Hello and welcome to episode 211 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast. I am Chris Kirkbride. In this episode, the US seizes a crude oil tanker linked to an oil shipping network supporting Hizballah and Iran’s IRGC-Qods Force, while the EU Council sanctioned nine shadow fleet enablers and twelve individuals and two entities involved in hybrid threats, cyberattacks, and foreign information manipulation against Ukraine and NATO allies. We also reflect on geopolitical shifts, as the US Treasury lifted Global Magnitsky sanctions against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following political negotiations, and the UK designated four Sudanese RSF commanders for grave humanitarian law violations in Darfur. On other financial crime threats, the conviction of three City fund managers in a £11.4 million fraud targeting Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, the FATF flagging serious effectiveness weaknesses in Belgium’s fight against money laundering, and the US Treasury warning consumers about a surge in AI-enabled cyber scams during the holiday season. Finally, we look at regulatory action, as the UK's FCA launched a consultation to bring a market abuse regime and disclosure requirements to cryptoassets, and the ICO fined LastPass £1.2 million for a 2022 data breach impacting 1.6 million UK users.

A transcript of this podcast, with links to the stories, will be available at www.crimes.financial.