We strongly condemn the U.S. decision to impose travel restrictions on five European individuals, including former Commissioner Thierry Breton. Link to full statement: link.europa.eu/NtMX4K

The Trump administration is recalling nearly 30 ambassadors, all of whom are career diplomats. A union says there has never been such a mass recall in the history of the foreign service. Morale has been plummeting in the State Department all year. Story: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/u...

SCOOP-1: The @nytimes.com has confirmed the following previously unreported donations/pledges to the WH ballroom: ▶️Miriam Adelson’s foundation: $25m ▶️Lockheed Martin: $10m ▶️Palantir: $10m ▶️Ripple: $5m ▶️Parsons: $2.5m ▶️Roblox CEO: $2.5 Here's a gift link. There's more in the story 🧵…

Reminder: you have until midnight CET on Christmas Eve to submit feedback to @ec.europa.eu on the formats for submission of beneficial ownership information to central registers. ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet... My feedback: ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet... #beneficialownership #openstandards

➡️ 15 Ambassadorships ➡️ 2 Pardons ➡️ Hundreds of White House invitations ➡️ 13 Dropped investigations ➡️ Dozens of executive actions Inside Trump’s FUNDRAISING BONANZA at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. W/ @kenvogel.bsky.social (1/2) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

SCOOP: Trump is pushing out more Biden-era ambassadors — this time it's career Foreign Service officers, which is unusual. A State source say it's around two dozen people. (This is the subscriber version. A free version will be up soon & I'll link to it.) subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

According to a Financial Times investigation, the Trump business has already reaped more than $1bn in pre-tax profits over the past year, in part thanks to a crypto boom fuelled by the administration’s own industry-friendly policies www.ft.com/content/2ea2...

Rachel de Souza: ‘No one should be getting rich off the backs of vulnerable children’ The children’s commissioner for England is calling for radical investment to stop the profiteers who have turned the vital care of young people into a gold rush https://bit.ly/4ao0BGH

Trump's absolutely correct that a new golden age is upon us—for white-collar criminals. My essay in @theguardian.com on how white-collar criminals just had the best year they've ever seen: www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

New column: Children’s Commissioner joins fight against profiteering from children’s social care. Via Substack. open.substack.com/pub/martinba...

An investigation by The Sunday Times has discovered that Beijing has been steadily increasing its diplomatic presence in the UK, adding new officials every two months, and has been buying properties across London

PPE company linked to ex-Tory peer Michelle Mone goes into liquidation

🔺EXCLUSIVE: Mishcon de Reya, the London law firm that was once solicitor for Princess Diana, handled a multimillion-pound property purchase for the man subsequently accused of heading up the world’s most successful organised crime group

🎉 🥳 #UNCAC #CoSP11 adopted resolution on political finance transparency, making it the first-ever set of principles agreed at UN-level to promote accountability in funding of political parties and campaigns. Congrats, Norway, Albania, Ghana, Mongolia @anticorruption.bsky.social @ifes.bsky.social!

A major Tory donor has been sanctioned in the UK and EU for his alleged role in the Russian oil trade. The oil magnate Murtaza Lakhani was hit with a UK asset freeze and travel ban on the grounds that his activities were assisting Russia. www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...

The Trump trail has taken me to Gibraltar. To answer a question: Why did the son of the most powerful man on the planet show up at a law firm in a tiny British outpost one Friday this November looking for money? @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

“By requiring these corporate entities to provide beneficial ownership information, the CTA regulates how they operate and the level of secrecy with which they do business,” Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher wrote on behalf of the panel. https://loom.ly/KUNZwFQ

Another bombshell opinion has been issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (@eucourtofjustice.bsky.social) which says that public access to shareholder information isn't aligned with GDPR data rules and should be subject to a legitimate interest test www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe...

Watch this one. I suggested it wasn’t going away… and it hasn’t. The law remains on the books, and an appellate court just ruled it constitutional. (Treasury has declared that domestic companies don’t have to provide it.) I predict more lawsuits. www.forbes.com/sites/kellyp...

@oliverbullough.bsky.social @mattcollin.bsky.social

Another bombshell opinion has been issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (@eucourtofjustice.bsky.social) which says that public access to shareholder information isn't aligned with GDPR data rules and should be subject to a legitimate interest test www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe...

🟡 Verification of beneficial ownership data in #Austria, #Germany and #Slovakia ↔️ Tracing beneficial ownership networks across borders Read it: bit.ly/uncac-case-s... Join our sessions this week at #COSP in Doha: bit.ly/meet-oo-at-c... @uncaccoalition.bsky.social

Belgian crypto billionaire Olivier Janssens is planning to establish a "libertarian community" with its own legal system in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Scammers, spies and triads: inside cyber-crime’s $15tn global empire www.ft.com/content/bdc7... The @financialtimes.com digs into the proliferation of crime-as-a-service tools and the global scam industry.

Today, my colleague David Yaffe-Bellany and I published an investigation into the frenzied world of crypto unleased by Trump. Risk taking, profiteering & yes, innovation, as crypto bros sense that this is the moment crypto will go mainstream in the U.S. Free link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/t...

Belgian politicians and finance bosses targeted by Russian intelligence over seized assets

The Trump administration said it will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, one of the world’s leading Earth science research institutions.

NYT INVESTIGATION: What Trump’s Embrace of Crypto Has Unleashed A boundary-pushing array of new crypto ventures have reached the stock market, enticing investors and leading to more risk taking. (Free link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/t...

Another potentially consequential opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union relating to business transparency is due on 18th December about whether disclosing shareholder information for public companies infringes on the right to privacy of those individuals 🧵

Those with legitimate interest should be able to access beneficial ownership information on trusts and legal arrangements in Italy, according to a new opinion from CJEU advocate general curia.europa.eu/juris/docume... #beneficialownership #legitimateinterest #AML #UBO #6AMLD #AMLA

Czechia's beneficial ownership register is now no longer publicly available esm.justice.cz/ias/issm/rej...

It’s #COSP11 week! This brand-new series of case studies on best practices and challenges in using #BeneficialOwnership information, developed by Open Ownership and @unodc.bsky.social, aims to ensure full implementation of the mandate in resolution 10/6. Read it: bit.ly/uncac-case-s... More 👇

OpenAI hires George Osborne to spearhead global ‘Stargate’ expansion ft.trib.al/kpZiA3a

BREAKING: The 11th Circuit court upholds the constitutionality of the Corporate Transparency Act in final ruling. Read FACT's full statement here, with quotes from legal, law enforcement, and national security experts: thefactcoalition.org/court-uphold...

Big new Jeffrey Epstein investigation just dropped: How he built his fortune based on scams and lies. New revelations about his ties to Clinton and Trump. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/m...

Belgium has persistent AML resource deficiencies, faces growing risks around virtual assets and needs to do more to make sure beneficial ownership information is accurate and up-to-date, according to its newly published FATF mutual evaluation report www.fatf-gafi.org/content/dam/...

The Omnibus final vote is today 🚨 Will members of the European Parliament bend to the wishes of the ‘Competitiveness Roundtable’ - a secret alliance mostly made up of US fossil fuel companies? The EU must stand up against corporate capture ⚠️ Full analysis: www.somo.nl/the-secretiv...

Reminder that the Isle of Man Government is currently consulting on changes to its corporate and beneficial ownership laws to standardise information collected, record nominee shareholdings and enhance data sharing. Submissions due by 8 January 2026 www.gov.im/news/2025/de...

What happens when a law firm acts for a business widely suspected of fraud — run by a convicted fraudster, owned by unknown parties, and unable to answer fraud allegations? And threatens whistleblowers, regulators and even the police who try to stop it? Nothing.

Reminder that Czechia's beneficial ownership register will stop being public on Wednesday 17 December 2025 esm.justice.cz/ias/issm/rej... Amendments to introduce legitimate interest access in line with the EU AML package have been drafted but not yet approved odok.gov.cz/portal/vekle...

Agree Mercosur trade deal or give up on the EU’s global reputation as a reliable partner, Brussels’ trade chief @marossefcovic.bsky.social tells @financialtimes.com “This is a matter of the credibility and predictability of the EU” he warned w @andybounds.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/ca5324d2-b...

Not very often I write about crypto people but one is trying to start his own city — with its own courts — on the Caribbean island of Nevis as.ft.com/r/9f58f838-0...

Should the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard be extended to represent assets and capture beneficial ownership relationships with those assets? 🔍💰🏘️🛥️ github.com/openownershi... Background: www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe... #beneficialownership #assetrecovery #AML #UBO #CoSP11 #openstandards

The SEC, the top federal regulator for the financial markets, eased up on more than 60% of its cases against the crypto industry that were ongoing when President Trump returned to the White House, The New York Times found. Many of the lawsuits involved companies that had ties to Trump.

Hoping the team at @theobserveruk.bsky.social knows that Chrome’s mobile reading mode gets around their new paywall and lets anyone read full text of articles cc @catneilan.bsky.social

Should the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard be extended to represent assets and capture beneficial ownership relationships with those assets? 🔍💰🏘️🛥️ github.com/openownershi... Background: www.linkedin.com/posts/stephe... #beneficialownership #assetrecovery #AML #UBO #CoSP11 #openstandards

💡Chile is showing what’s possible when data analytics and beneficial ownership transparency come together to reshape procurement integrity. All monitoring is now automated, leading to a 207% increase in the detection of irregularities: 

Public consultation launched by the Australian Treasury on draft laws to improve Australia’s business registers and on "whether this framework could guide future integration of beneficial ownership information" into the company register consult.treasury.gov.au/c2025-726278

"Access to accurate beneficial ownership information is increasingly central to effective tax enforcement. It enables authorities to look beyond opaque corporate structures, intermediaries, and nominee arrangements" - new UNODC report track.unodc.org/track/en/tra...

The European Union has triggered Article 122 to indefinitely immobilise the assets of the Russian Central Bank, worth a whopping €210 billion. I explain what just happened and why this is such a big deal for Europeans. 🧵 Long thread.