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The Morning Risk Report: Treasury Outlines Strategy for Tackling Illicit-Finance Threats
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Good morning. The U.S. Treasury Department has outlined actions it will take to address the illicit-finance risks posed by anonymous shell companies, ransomware and rising domestic extremism, reports Risk & Compliance Journal's Dylan Tokar.
The national strategy released Friday responds to threats to the U.S. financial system identified by the Treasury. Among its priorities, the Treasury said, was closing regulatory loopholes that illicit actors use to access the financial system, including shell companies and all-cash real-estate purchases.
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Content from our Sponsor: DELOITTE
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Johnson Controls CCO: Use Compliance as a Sword and Shield
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Digital transformation can bring compliance closer to the business, putting it in a position to add more value than in the past, says chief compliance and ethics officer Larry Leverett. Read More ›
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The Treasury, in three risk assessments released in March, named fraud, drug trafficking and cybercrime as the crimes that generate the largest amount of illicit proceeds. The assessments also identified emerging drivers of such proceeds, including the typically legal funding methods used by domestic extremists.
The Biden administration has closely tied its work on illicit finance to larger national-security goals. It has said that fighting corruption should be a core national-security priority, and pointed to Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine as one example of the way corruption destabilizes nations and poses a threat to U.S. interests.
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From Risk & Compliance Journal
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Crypto Analytics Firm TRM Hires Ex-DOJ Cyber-Digital Task Force Chair
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Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs Inc. has hired Sujit Raman as its new general counsel, a former Justice Department prosecutor who led efforts to develop the government’s cryptocurrency enforcement framework. Risk & Compliance Journal's Mengqi Sun reports.
In his new role at TRM, Mr. Raman will report to Chief Executive Esteban Castaño and will be based in Washington.
Mr. Raman, who was the chairman of the attorney general’s cyber-digital task force that produced the 2020 DOJ cryptocurrency enforcement framework, joined San Francisco-based TRM on Monday. He served as the associate deputy attorney general at the Justice Department between 2017 and 2020 and most recently worked as a partner at law firm Sidley Austin LLP, advising companies on government investigations and data protection.
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Syrians displaced due to security operations against the Islamic State returning home in Hasaka, Syria, in January. PHOTO: AHMED MARDNLI/SHUTTERSTOCK
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U.S. officials said Friday that Washington’s easing of sanctions on parts of Syria outside Damascus’ control was needed to alleviate an economic crisis and prevent a resurgence by Islamic State militants, as Turkey criticized the policy shift.
The Treasury Department issued a license on Thursday that permits private-sector activity in certain areas of Syria not controlled by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
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President Biden signed into law on Friday a bill that requires federal judges and Supreme Court justices for the first time to promptly disclose stock purchases and sales and post their financial disclosure reports online in a publicly accessible, searchable database.
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The owner of an oil pipeline that caused a 4-mile-long spill along a California beach in 2015 has agreed to pay $230 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by fishermen and property owners, according to attorneys and court documents.
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Members of Finland’s National Defense Training Association trained Saturday at the Santahamina military base in Helsinki. PHOTO: ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Finland said Sunday it would seek parliamentary approval to join NATO as Kyiv’s forces began a counteroffensive toward the eastern city of Izyum, which Ukrainian officials said was aimed at disrupting Russian supply lines into the Donbas region.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said the government would apply for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization subject to approval by parliament, which is widely expected, in the coming days.
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The largest cryptocurrencies showed signs of recovery following a roughly weeklong selloff, while beleaguered stablecoin TerraUSD continued to tumble.
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Despite signals of economic trouble in the U.S., such as soaring inflation, falling stock prices and wavering consumer confidence, one important indicator is flashing American strength: the dollar.
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Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said the U.S. central bank needs to press forward with aggressive rate rises, and that by early fall it may be able to take stock of whether it can slow down or will need to speed up the process of removing support from the economy.
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Israeli security forces and Palestinians clashed violently in the West Bank before the funeral of a prominent Palestinian-American journalist in Jerusalem Friday in a bloody day of violence that saw the death of an Israeli police officer.
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India said it would ban wheat exports, in a move that will add to global inflationary pressure and further strain global food supplies that have been disrupted by the war in Ukraine.
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Almost 80 million U.S. residential and commercial properties face some risk of wildfire damage in the next 30 years, according to a nonprofit research firm that released its own wildfire risk model Monday.
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Moderna released new details about the abrupt departure of its new CFO this week. PHOTO: BOSTON GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES
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Moderna Inc. released new details about the abrupt departure of Chief Financial Officer Jorge Gomez, saying that it didn’t know of an internal investigation by his former employer Dentsply Sirona Inc. until it was disclosed Tuesday.
Within an hour of learning of the investigation Tuesday, top Moderna executives, including Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel, met with external lawyers to discuss the matter further, Moderna said Friday.
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The median pay package for chief executives of the biggest U.S. companies reached $14.7 million in 2021, setting a sixth-straight annual record as strong profits and robust markets boosted performance measures.
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San Francisco-based Twitter has agreed to be acquired by Elon Musk in a $44 billion deal. PHOTO: AMY OSBORNE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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Twitter Inc.’s chief executive said more changes were in store for the social-media company a day after he announced a hiring freeze and spending cuts to employees.
Parag Agrawal, who described himself as a “‘lame-duck” CEO amid a $44 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk, said in a tweet thread Friday: “Regardless of the company’s future ownership, we’re here improving Twitter.”
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McDonald’s Corp. said it would quit Russia and sell its business there, ending more than three decades in the country.
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Cloud-management platform Cirrus Nexus launched an artificial-intelligence tool Wednesday to help companies measure and reduce carbon emissions from their cloud operations, an area of increased focus as companies face pressure from shareholders and regulators to meet sustainability goals.
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Netflix Inc. has a new message for its employees: Be prepared to work on content you may not agree with. And if you don’t like that, you can quit.
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United Airlines Holdings Inc. said Friday that it reached an agreement in principle with the union representing its pilots, the first major airline to reach this step in contract talks this year.
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An extended surge in diesel prices is challenging Wall Street bets that inflation is easing.
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Some of the economy’s most in-demand employees are about to find out how much power they have over where and how they work.
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Russian gold and diamonds could still be sold in the U.S. despite being sanctioned, lawmakers and industry participants say, unless companies and governments tighten their controls.
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JetBlue Airways Corp. said it plans to launch a hostile takeover attempt for discount carrier Spirit Airlines Inc. after Spirit rejected JetBlue’s $3.6 billion offer in favor of an existing deal with Frontier Airlines. ULCC 4.56%
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Billionaire Gautam Adani is betting that India is on the cusp of a multiyear boom in housing and infrastructure construction, striking an up-to-$10.5 billion deal that will turn his conglomerate into the country’s second-largest cement producer.
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has used the slump as an opportunity to increase spending on stocks, deploying tens of billions of dollars the past couple of months after ending 2021 with a near-record cash pile.
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French auto maker Renault SA has reached a deal to cede its 68% stake in Russia’s biggest car maker to a state-backed entity for one ruble and a six-year option to buy back its shares.
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China is doubling down on mass testing as a key weapon against Covid-19 even as costs mount and the highly infectious Omicron variant exposes challenges with the strategy.
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Shanghai officials outlined plans for a phased reopening of shopping malls, supermarkets and other businesses, even as many residents in China’s financial hub remained confined to their locked-down homes.
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