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The Morning Risk Report: IRS Sees Crypto Companies as Potential Crime-Fighting Partners
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Good morning. “Cryptocurrency is here to stay,” a top Internal Revenue Service law enforcer said, and the tax-collection agency wants to partner with the industry to fight financial crime, Risk & Compliance Journal's Richard Vanderford reports.
The IRS Criminal Investigation division is bringing on hundreds of new agents a year, including many who will be directed to work on digital assets and cybercrime, said Thomas Fattorusso, the special agent in charge of IRS-CI’s New York field office. The 102-year-old law-enforcement arm of the IRS—whose agents are sometimes affectionately referred to as “accountants with guns”—is one of the top U.S. financial crime enforcers, handling cases from money-laundering to Russia sanctions. It has also turned its eyes to cryptocurrency as one of several federal agencies trying to grapple with the burgeoning industry.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Tuesday highlighted what they said were a litany of risks stemming from cryptocurrencies and expressed skepticism that the assets can be safely held by the financial institutions they oversee.
The group of powerful bank regulators said that recent failures of major crypto firms led them to exercise caution in reviewing banks’ proposals to engage with the market. They highlighted fraud and scams, market volatility, legal uncertainty and weak risk-management and governance practices at crypto firms, among other things, as reasons for concern.
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2023 Global Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions
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Would you like ads with your streaming video? Will AI design better chips? Can 5G phones cost less than $100? Deloitte Global’s TMT Predictions 2023 report highlights what’s in store. Read More ›
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Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, wearing tie, arrived in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.
PHOTO: ED JONES/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges Tuesday, as a judge set his trial to begin Oct. 2.
Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30 years old, entered his not-guilty plea to all eight criminal counts he faces before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in federal court in Manhattan. It was his second appearance in a U.S. court after the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange.
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3M Co.’s decision to quit making “forever chemicals” represents a tactical retreat aimed at containing potential liability over its products in legal fights expected to last for years, analysts say.
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U.S. Soccer said on Tuesday that it had opened an independent investigation into men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter after it was informed that he had physically assaulted his then-future wife, Rosalind, during an altercation outside a bar in 1991.
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The Nordea Bank headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Marc Hofmann, chief security officer at the bank, said directors are now asking more pointed questions about his work.
PHOTO: MIKAEL SJOBERG/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Corporate boards and cybersecurity leaders are expected to collaborate more closely in the coming year to comply with new regulations and relentless attacks from hackers looking to steal data and disrupt business operations.
The war in Ukraine, which is stretching both Russian and Ukrainian resources, further elevates cyber risks and remains high on corporate agendas.
In many companies, the role of cybersecurity officers was elevated at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when businesses quickly shifted to remote work and the volume of cyberattacks grew, said Lucia Milica, global resident chief information security officer at cybersecurity firm Proofpoint Inc.
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A man being tested for Covid in Shanghai, where doctors say up to 70% of the city’s population is likely to have been infected.
PHOTO: ALEX PLAVEVSKI/SHUTTERSTOCK
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China criticized what it called unacceptable and politically motivated Covid-related travel restrictions on its citizens and warned of countermeasures, an escalation in rhetoric that comes days ahead of a planned border reopening on Sunday.
China’s stepped-up warnings come as fresh evidence from the long New Year’s weekend pointed to a relatively bumpy economic recovery as waves of Covid-19 infections continue to buffet the country.
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U.S. defense companies are finding it tough to quickly replenish weaponry such as missiles and artillery shells for Ukraine, leading Pentagon officials to revisit whether industry consolidation has gone too far.
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Owners of office buildings stumbled through 2022, when their holdings underperformed most every other type of commercial real estate. Things look poised to get worse in 2023.
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C.H. Robinson is the largest company in the U.S. freight brokerage market, matching freight shippers with available trucks.PHOTO: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
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Bob Biesterfeld was fired as chief executive of C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., the company said Tuesday, sending America’s largest freight broker by revenue into a search for new leadership amid falling freight demand and growing competition from digital upstarts.
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The average office occupancy rate in 10 major U.S. cities remained below 50% for much of 2022, according to data from security firm Kastle Systems.
PHOTO: RICHARD B. LEVINE/SIPA USA/REUTERS
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Employers are losing patience with empty desks at the office. Companies including investment giant Vanguard Group, workplace technology company Paycom Software Inc. and others have sent directives to employees in recent weeks, urging workers to follow existing hybrid schedules or to come into the office on additional days in 2023, according to internal memos viewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with employees.
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Technology-driven companies across industries have been laying off workers at the fastest pace since the Covid-19 pandemic shocked the global economy in 2020, according to one data tracker.
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British rail workers Tuesday began a five-day strike over pay, as the U.K. government faces the biggest wave of industrial action to hit the country in decades.
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A group of Microsoft Corp. employees has voted to form the software company’s first labor union in the U.S., marking the latest example of workers from top tech companies organizing in recent years.
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Southwest Airlines Co. on Tuesday began doling out 25,000 frequent-flier points to travelers affected by its holiday meltdown.
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