboard following what the Ukrainian military said was a cruise missile attack targeting the vessel.

Russia said the source of the fire was unknown but had set off explosions of ammunition on board. A statement by the Russian Defense Ministry, reported by state agencies, said the ship sank in stormy weather due to structural damage as it was being towed to port.

The loss of the Moskva represents a significant blow to Russia’s military and compromises security for its entire Black Sea Fleet. Russian ships in the Black Sea have been used to fire cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities since the war began on Feb. 24, targeting infrastructure, fuel depots, military bases and civilian administrative buildings.

• Putin Says Western Sanctions Have Disrupted Russian Oil Industry
• U.S. Support for Ukraine Moves Further Into Offensive Assistance
• Russia Warns It Could Station Nuclear Forces in Europe if Finland, Sweden Join NATO

• U.S. retail sales rose in March for the third straight month as consumers confronted the highest inflation in four decades and absorbed record-high gasoline prices.
   
• Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said a large interest-rate increase is a good prospect at the central bank’s early May meeting, as part of an effort to move short-term rates up aggressively to contend with high inflation.
   
• The European Central Bank will continue to lag behind the Federal Reserve in tightening monetary policy despite rising inflation, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday, helping to drive the euro to a near five-year low against the dollar.

Auditors that assess the financial statements of U.S.-listed companies operating in Russia and Ukraine face a complicated web of difficulties—including possible lack of access to key documents or people.

Western accounting firms, among them Big Four Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, last month said they would be cutting ties with their local network firms in Russia after its onslaught on Ukraine.

As a result, U.S.-based or international auditors could be unable to access companies’ books and records from either of those countries, said Sara Lord, chief auditor at RSM US LLP, a professional-services firm. Records might have been destroyed, or unavailable for other reasons, she said.

Global businesses are tallying up tens of billions in losses from their Russian operations as they grapple with the impact of asset sales, shutdowns and sanctions, according to public statements and securities filings.

The cost to shareholders of Western companies’ exodus from Russia will become clearer in coming weeks, as companies make their first earnings announcements since the invasion of Ukraine.

More than 6oo Western companies have said they would exit or cut back operations in Russia, according to researchers at Yale University.

• Google, JPMorgan, Other U.S. Firms Flee Russia for Dubai

Mr. Musk, who disclosed a large stake in Twitter last week, offered earlier Thursday to buy the rest of the company in a deal valuing the social-media site at more than $43 billion, calling the bid his “best and final offer.”

• Major U.S. banks reported double-digit drops in first-quarter profit this week, from an 11% decline at Morgan Stanley to a 46% drop at Citigroup Inc. Those banks, along with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,  JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., all reported lower revenue as well.
   
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip maker, signaled that the global chip shortage was likely to continue, with tight production capacity for all types of chips it makes.
   
• Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Andy Jassy, in his first shareholder letter as leader of the e-commerce giant, said he wants to improve worker safety and build on the innovations that have made Amazon one of the world’s leading tech companies.

• The Omicron BA.2 variant has dominated new infections in the U.S. for weeks without setting off a major surge so far, raising hopes among some public-health experts that the nation might dodge a more significant hit.
   
• Localized Covid-19 lockdowns are proliferating across China, suggesting Shanghai’s struggle to contain the virus may be the prelude to a broader battle that threatens to hobble the world’s second-largest economy.