A U.S. jury convicted Friday a former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs for his role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) embezzlement scandal, in which the bank paid billions in bribes to Malaysian and Abu Dhabi government officials in order to obtain lucrative business dealings.

Although drug trafficking is the region’s No.1 problem, a top U.S. military officer in Latin America and the Caribbean has called last week for authorities to also intensify their crackdown on fish piratery, organized crime and China’s expansion.

Labor abuse is rampant in both legal and illegal fisheries, researchers found when they looked at conditions at some 792 ports in a new study published in the academic journal, Nature Communications.

The insatiable thirst for gold among consumers, investors and tech companies is pushing criminal networks to exploit the hidden gold in the undergrounds of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

Blocked from international financial and gold markets following its invasion of Ukraine, Russia could use its influence in West Africa to exploit illicit gold markets and gold laundering to generate profits and move finances across borders, said a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC.)

With Russian oligarchs in the global spotlight and U.K. authorities holding his two executive jets, sanctioned billionaire Eugene Shvidler may be tempted to hide out in one of his US$15-million flats in central London, which have remained secret from the public until now.

United States prosecutors indicted a Russian oligarch for violating sanctions imposed against him in 2014 over his support for the Russian occupation of Donetsk, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

The sister of Uzbek-born oligarch and one of the richest Russians, Alisher Usmanov, was added Friday to the European Union’s list of people and entities sanctioned over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Spain’s Civil Guard arrested Wednesday three individuals accused of fraudulently selling high-quality sofas that in fact did not exist. Authorities report that the group has defrauded at least 175 people for over half a million euros.

In a coordinated international effort to disrupt malicious cybercrime activity, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Tuesday a virtual currency exchange site and a Russian darknet marketplace, known to be the largest and most prominent in the world.