The United States announced Thursday moves to lock global organized crime out of the financial system, putting sanctions on the Russia-linked Brothers' Circle and Japan's powerful Yamaguchi-gumi.
The Treasury said it was ordering a freeze on their assets and prohibiting any US citizens or businesses from any transactions with them, to attack their economic power and protect the international financial system.
"The threat to the United States... is that they use our financial system, they use our commercial system, to both penetrate the markets, to disrupt the markets, and to make use of their illicit proceeds," said Treasury under secretary David Cohen. (AFP)
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