🧳 SEC nearly doubles crypto enforcement unit, citing fraud risk in booming market

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Tuesday that it will close to double its cryptocurrency enforcement division, adding another 20 positions to the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit.

As cryptocurrency has become more available to retail investors, fraud and abuse have kept pace. One prominent type of scam is known as a rug pull, where the operators of a project solicit investment, promise big returns, and simply abscond with the money.

In its announcement, the SEC expressed particular interest in crimes connected to staking and lending platforms, decentralized finance (DeFi) services, stablecoins, and NFTs. The newly created staff positions would include investigative attorneys, trial counsels, and fraud analysts, the SEC said.

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⚡️ Ukraine holding 90 foreigners hostage, Russian MoD says

😁 In yet another slip of the tongue, US President Joe Biden has said that “the US has made sure Russia had Javelins and other weapons to strengthen their defences”.

The verbal lapse occurred as POTUS was addressing staff during a visit to a Lockheed Martin facility in Alabama, which makes Javelin anti-tank missiles. Apparently his remark came as something of a shock to local employees who labour under the impression that they are supplying Ukraine with weapons…

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⚡️ Oil depot on fire in Makeevka after explosion, Sputnik correspondent reports

⚡️ EU to announce sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions on Wednesday, Von der Leyen says

⚡️ European Commission to propose banning all oil imports from Russia to EU

One killed, two injured after shelling of oil depot in Makeevka, DPR says

⚡️ Russia high-precision missiles destroyed Ukrainian Tochka-U missile, three S-300 air defence system launchers

⚡️ Life is improving in Mariupol, which is under Russian forces control, Shoigu says

⚡️ Nationalists at Azovstal ignored proposals to free civilians and lay down weapons, we continue these attempts, Shoigu says

⚡️ Moscow bans Japanese PM and Foreign Minister from entering Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry says

⚡️ US & their NATO allies continue pumping weapons into Ukraine, Shoigu says

📌 Russian MoD’s latest update on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️ High-precision sea-based weapons destroyed six Ukrainian traction power substations;

▪️ Operational-tactical and army aviation hit 40 Ukrainian military targets;

▪️ Artillery units eliminated 16 command posts, 2 fuel depots, as well as 476 strongholds of nationalist units, areas of concentrated manpower and military equipment;

▪️ Missile troops hit two Ukrainian command posts;

▪️ Russian air defence have shot down nine Ukrainian drones, including 1 Bayraktar-TB2;

▪️ In total, 146 aircraft and 112 helicopters, 706 drones, 287 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,807 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 321 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,279 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,609 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation

Russian Defence Ministry has published footage showing artillery firing at Ukrainian troops' positions

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❗️ Any NATO vehicle coming to Ukraine with weapons is considered to be legitimate target, Shoigu says

🎞📹 Ukrainian armed forces robbed people and carried sacks of loot under cover of darkness so that no one would see them, Lyudmila Matviyenko, a resident of Volnovakha, said. According to her, the UAF soldiers have been stealing and robbing in Volnovakha for eight years.

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Mariupol children have shared horrible experience of how Azov neo-Nazis beat up ordinary people for nothing. If residents were to light a flashlight or candle in their houses, Azov members would start shooting at windows saying “we will kill you if you try to leave the building”

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