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Regulatory Watch News

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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.

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  SEC’s Anti-Fraud Public Service Campaign Warns Investors About Relationship Investment Scams

  SEC

  April 16, 2025

  Washington D.C., April 16, 2025 —

  The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) today unveiled its anti-fraud public service campaign, which warns investors about the devastating impact relationship investment scams can have on their financial future. Relationship investment scams typically involve a “long con” in which scammers reach out online or through text messages, attempting to build trust through friendship or a romantic connection to convince someone to put money into phony investments. They are referred to by various names including romance scams, financial grooming scams, and “pig butchering” scams.

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  Spain – Publication of the 4th Round 2nd Addendum to the 2nd Compliance Report and 5th Round 2nd Compliance Report

  GRECO

  April 16, 2025

  The Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published two follow-up reports assessing Spain’s compliance with its recommendations to prevent corruption in respect of top executive functions of the central government, law enforcement agencies, parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors. In a compliance report adopted in December 2023, GRECO concluded that Spain had not yet fully implemented any of the recommendations it issued to the country in 2019 to prevent corruption and promote integrity in top executive functions of the central government and the law enforcement agencies (Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil). Of the outstanding recommendations, it had partly implemented 13 recommendations and had not yet implemented six.