Good morning. The U.S. and the U.K. on Wednesday expanded the West’s net of economic sanctions encircling Russia, targeting a major metals firm and scores of other companies in an effort to cut off more of the international assets and finance channels still connecting Moscow’s economy to global trade and finance.

Notable among the additions to the U.K. and U.S. Treasury, State and Commerce departments sanction and export-control lists are a global network of firms and associates of Alisher Usmanov, one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, including metals and mining conglomerate USM Holdings Co.

The background: Mr. Usmanov was sanctioned in March 2022 when Ukraine’s European allies launched a major economic pressure campaign against Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. But many of his most important assets weren’t. Western officials were concerned that sanctioning all of the oligarch’s companies could create turmoil in global markets, some officials said.

Other additions to the sanctions list: The U.S. also added dozens of other companies based around the globe, including in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, that officials say are helping supply Russia’s military and industrial base. The U.K.’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said the country had also sanctioned what he called financial fixers for Russian oligarchs previously cut off from international markets. 

Tightening Enforcement of Russia sanctions: The U.S. is seeking to spur greater compliance by sharing intelligence on evasion with counterparts from around the globe, as well as warning some countries that their banks and companies risk being targeted with sanctions if authorities fail to effectively curb illicit activity, the officials said.

Related stories: 

• U.S. Steps Up Effort to Fight Against Russian Disinformation
• Ukraine Probes Video Purporting to Show Soldier Beheading
• Intelligence Leak Spotlights Russian Infighting, Wagner’s Role in War
• Russia Stole Land and Grain. Now It’s Taking Timber, Ukraine Says

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.

Juul to pay $462 million to settle underage vaping lawsuits with six states and Washington, D.C., resolving nearly all of the pending litigation against the embattled e-cigarette maker.

The deal includes New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Colorado and New Mexico, all of which had sued Juul, alleging that the company marketed its vaping products to underage users.

Compliance costs rising for financial services firms, survey finds

Compliance costs rose last year, and most widely in the U.S., according to a recent survey.

The report, conducted by trade surveillance firm SteelEye Ltd., said 87% of its U.S. respondents said their compliance costs were rising, compared with 70% in Europe and the U.K. Banks saw the largest compliance cost increases, followed by asset managers and brokers, the survey found. Nearly two in five respondents said they believed investment in technology—including that used to support compliance—was the main driver of the mounting costs, the report said.

SteelEye surveyed 102 firms headquartered in the U.S., 101 in the U.K. and another 106 in Europe. Read the full report here.

• A top Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. official said the agency could have moved more quickly to find a buyer for Silicon Valley Bank after it failed last month, suggesting a lack of urgency worsened the crisis that sent tremors through the banking system.
   
• The U.S. cracked a $3.4 billion crypto heist—and Bitcoin’s anonymity. Law-enforcement agencies, working with cryptocurrency exchanges and blockchain-analytics companies, have compiled data gleaned from earlier investigations, including the Silk Road case, to map the flow of cryptocurrency transactions across criminal networks worldwide. 
   
• The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the Federal Trade Commission for documents related to the agency’s continuing privacy investigation of Twitter Inc., according to a committee aide and documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Fed keeps a May interest-rate increase on the table despite expected recession. 

Stubbornly high inflation and tight labor markets led Federal Reserve officials to signal they could raise interest rates at their next meeting despite a greater likelihood of a recession later this year.

The fallout from the failures of two midsize banks led Fed officials to consider skipping a rate increase at their meeting last month, but they concluded regulators had calmed stresses enough to justify a quarter-point rate rise, according to minutes of the March 21-22 gathering released Wednesday.

• High fossil-fuel prices could threaten the green-energy transition, sparking backlash to long-term climate goals, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm warned on Wednesday.
   
• French President Emmanuel Macron walked a diplomatic tightrope Wednesday, seeking to calm a trans-Atlantic uproar over his recent remarks on Taiwan while also defending his push for Europe to chart its own course on foreign policy.
   
• Bigger is better for banks this earnings season. A deposit run that felled SVB and Signature Bank has hurt small banks much more than big ones, draining low-cost funding that has fueled their profitability in recent years. Track how U.S. banks are faring in first-quarter earnings.

Mr. Stein joins Providence, R.I.-based Citizens from Fifth Third Bancorp, where as chief credit officer he was responsible for enterprise-wide credit risk management. He has also held risk-management positions at Bank of America Corp. and Comerica Bank.

Mr. Griggs joined Citizens in 2014 and has served as risk chief since 2016.

• The U.S.’s top hostage negotiator called on Russia to allow American Embassy officials to visit detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and pledged to find a way to secure his release and that of another American, Paul Whelan.
   
• Donald Trump on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Michael Cohen, alleging his former personal lawyer breached his professional obligations to the former president through his frequent podcasts, books and media appearances.
   
• Two months after declaring victory over Covid-19, Beijing is trying to shape the way the pandemic is remembered in China by withholding data on its impact and censoring people who contradict the government line that its handling of the virus was a triumph.
   
• The Delaware judge overseeing a defamation case against Fox News said he was likely to appoint a special master to investigate whether the network improperly withheld information during the litigation, with possible sanctions against the company to follow.
   
• A number of U.S. cities have sued Kia Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co., blaming the auto companies for a surge of joy riders stealing their cars, damaging property and draining police resource