View previous stories
	How cryptocurrency companies have empowered a shadow economy by Gerard Ryle, Fergus Shiel International Consortium of Investigative Journalists   The Coin Laundry exposes how cryptocurrency companies have empowered a shadow economy that lavishly profits from crime.   Led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Coin Laundry is a groundbreaking cross-border investigation that reveals how many of these companies make money off the proceeds of scams, theft and other crimes — while those who’ve lost their savings or livelihoods are left with little hope of justice.   Over 10 months of reporting, ICIJ and 37 media partners in 35 countries gathered hundreds of cryptocurrency wallet addresses — analogous to bank account numbers — linked to known illicit activity. Journalists collected them from scam victims, police reports, court records, sanctions lists, complaints filed with Seychelles’ financial regulator and from test transactions with crypto services, among other sources.   Reporters then disentangled tens of thousands of transactions recorded across public blockchains — the digital ledgers of crypto trades — to expose the global financial flows behind money laundering networks, cyber heists and other criminal enterprises.   Journalists interviewed dozens of scam victims across 12 countries and followed their crypto transfers to some of the world’s largest exchanges. ICIJ and its partners worked with more than two dozen blockchain analysts to review and verify the findings.   The Coin Laundry found that money launderers for drug traffickers and Southeast Asian scam center operators and North Korean hackers used brand-name exchanges to move their funds.   A trailblazing analysis by ICIJ revealed that as recently as July 2025, Huione Group, a Cambodian financial institution flagged by U.S. authorities two months earlier as a “primary money laundering concern,” sent about a million dollars worth of the digital currency tether a day to accounts at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. In total, ICIJ’s review uncovered more than $408 million flowing from Huione to customer accounts at Binance from July 2024 to July 2025.   Hundreds of millions of dollars flowed from Huione into Binance customer accounts while the company was under the supervision of two court-appointed monitors. The monitors were part of Binance’s November 2023 plea deal for violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws. Binance agreed to pay $4.3 billion, one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.   The analysis found that at least $226 million also flowed into customer accounts at OKX, another major cryptocurrency exchange, from Huione during the five months after OKX pleaded guilty in the U.S. in February to operating an unlicensed money transmitter. OKX agreed to pay more than $504 million in penalties. The transfers from Huione continued after its May designation as a “primary money laundering concern.”   The Coin Laundry also examined a shadowy constellation of so-called cash desks and courier services that allow people to anonymously cash out huge sums of cryptocurrency outside the view of financial regulators. Found in Hong Kong, Toronto, London, Istanbul and other cities, they are a new and largely unpoliced hotspot for laundering money.   To uncover the use of cryptocurrency to supersize scams, ICIJ and its partners examined an alleged pyramid and Ponzi scheme that stiffed victims all over the world. Its mastermind, Vladimir Okhotnikov, 47, is accused of using a rigged cryptocurrency investment platform to steal at least $340 million from investors between 2020 and 2022.   U.S. prosecutors indicted Okhotnikov in 2023 over the alleged scam, but he remains free in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he continues launching similar schemes, promoted with flashy celebrity-studded events, social media campaigns, and a film co-written by Okhotnikov and directed by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, set to be released in December.   Cryptocurrency boosters say digital coins and tokens are easier to monitor than government-issued money because transactions are recorded on a blockchain. But complex crypto transactions can be hard for authorities to act on because many pass through anonymous digital wallets. Tools like “swappers” — software that lets users automatically switch cryptocurrencies without identity checks — can also increase the difficulty of tracing.   The resources required to accurately trace transactions make the task difficult for both crypto trading platforms and law enforcement.   More than a dozen former compliance workers at major exchanges, including OKX and Binance, told ICIJ and its partner The Toronto Star that they could hardly keep pace with savvy criminals.   In theory, it’s the job of regulators around the world to make sure crypto firms are meeting their legal obligations to combat money laundering. But in practice, a patchwork of laws and fragmented enforcement efforts often mean less government oversight for an industry where the largest actors facilitated tens of trillions of dollars in trading volume last year.   An ICIJ analysis shows that authorities around the world have levied at least $5.8 billion in fines, penalties and settlements so far against cryptocurrency trading platforms, also known as exchanges. Meanwhile, crypto-related losses for consumers and businesses are mounting. In the U.S. alone, the FBI estimates Americans lost $9.3 billion to crypto crimes in 2024, a 67% increase from 2023. That’s roughly half the amount criminal financier Bernie Madoff collected from investors in his four-decades-long Ponzi scheme.   Many of those on the cybercrime front lines say they lack the training to trace stolen cryptocurrency. And even those who do, like Alona Katz, chief of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office’s Virtual Currency Unit, are rarely able to recover lost funds for victims partly because the suspected scammers are often in countries beyond their jurisdiction. Katz has had to explain this to victims.   “It’s more devastating than I can even put a word on,” she said. “I have spoken to people in their 80s who are preparing to file bankruptcy for the first time … young adults who thought they were helping their family and emptied out the family’s common bank account.   “When you are the bearer of the bad news, that everything they have worked for their entire lives, their entire life was gone in the blink of an eye, I mean, there are no good words.”   The Coin Laundry’s deep dive into the ways criminals exploit the mechanisms and vulnerabilities of decentralized finance comes at a critical time in the global debate over how to stanch the flow of dirty money in cryptocurrency. Governments worldwide have struggled to adapt. Consumer protection and transparency rules took effect in Europe at the end of 2024, but advocates say they don’t do enough to protect users.   In the U.S., President Donald Trump has overseen a rollback of enforcement actions against the crypto industry, including his October pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served time in federal prison after he and his company pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws.   http://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/cryptocurrency-exchanges-binance-okx-money-laundering-crime/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/coin-laundry/ http://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2025/03/treasury-department-wont-enforce-beneficial-ownership-rule-under-the-corporate-transparency-act/ http://www.icij.org/news/2024/08/us-lags-on-financial-transparency-compared-to-other-developed-nations-researchers-say/ http://www.icij.org/tags/offshore-finance/ http://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/ http://www.icij.org/ http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/ http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0326228 http://giace.org/statecapture-and-uncac/ http://giace.org/global-finance-and-the-enablers-of-corruption-professional-intermediaries-and-the-evidence-of-their-role-in-illicit-financial-flows-iffs/ Visit the related web page
	What is the cost for killing humanitarians? by Chris Lockyear Secretary General, Medecins Sans Frontieres   On 3 May, we at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) woke to shock, grief, and outrage. Our hospital in Old Fangak, South Sudan, had been attacked: a helicopter gunship destroyed the pharmacy, shelling followed, and drones bombed the market. Patients and staff fled as shrapnel tore through hospital. It was terrifying – and a clear violation of international humanitarian law.   These same emotions ran through us with the news of two other horrific mass attacks that killed medical workers in recent weeks.   On 23 March, the Israeli military in Gaza killed 15 people, including eight staff from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).   Eight days later, their bodies and destroyed vehicles were discovered in a mass grave. Videos showed the attack was deliberately carried out on clearly identified medical staff and ambulances.   On 11 April, in Zamzam displacement camp, in Sudan’s North Darfur region, nine medical workers from the humanitarian organisation Relief International were ruthlessly killed as Rapid Support Forces soldiers entered a clinic – the last one still running – during their assault on the camp.   These are just the latest, and particularly shocking, examples of attacks against medical and humanitarian workers worldwide. We’ve also seen horrific attacks in Ukraine, in Haiti, in Democratic Republic of Congo, among others.   Whether they directly target staff or hospitals from MSF, or from other organisations, we – humanitarians – feel attacked. We share the grief of all medical and humanitarian colleagues who work alongside us, acting with the same urgency to care for sick and injured people.   These recent assaults on humanitarian and medical workers are exceptionally grave – not only for their brutality and toll, but for the profound indifference that followed.   Aside from statements by the United Nations and isolated calls from some states – like the UK’s request for investigations into attacks in Gaza, or France’s response after the strike on Old Fangak’s hospital – there is no shared global outrage.   There is no strong political momentum, and certainly no concrete action against the perpetrators. Verbal condemnations ring hollow without real consequences.   It almost feels futile to ask the question: what is preventing this from happening again – even tomorrow?   All such attacks should be met with strong, unequivocal condemnation. We should expect emotion, mobilisation, and strong reaction. Independent investigations should be launched automatically to identify those responsible, and existing laws and international conventions applied – their enforcement should not be up for negotiation or compromise.   Justice should be delivered to the families and the colleagues of the victims, and concrete pressure applied to political stakeholders who tolerate, enable, or even actively encourage, such attacks.   Nearly four years on from the brutal killing of our three colleagues in Tigray, Ethiopia, the Ethiopian authorities have failed to conduct a credible, transparent, impartial, or timely investigation.   In the absence of a meaningful international response, it seems to us that carrying out these attacks is increasingly cost-free for the perpetrators. What political, legal, economic, social, or moral price are they paying?   And what state, body, or institution is truly ready and committed to hold them accountable?   It should be unthinkable that killing humanitarians or medical staff – people risking their lives to deliver care – comes with little or no consequence.   This isn’t only about preserving the feasibility of our work; it’s about defending fundamental values like solidarity and empathy.   Let me be clear: attacks on healthcare staff and aid workers are not new. We don’t yearn for a mythical “golden age” where our work was universally respected, or our security guaranteed. On the contrary, MSF has consistently denounced such attacks and called for change.   In 2016, after a wave of assaults on our staff – including the US bombing of Kunduz hospital in Afghanistan – and amid systematic campaigns against hospitals in Syria and Yemen, we supported the adoption of UN resolution 2286, aimed at protecting the wounded and sick, medical personnel, and humanitarian workers in armed conflict. But since then, we have seen its impact remain disastrously limited.   We are not alone in this fight. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) continues to lead its “Healthcare in Danger” campaign.   In 2024, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2730 – initiated by Switzerland – calling on all states to respect and protect humanitarian workers. That same year, an interministerial group from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, and the UK issued a joint statement committing to develop a new Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel.   However, the collective effort has so far failed. We have not seen the transparency, accountability, and change that should be expected. It is rare to even obtain basic acknowledgement from the perpetrators.   The death and injury of medical and humanitarian workers are often part of a broader, equally shocking and intolerable pattern of indiscriminate – and even deliberate – violence against the communities they serve.   In Gaza, more than 52,000 people have been killed since 7 October 2023, according to local authorities. In Sudan, it is impossible to have a realistic estimate of the civilian death toll, though studies suggest it may number in the hundreds of thousands.   Today, in the face of an unprecedented assault on multilateral organisations, the United Nations, and legal institutions – exemplified by the growing number of countries opposing the International Criminal Court – it is not merely a lack of political pressure or justice, but a deliberate dismantling of the very channels for accountability and change.   We call on all those who still believe in humanity and solidarity to strongly condemn these attacks. We need them, wherever they are, to unite and rally around renewed calls for legal and political accountability.   Citizens must demand that states who claim to uphold international conventions and treaties take tangible political action and apply political pressure to stop to the normalisation and concealment of attacks against health staff and humanitarian workers – in Gaza, in Sudan, South Sudan, and around the world.   Now, more than ever, we need warring parties – as well as the states who politically, economically, or militarily support them – to recognise that attacking and killing humanitarians is an assault on the very values they stand for. Killing humanitarian workers should not just be costly – it should be utterly unaffordable.   http://www.msf.org/what-cost-killing-humanitarians http://healthcluster.who.int/newsroom/news/item/19-08-2025-an-urgent-call-to-action-from-the-global-health-cluster http://safeguarding-health.com/ignoring-red-lines-shcc-2022-report/ http://www.worldhumanitarianday.org/ http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165715 Visit the related web page
	View more stories