Regulatory Watch News

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  Treasury Announces Second Round of Sanctions Removals, Updates in Modernization Initiative

  OFAC

  July 27, 2026

  WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took the second major action in its sanctions modernization efforts, announced by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in May. Today’s action removed 84 individuals and entities and improved identifying information for 22 list entries to facilitate compliance. Those removed from OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) today include individuals and entities no longer considered U.S. national security or foreign policy priorities: some deceased individuals, defunct entities, and targets sanctioned more than 20 years ago, some of whom lack sufficient information for effective compliance screening.  As with any removal from its sanctions lists, OFAC conducted appropriate interagency review to ensure that such removal would not harm U.S. foreign policy or national security interests.

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  Forced to scam: Inside one of the fastest-growing forms of human trafficking

  July 27, 2026

  Human trafficking for forced criminality occurs when people are exploited and made to commit crimes for the benefit of traffickers, often through deception, threats or coercion. Beyond scams, victims may be forced into a range of illegal activities, including theft, drug trafficking, financial fraud and online scams - an increasingly common and rapidly growing form of this crime. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that scams targeting victims in East and Southeast Asia resulted in US $18 to US $37 billion in financial losses in 2023 alone, highlighting the scale and profitability of this rapidly growing form of the crime. But human trafficking into scam centres is no longer confined to one region. By late 2025, victims identified came from nearly 80 nationalities, and while Southeast Asia remains a major hub, the model is increasingly spreading to the Middle East, Africa, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, South Asia the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.

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  Man extradited following investigations into attempted bribery, Operation Yankee Borderlands

  July 27, 2026

  Queensland Police Service, with assistance from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), has extradited and charged a man following investigations into the alleged attempted bribery of a public official. On 9 July, it is alleged a 39-year-old Chinese national attempted to bribe a Commonwealth public official during a business meeting in Camp Hill. Police allege that during the meeting, the man handed the woman a bag of tea, which was later found to contain $20,000 cash.