Welcome to episode 259 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast. I am Chris Kirkbride. In this episode, the UK announces the conviction of an international arms-trafficking network, and the European Union announces its latest sanctions package targeting Russia’s "shadow fleet" and military-industrial capacity. UK Finance publishes a report designating the country’s £1.3 billion fraud losses as a national security threat, and there is a surge in UK company strike-offs following the introduction of mandatory identity checks. High-ranking Virgin Islands officials have been sentenced for procurement fraud, and there is a four-year jail term for a director involved in a £3 million property insolvency scheme. Finally, the FCA has proposed an overhaul of its penalty regime to include inflation-adjusted fines, and the World Economic Forum warns of the emerging AI arms race as hackers increasingly move toward exploiting generative technologies to bypass traditional security.

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

The photograph on the podcast cover art is by Sora Shimazaki at Pexels, and the stinger sample between each news section is ‘Ben Logo 1’ by BenKirb from Pixabay.