The indictment was filed on September 8, 2026, at the Circuit Court in Katowice. According to the EPPO, the two suspects acted together through a number of companies they represented and submitted 15 applications for subsidies to establish nurseries in locations across Poland. The applications sought a total of €3,333,407, or about PLN 14.3 million, under the Maluch+ (“Toddler+”) programme. The funding was co-financed by the European Social Fund+ under the 2021-2027 financial framework and Poland’s state budget.

Applications were submitted online to authorities in six Polish voivodeships: Silesian, Pomeranian, Warmian-Masurian, Lublin, Lesser Poland and Greater Poland. When financing institutions requested evidence that the applicants had legal rights to the premises where the nurseries were to operate, the suspects provided lease agreements. The applications were subsequently approved. However, investigators later determined that the lease agreements were allegedly falsified and that the suspects had neither ownership rights nor other legal rights to properties at the stated locations.

The planned payments were halted after police alerted the financing institutions that the documents might have been forged. The subsequent investigation confirmed that the contracts were fraudulent, preventing the funds from being disbursed. The suspects face 15 alleged offences involving document falsification, making false statements to financing authorities and attempted fraud. If convicted, they could receive prison sentences ranging from six months to 10 years. The investigation was conducted by the Katowice Municipal Police under the supervision of the EPPO. Both defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted by a Polish court.

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The action was announced on September 9 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia as part of the Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force. The operation targeted Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based marketplace that allegedly connected scam operators with vendors offering services including the creation of fraudulent investment websites, cryptocurrency laundering and recruitment of workers for scam compounds in Southeast Asia. According to a seizure warrant unsealed in federal court, Xinbi operated primarily in Chinese and facilitated transactions between scam operators and service providers. Investigators traced funds stolen from U.S. fraud victims to cryptocurrency wallets advertised by vendors on the platform.

Authorities seized two cryptocurrency wallets used by Xinbi to collect payments, containing about $12 million. They also sought to restrain 47 additional wallets believed to be associated with money laundering through the network. The combined action brought the cryptocurrency restrained by the Strike Force to approximately $938 million. Tether assisted investigators with the operation. Separately, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Xinbi as a significant transnational criminal organization and sanctioned two entities accused of supporting it. The Strike Force also expanded its international operations, deploying personnel to Madagascar for two weeks to assist local authorities in dismantling 13 Chinese-run scam compounds. Investigators processed more than 3,200 electronic devices and interviewed nearly 400 people arrested during the crackdown. The DOJ said the initiative will increasingly target scam-center networks and their financial infrastructure beyond U.S. borders.

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The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) found 970 payments, totalling £19.7 million, that violated UK sanctions. Most of the breaches occurred between February and November 2022, as banks and other financial institutions adjusted to rapidly changing restrictions on Russia. Some of the payments involved Russian state-owned shipping company PJSC Sovcomflot and sanctioned financial institutions, including Alfa-Bank, Gazprombank and Credit Bank of Moscow.

OFSI said there was no evidence that Citibank deliberately attempted to circumvent sanctions. However, the regulator concluded that the bank had significant operational weaknesses that allowed prohibited transactions to be processed through its London operations. Citibank voluntarily disclosed most of the transactions and cooperated with the investigation. OFSI took the bank’s cooperation into account when determining the penalty.

The case highlights the compliance challenges faced by global financial institutions following the introduction of extensive sanctions against Russia in 2022. Banks were required to rapidly update screening systems, internal procedures and controls as governments repeatedly expanded and amended the restrictions. Citibank has since strengthened its sanctions-compliance systems. The bank has also continued to reduce its exposure to Russia. In 2025, it completed the sale of its Russian subsidiary, AO Citibank, to Renaissance Capital. The fine is another indication that UK regulators expect financial institutions to maintain effective systems for identifying and blocking sanctioned transactions, even when sanctions regimes are complex and subject to frequent changes.

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Operation Jackal IV, conducted between November 2025 and June 2026, brought together law-enforcement agencies from 23 countries across six continents. The operation focused on disrupting money laundering, identifying high-value targets, tracing illicit assets and supporting arrests and prosecutions.

INTERPOL said West African criminal networks, including groups such as Black Axe, are involved in a significant share of cyber-enabled financial crime worldwide. Their activities include romance scams, cryptocurrency and investment fraud, business email compromise and other serious offences. South Africa recorded the largest number of arrests, with 39 people detained after authorities raided seven locations in Johannesburg linked to romance and investment scams targeting retirees in English-speaking countries. Investigators seized $2.67 million and blocked 257 bank accounts.

In Romania, authorities dismantled a criminal group that operated an investment scam through a call centre, allegedly promising victims high returns from stocks and cryptocurrencies. Investigators estimate that approximately €143 million was stolen and laundered globally. Eleven people were arrested, while cash, cryptocurrency, property and luxury watches were seized. In Argentina, authorities identified 196 people allegedly linked to a Crime-as-a-Service network that provided website domains and money-laundering services to West African criminal groups. Seventeen arrests followed. The operation also highlighted emerging threats, including the use of sextortion against minors and the growing outsourcing of criminal services through dark-web providers. INTERPOL said the results demonstrate the importance of tracing illicit financial flows across borders to disrupt organised crime networks.

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The seizure was carried out by the Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office at the request of France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which has been investigating McKinsey since March 2022. By 19 August, Belgian authorities had seized €65.24 million –– approximately 96% of the tax loss estimated by French investigators. The French case concerns allegations of aggravated money laundering linked to aggravated tax fraud. It followed a French Senate inquiry into the growing influence of private consulting firms on government policy and public administration.

French investigators searched several McKinsey entities in May 2022, including the company’s Paris offices. Witnesses and suspects were subsequently questioned during investigations that continued through 2025 and 2026. The PNF later requested assistance from Belgian authorities under international judicial cooperation procedures. The case was handled in Belgium by the Brussels prosecutor’s International and European Affairs Directorate, which coordinated the seizure of the funds.

Brussels Chief Prosecutor Julien Moinil and French Financial Public Prosecutor Pascal Prache highlighted the importance of cooperation between the two jurisdictions, particularly in cases involving suspected criminal assets held across borders. The prosecutors also stressed that investigations involving the freezing and eventual confiscation of suspected criminal proceeds require coordinated action as soon as the assets are identified. The underlying French investigation remains ongoing, and the seizure does not itself establish criminal liability. Further proceedings will determine whether the funds are connected to unlawful activity and whether they can ultimately be confiscated.

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The investigation centres on compensation claims submitted by representatives of three companies between December 2024 and November 2025. The applicants provided documents purporting to demonstrate losses caused by the severe floods that hit south-western Poland in September 2024.

EPPO investigators, however, believe the claims may have been fraudulent because the floodwaters reportedly never reached the companies’ premises. Despite this, the Karkonoska Regional Development Agency (KARR), which manages programmes financed partly by EU funds, provided the applicants with at least €900,000 in loans. The six suspects include representatives of the companies involved and a former senior KARR official. They face allegations of subsidy fraud and submitting false statements in order to obtain the loans.

Investigators also searched the suspects’ homes and company premises, as well as the residence of an expert who had prepared an assessment of the alleged flood damage. Documents and electronic devices were seized during the searches. Following questioning, prosecutors asked the Katowice-East District Court to order pre-trial detention for three suspects, all of whom are company representatives. The other three were released under police supervision and required to provide financial guarantees. EPPO launched the investigation in August 2026 following a report from Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau in Wrocław, which is also assisting with investigative measures. All six suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a Polish court.

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The regulator said the scheme operated between 2016 and 2019 and allowed clients to obtain UK investor visas without making the required £2 million investment in British companies. Instead, most participants paid a fee of £400,000, with the arrangement designed to create the appearance that the official investment threshold had been met. According to the FCA, at least 99 people obtained investor visas through the scheme, generating at least £35.5 million in fees for businesses connected to Dolfin and the immigration agents who referred clients.

Former Dolfin chief executive Denisz Nagy was fined £324,800 and prohibited from performing regulated financial functions. Former finance director Sanjay Maraj received a £122,000 fine and a similar prohibition. Both agreed to settle the FCA’s findings. Dolfin co-founder Roman Joukovski has also been banned from working in financial services. However, he has referred the FCA’s decision to the Upper Tribunal, meaning the findings against him remain provisional until the tribunal reaches a decision.

The FCA said Nagy and Joukovski played leading roles in establishing and operating the scheme, while Maraj was responsible for its financial arrangements. The regulator also found that Nagy and Maraj concealed the scheme’s true nature from both the FCA and the Home Office.

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Crackdowns across Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand have freed workers from compounds operated by organised criminal networks accused of defrauding victims worldwide. But months after the raids, many survivors remain stranded in Cambodia without passports, money, valid visas or a clear route home. Aid groups say some survivors are sleeping on the streets of Phnom Penh, while others have been placed in overcrowded immigration detention centres. One former scam compound, Mango 2, has reportedly been converted into a detention facility. Survivors can also face thousands of dollars in visa-overstay fines accumulated while they were held captive, making departure impossible for those unable to pay.

Human-trafficking organisations warn that authorities are frequently treating people rescued from scam operations as potential criminals rather than victims of forced labour. Amnesty International reported in June that none of the 73 survivors it interviewed had been formally recognised as trafficking victims, despite its assessment that all met the relevant definition.

Without official recognition, survivors may be denied access to shelter, legal assistance and repatriation programmes. Aid workers say the lack of support is creating further risks, including sexual abuse and renewed exploitation.

The criminal networks themselves are also rebuilding. Anti-trafficking groups have documented new compounds in Myanmar and say former workers stranded in Cambodia are being targeted for recruitment. Some survivors are reportedly accepting offers to return to scam centres because they have no money or other means of leaving the country. The crisis has exposed a wider gap between international efforts to dismantle scam compounds and governments’ willingness to repatriate the people rescued from them. For many survivors, escaping forced labour has therefore become only the first step in a struggle for genuine freedom.

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A court in Shenzhen handed down the sentence on August 20, five years after Evergrande’s default sent shockwaves through China’s property sector and financial markets. Hui, 67, pleaded guilty in April to eight charges, including fundraising fraud, misuse of funds, illegally accepting public deposits, fraudulent issuance of securities and bribery. The court also ordered the confiscation of Hui’s personal assets. Evergrande was fined 8.82 billion yuan ($1.31 billion), while its main subsidiary, Hengda Real Estate, was fined another 7 billion yuan. Five former senior executives received prison terms ranging from six to 18 years, while state media reported that 56 people connected to the company were sentenced in total.

Evergrande became China’s largest property developer by contracted sales by aggressively borrowing to finance its expansion. The company eventually defaulted on most of its roughly $300 billion in liabilities, leaving homeowners, investors and creditors facing substantial losses. The collapse also contributed to a prolonged crisis in China’s property market.

The consequences for creditors are far from over. A Hong Kong court ordered Evergrande’s liquidation in 2024, but the process has progressed slowly. Liquidators are also pursuing Hui and his former spouse over billions of dollars in dividends and remuneration they allegedly received.

China’s securities regulator previously fined Hui $6.6 million and permanently barred him from the securities market after finding that Evergrande’s flagship unit had inflated financial results and committed securities fraud. The case marks the dramatic end of Hui’s rise from a rural upbringing to the head of one of China’s largest corporate empires.

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On August 13, Romanian authorities conducted 19 searches at the premises of individuals and companies as part of the investigation, which focuses on projects financed through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Operational Programme Administrative Capacity – Integrated Territorial Investment Danube Delta.

The projects involved the procurement of IT consultancy services, software and digital infrastructure for public authorities, including town halls and county councils.

According to investigators, a criminal network may have manipulated public procurement procedures to steer contracts toward preselected suppliers of cloud infrastructure. Authorities suspect that consultancy firms repeatedly submitted documentation with striking similarities in its wording, structure and authorship, indicating that materials may have been systematically reused across different tenders. Investigators are also examining allegations that suppliers provided false, inaccurate or incomplete information during procurement procedures.

The searches were conducted with the assistance of several Romanian police units specialising in organised crime, economic crime and special operations. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) also provided operational analysis to support the investigation. The case highlights the vulnerability of large-scale EU funding programmes to coordinated procurement manipulation, particularly where public institutions rely on external consultants to design technical requirements and evaluate suppliers. The investigation remains ongoing, and no charges or convictions have been announced. All individuals and companies involved are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent Romanian courts. The EPPO is the European Union’s independent prosecution service responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests, including fraud involving EU funds.

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