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Regulatory Watch News

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  France: Five convicted in fraud case involving EU-funded waste treatment project

  European Public Prosecutor's Office

  September 2, 2026

  (Luxembourg, 2 September 2026) – Today, based on an investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Paris (France), the Paris Criminal Court convicted three French companies and their two executives for fraud involving €275 800 in EU funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The two executives were sentenced to suspended prison sentences of eleven and ten months respectively. They were also fined €20 000 each, with €10 000 suspended, and barred from holding elected public office for eight months. The three companies were sentenced to confiscation penalties totalling €275 800.

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  Global public-private operation disrupts Sality botnet active for two decades

  Europol

  September 2, 2026

  An international operation supported by Europol has disrupted the Sality peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet, a long-running criminal infrastructure used to distribute malicious payloads to thousands of infected computers worldwide. The coordinated action, carried out on 31 August 2026 and led by the US authorities, targeted a botnet believed to have been operating for more than two decades. At its peak, the botnet gave its operator access to up to one million infected machines worldwide. To date, more than 11 million unique IP addresses have been linked to the infrastructure, which could be used to distribute malicious payloads to compromised devices.

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  OFSI imposes £4.7 million penalty on Citibank London Branch

  OFSI

  September 2, 2026

  OFSI imposes £4.7 million penalty on Citibank N.A. London Branch 

  The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has imposed a £4,732,830.58 monetary penalty on Citibank, N.A., London Branch (CBNA London) for breaches of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and the Global Anti-Corruption Sanctions Regulations 2021. 

  The case involved 970 transactions worth approximately £19.7 million processed between 2022 and 2025. The majority of the breaches occurred between February and November 2022 following Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and arose across the bank's operations, including payment processing, correspondent banking and account restrictions.