A former Puerto Rico legislator was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for engaging in a multi-year bribery and kickback scheme, announced the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday.

A court in Paraguay has sent a member of a criminal bank card cloning gang behind bars for eight years for taking part in the theft of more than US$1 billion from tourists visiting Latin America.

Montenegrin authorities seized in the Port of Bar more than 5,000 packages of illegal tobacco products bound for Serbia and estimated to be worth some three million euro (US$3 million), the country’s Revenue and Customs Administration announced on Wednesday.

A judge in Liechtenstein is investigating money transfers between companies owned by Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salame and the brother of Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a leaked document seen by OCCRP shows.

Russia will likely soon legalize use of virtual currencies in international trade amid the deepening impact of sanctions brought in response to war in Ukraine.

Former members of the notorious Russia-based cybercrime gang Conti have been repurposing their techniques to target Ukraine, said a new security analysis published by Google on Wednesday.

The Australian Federal Police launched a unit dedicated to the tracing and seizure of cryptocurrency related to illicit activities, such as money laundering and offshoring, the Australian Financial Review reported on Monday.

Spanish police reported Monday the dismantling of two cocaine processing plants, in an operation that resulted in seven arrests and the seizure of more than 800 kilos of drugs before they could reach the streets.

The audit of government payroll by Zambia’s Office of the Auditor General published this week reveals a series of grave misuse of public money including that in 2017-2021, ministries paid more than US$45 million in regular salaries to 9,800 apparently non-existent individuals.

Closing seven days of hearings at an appeal court on Tuesday, a top Geneva prosecutor accused convicted mining magnate Beny Steinmetz of being a “coward” for roping friends and colleagues into a cover-up of bribery to obtain coveted mining rights and requested his sentence to be upheld.