NEWS: Human traffickers forced young women to make €300 a day in Berlin sex industry, monitored all their communications; police raids in Germany and Hungary

Regulatory Watch News

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  Europol supports strike-down on criminal organisation smuggling tens of thousands of hazardous salvage cars from the US

  Europol

  April 17, 2025

  Europol supported an action led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Berlin (Germany) and Vilnius (Lithuania), which involved around 1 000 police, tax and customs officers carrying out 200 searches in ten countries. The investigation targeted a vast criminal organisation active in smuggling badly damaged cars from the United States (US) into the European Union (EU), and selling them to end customers after superficial repair, while defrauding the payment of customs duties and committing large-scale value-added tax (VAT) fraud.

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  SFC and HKMA consult on annual update to Financial Services Providers list under OTC derivatives regulatory regime

  Securities and Futures Commission

  April 17, 2025

  The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today issued a joint consultation on the annual update to the list of Financial Services Providers (FSP List) under the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives clearing regime . Based on the latest annual review, the regulators proposed adding one entity to the FSP list to ensure the list remains relevant and appropriate. The update, if adopted, is scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2026.

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  Treasury Increases Pressure on Chinese Importers of Iranian Oil

  OFAC

  April 16, 2025

  WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating a China-based independent “teapot” refinery Shandong Shengxing Chemical Co., Ltd. for its role in purchasing more than a billion dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil, including from a front company for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).  OFAC is also imposing additional sanctions on several companies and vessels responsible for facilitating Iranian oil shipments to China as part of Iran’s “shadow fleet.