Day: February 2, 2021

On 2 February, Haaretz reported that an investigation by Al Jazeera into corruption in Bangladesh revealed that it purchased surveillance technology produced by an Israeli company, despite the fact that the 2 countries do not have diplomatic relations.  Al Jazeera’s report details how the sale was orchestrated through a middleman in Thailand; and show that despite the fact that the company is registered in Israel, Israel is not the country of origin for the sale, but rather Hungary.  The middleman is said to be a called James Moloney, an Irish national, who owns a company called Sovereign Systems, which is registered in Singapore, though he himself is based in Bangkok.

https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/asia-and-australia/bangladesh-bought-israeli-spytech-despite-lack-of-ties-al-jazeera-reports-1.9505325

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On 26 January, Homeland Security Today in the US reported that “How to make a bomb” ranked in the top 10 terms searched on Google in September and October 2020, according to a DHS bombing prevention awareness bulletin asking stakeholders to learn how to spot and report potential explosive devices.  Among other things, the article repeats advice that suspicious purchases include unusually large quantities bought in one shot or bulk purchases picked up in store, paying with large amounts of cash or another person’s credit card, ignorance of how a product is properly used or questions about unlawful or atypical uses, “refusing to accept substitute products that perform better or are less expensive,” being obsessed about the chemical makeup of products, or “unusual ordering, purchasing patterns and/or purchases spread across multiple stores in a chain”.  In the US, the Bomb-Making Materials Awareness Program (BMAP) has been undertaking outreach and has urged retailers to watch for and report suspicious activity related to the purchase of explosive targets, including someone buying many at one time or showing a lack of familiarity with firearms.

https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/infrastructure-security/how-to-make-a-bomb-was-a-top-10-google-search-term-in-september-and-october/

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On 2 February, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said in a news release that, following on from the regular national economy-wide money laundering (and terrorist financing) risk assessment published by the Government in December, it has published a dedicated sectoral risk assessment looking at the specific risks and challenges within legal services.  It is said that sectoral risk assessment identifies and discusses the biggest issues and emerging threats currently facing providers of legal services as they look to combat money launderers.  It is complemented by the LSAG guidance, which covers all the bases of the 2017 regulations, plus a thorough review of how regulations and expectations on firms have evolved since then.

https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/news/press/new-aml-guidance/

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On 2 February, the UN Office of Drugs & Crime published this report which covers 148 countries and provides an overview of patterns and flows of trafficking in persons at global, regional and national levels, based primarily on trafficking cases detected between 2016 and 2019.  As with previous years, this edition of the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons presents a global picture of the patterns and flows of trafficking (Chapter 1), alongside detailed regional analyses (Chapter 6) and country profiles. Another chapter focuses on trafficking for forced labour and explores the specific economic sectors that are more vulnerable to trafficking.

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/glotip.html

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On 2 February, Sandler Travis Rosenberg reported that the alert is the FDA’s first-ever country-wide import alert for any category of drug product.  This follows a sharp increase in hand sanitiser products from Mexico that were labelled to contain ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol) but tested positive for contamination with methanol (also known as wood alcohol.

https://www.strtrade.com/trade-news-resources/str-trade-report/trade-report/february/import-detention-for-hand-sanitizers-from-mexico

I would be grateful for any modest contribution for my time and ongoing costs of computer, relocation, and (still ongoing) removal costs, I have a page, where contributions start as low as $3, at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/KoIvM842y