Morocco hacked the phones of government critics using spyware that an Israeli company developed to fight crime and terrorism, Amnesty International said in a report on Monday.

A report released this week by the U.S. Office of the Inspector General sounded the alarm on how the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) failed to report millions that it had earned on undercover money laundering and drug trafficking, some of it even making its way into the personal bank accounts of its agents.  

French authorities have arrested three suspected members of a criminal network that produced fake documents for migrants and raided their two labs in Paris, Europol reported on Thursday.

Cybercrime is becoming more sophisticated and more dangerous, now targeting aerospace and military companies in Europe and the Middle East, according to Slovak internet security company ESET, which published its research report this month.

Prosecutors have opened last October an investigation to see whether the French tax authority has illegally given one of the country’s largest investment banks 2.2 billion euros (US$2,5 billion) in tax credit for losses the bank was mostly responsible for.

Prosecutors announced on Wednesday that eight suspects were arrested for their role in siphoning over US$157 million out of VBS Bank, a publicly owned lender that primarily provides mortgages and short-term loans to low-income South Africans.

A French court sentenced on Wednesday the uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to four years in jail for organized money laundering, aggravated tax fraud and embezzlement of Syrian public funds between 1996 and 2016. 

The Uzbekistani Justice Ministry has announced the transfer of US$10 million to the state budget following the sale of luxurious real estate in Paris that once belonged to the disgraced daughter of the country’s late president.

Authorities arrested 31 suspected members and associates of Boston’s NOB gang and charged them with a variety of criminal offenses, including murder, sex and drug trafficking and shootings, according to a statement released on Tuesday by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

A British non-profit filed a lawsuit against the UK government for awarding a 108 million pounds (US$136 million) contract for purchasing COVID-19 protective equipment to a small pest-control company from Sussex that has 16 employees - a move they see as dubious.