Good morning. The U.K. government said it would hire 475 financial crime investigators and change laws around corporate crime as part of a new plan to crack down on economic crime.

• Big spenders: The three-year plan, unveiled Thursday, calls for new spending of £400 million, equivalent to $495 million, at several government agencies—£200 million of which will come from the government and £200 million from a levy on the private sector.
   
• Legal reforms: The U.K. government said it would change the law to let companies be prosecuted in certain instances for failures to prevent fraud, an approach the country already takes in bribery cases.
   
• More might be needed: Given the large global threat that financial crime poses, the promised level of funds and staff seems “woefully inadequate,” said Sarah Lambert-Porter, a London-based lawyer at the firm Ropes & Gray LLP.

The WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum on May 9 will feature speakers including Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr., Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod, Elizabeth Atlee, chief ethics & compliance officer at CBRE, and Sidney Majalya, chief risk officer at Binance.US. You can register here.

U.S., South Korea vie over extradition of crypto fugitive.

The U.S. and South Korea are both seeking to extradite captured crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon from Montenegro, authorities in the tiny European nation said this week, setting up competing bids to prosecute him over criminal charges tied to the collapse of his TerraUSD stablecoin.

Legal experts said South Korea may hold the upper hand because it is party to an extradition treaty with Montenegro, but diplomacy and previous instances of the Balkan state turning over fugitives to the U.S. could also factor into where Mr. Kwon ends up.

Fed, Treasury fine Wells Fargo for sanctions violations.

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department are fining Wells Fargo $97.8 million for violating U.S. sanctions by allowing a foreign bank to make prohibited transactions on one of the bank’s platforms.

Between 2010 and 2015, an unidentified foreign bank used a Wells Fargo trade-finance platform called Eximbills to process about $532 million in transactions that violated U.S. sanctions rules.

• The White House on Thursday called for tougher rules for midsize banks after the collapse of two lenders earlier this month sent tremors through the banking system.
   
• FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty Thursday to new federal charges tied to the collapse of the crypto exchange while his lawyer said he plans to challenge the new criminal counts, arguing they violate the terms of the former chief executive’s extradition.
   
• A regulator’s lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance Holdings Ltd. has shed light on the secretive role of high-frequency traders in crypto and how Binance sought to curry favor with such big-ticket customers.

Political uncertainty in Taiwan adds to U.S.-China tensions.

Political tides have begun to turn in Taiwan, threatening to alter the island democracy’s relationships with both Washington and Beijing and reshape tensions between the world’s two superpowers.

Though favored in the White House and on Capitol Hill, the Taiwanese ruling party’s popularity at home has eroded in recent months, dragged down in part by economic struggles. The declining support has opened up an opportunity for Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, which favors friendlier ties with China.

California’s winter storms bring billions in damages

Severe storms that battered California this winter are set to continue into spring.

Atmospheric rivers and cold fronts have brought near-record rain and snow to areas that have been battling drought-like conditions for many years. More storms are predicted to make landfall in coming weeks.

• Military activity is increasing around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear-power plant, according to international atomic energy officials, as Ukrainian and Russian forces gear up for an expected increase in fighting this spring. The activity around the plant raises the risk of a nuclear catastrophe, an official said.
   
• The Turkish parliament on Thursday ratified Finland’s entrance into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, removing the last obstacle to a historic expansion of the alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
   
• Japan said it would restrict the export of advanced semiconductor equipment, a measure that could hamper development of China’s industry and marks a further cooling of relations after the detention of a Japanese pharmaceutical-company employee in Beijing.

• Every cyberbug has a backstory, and Walmart is turning to actuaries, insurance experts, accountants and lawyers to help gauge security threats.
   
• McDonald’s is examining the pros and cons of reusable packaging in its restaurants worldwide as the fast-food chain looks to address European laws and serve its fare in more durable containers.
   
• Retailers including American Eagle Outfitters and Nordstrom are using chips to track inventory on the sales floor, gaining insights into customer habits and helping them use stores for online fulfillment.
   
• The salaries offered to U.S. accountants and auditors last year climbed at their quickest pace in recent years, but it may not be enough to remedy a national shortage of accountants.
   
• Binance’s first chief compliance officer, Samuel Lim, is facing civil charges as part of CFTC’s suit against the crypto exchange. What could this mean for other CCOs?

• A freight train hauling ethanol, a highly flammable and toxic chemical, derailed in Minnesota early Thursday.
   
• The urban exodus that gained steam early in the pandemic is cooling.
   
• The average Wall Street bonus fell 26% last year, the biggest percentage drop since the financial crisis, as a slump in deal making cut into bankers’ compensation.
   
• Donald Trump was indicted for his role in paying hush-money to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election, marking the first time in American history that a former president has faced criminal charges.