Law enforcement agencies from several countries have dismantled in a coordinated effort one of the most sophisticated and long-lasting cybercrime services used by criminal networks to extort and steal personal data worldwide, Europol said in a statement last week.

The U.S. financial services company Robinhood, which serves as a trading platform for millions of users, is under fire amidst claims that it froze the purchases, and even forced the sale of customers’ stocks that have seen an unprecedented surge in value. 

After an Italian operation arrested dozens of alleged ‘Ndrangheta members last week, Albania’s Prime Minister, Edi Rama, said the mafia group had tried to use his country as a money laundering base but without success. 

Corrupt practices prevailed in governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic last year and have contributed to a continuing crisis of democracy worldwide, Transparency International found while compiling its 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) that was released on Thursday.

In a coordinated international effort, the FBI made critical advances in taking down the ransomware NetWalker by disrupting its dark web communication site, confiscating nearly half a million dollars in cryptocurrency payments and charging a Canadian man related to the attacks, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan have detained former Prime Minister Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev over allegations of corruption and profiteering relating to gold-mining operations in the Issyk-Kul region, including an environmentally-protected area.

Equatoguinean journalist and OCCRP contributor Delfin Mochache Massoko has received a series of threats after recently publishing an investigation exposing that his country’s oil minister allegedly siphoned off millions of euros of state money from a construction project. 

Authorities seized 186 tonnes of cut tobacco and nearly 14 million cigarettes in raids on several illicit cigarette factories in Belgium and the Netherlands, Europol said on Tuesday. The cigarettes are believed to have been destined for the U.K. market.

Maldivian authorities must take action against those causing environmental destruction to the vulnerable islands and have to be transparent about it, a joint press release by 11 Maldivian conservation organizations said.

Warring parties in Yemen have diverted millions of dollars of public money into their military campaigns and into the pockets of their warlords, abusing foreign aid as well as tax and customs revenues, U.N. sanction monitors found.