UK fines Apple subsidiary for breaching Russian sanctions
Apple Distribution International (ADI), the iPhone maker's wholly owned Irish subsidiary responsible for product sales across Europe and the Middle East, has been fined £390,000 by the UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) for making payments to a sanctioned Russian company in 2022.
ADI made two payments totaling £635,618.75 to Okko, a Russian online video streaming service, through a UK-based bank in the months following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Cork-based subsidiary also manages Apple App Store services and developer payments across the UK and EU.
ADI voluntarily disclosed the payments to OFSI in October 2022. The regulator concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, the Apple unit had violated sanctions prohibiting business with Russian-owned companies.
Italy fines Revolut over $13 million for alleged unfair commercial practices
Italy's competition authority has fined several Revolut group entities a combined 11.5 million euros ($13.25 million) for alleged unfair commercial practices. The regulator found that the European fintech group made misleading statements about its investment services and employed aggressive and deceptive practices in the administration of its banking services.
A Revolut spokesperson said the company strongly disputes the findings and intends to appeal the decision to the Italian courts, noting that it will not affect the company's operations or financial position.
The authority broke the penalty into three parts. Revolut Securities Europe UAB and Revolut Group Holdings Ltd were each fined 5 million euros for failing to provide customers with clear and comprehensive information about additional costs and limitations on commission-free investments, and a further 5 million euros for aggressively managing, withholding, or obscuring information about conditions and procedures for suspending, limiting, and blocking payment accounts. An additional 1.5 million euros in fines was imposed on the same two entities for failing to clearly explain the requirements and timelines for obtaining an Italian bank account rather than a Lithuanian one.
Hackers steal $280mn from decentralized finance crypto exchange Drift
Hackers have stolen $280 million from Drift, an unregulated cryptocurrency exchange, as trading in crypto-based derivatives has been rising sharply. Drift is the largest perpetual futures exchange on the Solana blockchain, and the stolen amount represents roughly half of the total dollar value held in deposits with the platform.
Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiration date, used by crypto traders to speculate on asset prices. Trading volumes in these instruments have grown significantly over the past year.
Drift said it was forced to freeze customer funds while working to contain the damage from the attack. Perpetual futures have become widely traded in decentralized finance, a lightly regulated segment of the cryptocurrency market, where traders are drawn to the relative ease of using such instruments and the ability to leverage positions for larger potential gains.
