In another step towards closing off all avenues for Russia to sidestep international sanctions in response to the country’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine last month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that bars all transactions with the Russian central bank’s gold reserves, valued at roughly US$130 billion.

El Salvador declared a state of emergency on Sunday in order to combat criminal organizations across the country which authorities blame for 73 homicides committed just over the weekend, making it one of the deadliest since the country’s civil war ended in 1992.

At the request of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), Bulgarian authorities conducted 25 searches in three cities and questioned 10 people about companies suspected of having fraudulently obtained EU funds.

Authorities in three European countries have frozen assets worth 120 million euro (US$130 million) in relation to an ongoing money laundering investigation into Lebanon’s Central Bank governor Riad Salame and his entourage, German prosecutors told OCCRP on Tuesday.

Prosecutors charged Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro with illicit enrichment, in a case related to his former maid in Rio de Janeiro who allegedly received a salary as a government employee while he served as a lawmaker in Brasilia.

Ransomware attacks, business e-mail compromise and criminal use of cryptocurrency were last year on the rise in the United States and exposed the dangers malign cyber actors pose to individuals, companies, banks, and governments.

International markets cast another stone at Russia this week in response to the country’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, this time from representatives of France’s healthcare and automotive sectors as they announced the suspension of all Russian-based activities until further notice.

Nestlé will suspend its Russian-based business operations that are not linked to providing infant food or medical and hospital nutrition, the world’s largest food company stated Wednesday after having faced significant public pressure, including calls for boycott of its products.

A Brazilian court has sentenced prominent cattle rustler Ronaldo Bezerra da Silva to 64 years in prison after he was found to have led a gang that stole hundreds of animals and resold them across the country.

The United States sanctioned seven suspected high-ranking members of the Los Huistas, Guatemala’s prominent criminal gang, accusing them of global illicit drug trade and cooperation with Mexico’s deadly Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said.