Last Thursday we celebrated one year of Horizons, our investigative platform, with the staff and partners who helped build it. From its corporate records collection to sanctions tracking, it's become a key element used in our work. buff.ly/bEnX9v4
C4ADS
@c4ads.org
We're a nonprofit organization with a mission to defeat the illicit networks that threaten global peace and security. RT ≠ endorsement. Learn more at https://c4ads.org/.
One year ago, we launched Horizons. This month, we launched BYOD — the next step in our commitment to building tools that help investigators do their best work. Here’s to year two. Learn more about BYOD 👇 buff.ly/zeBFF3M
C4ADS Launches “Bring Your Own Data” on Horizons
C4ADS launches Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) on Horizons, enabling users to upload their own files and search them alongside 3+ billion public records in one private, access-controlled workspace.
c4ads.org
C4ADS Executive Director Varun Vira recently presented at the ACI Trade Compliance Tech conference, sharing case studies from our maritime investigations and detailing the illicit networks behind them.
Today is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, spotlighting people forced into running online scams under threat of violence. We’ve investigated these scam centers to expose the systems that trap and exploit victims. Learn more about our work👇 buff.ly/h2aOoeH #EndHumanTrafficking
We analyzed Chinese government records and found 56 restricted NVIDIA chips reaching institutions with defense, intelligence, and state ties — $1.7M in banned hardware, through unauthorized resellers, buried inside large orders. The findings point to three concrete fixes. 🧵 1/5 buff.ly/AhOQXs3
C4ADS AI Chips Fact Sheet
c4ads.org
We're proud to welcome General (Ret.) Charles A. Flynn to its Board of Directors. A veteran and former Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific, Flynn brings deep national security and China expertise — including recent work at the intersection of tech and defense. More 👇
C4ADS Welcomes General (Ret.) Charles A. Flynn to Our Board of Directors
C4ADS welcomes General (Ret.) Charles A. Flynn — a 39-year Army veteran and former Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific — to our Board of Directors.
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In May, we documented reliance on Western tech inside Xinjiang surveillance infrastructure. June, we showed how Chinese universities spent $1.7M on banned NVIDIA chips, routing bundled shipments through unauthorized distributors. It’s two pieces of the same story. More coming soon.
C4ADS AI Chips Fact Sheet
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You no longer have to hand-write a Python class for every Follow the Money (FtM) entity type. We built followthemoney-neomodel to auto-generate FtM’s full vocabulary as ready-to-use Python classes for Neo4j. No Cypher and no custom coding. Learn more and try it now 👇 buff.ly/AjyTsIM
Bringing Follow the Money into the Graph: A New Neo4j Tool
C4ADS has released followthemoney-neomodel, an open-source tool that automatically converts the Follow the Money data standard into Python classes for Neo4j, letting analysts build and query…
c4ads.org
From July 2025 to January 2026, Chinese universities spent at least $1.7M on 56 restricted NVIDIA chips explicitly banned for export to China. Now, C4ADS can tell you how — chips buried inside large orders and transactions routed through regional distributors. More coming soon. buff.ly/0X5fCrQ
BYOD, broken down: 📁 Upload your files, 🔍 search them alongside 3B+ public records 🗂️, organize them into Investigations, and 🔒 share privately on your terms. 1/2 Learn more about BYOD 👇 buff.ly/Gr8saKY
C4ADS Launches “Bring Your Own Data” on Horizons
C4ADS launches Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) on Horizons, enabling users to upload their own files and search them alongside 3+ billion public records in one private, access-controlled workspace.
c4ads.org
We’re excited to share that C4ADS Executive Director Varun Vira will present at ACI’s Trade Compliance Tech conference this week, unpacking maritime case studies and the hidden ownership networks built to evade sanctions. More 👇
Agenda | Trade Compliance Tech
Flip through our conference brochure and discover what’s new this year.Download Brochure
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ICYMI: C4ADS Senior Analysts Allen Maggard and Mishel Kondi weigh in for Tom's Hardware on the Sino-Russian chip trade and its drivers, from economical reasons to mutual access between the two countries. Read more 👇
While the U.S. flip-flops on chip sanctions, China is building its own chip supply market — export controls are creating conditions for a Sino-Russian chip trade alliance
Donald Trump can’t seem to decide whether or not he wants China to have access to chip supplies – but in the interim, China is setting up its own markets.
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Nearly 100 ships now sit on Taiwan’s maritime blacklist, swapping false AIS identities 8x every few months to evade detection. At least 20 of these vessels are tied to suspected North Korea sanctions evasion. C4ADS Lead Analyst Andrew Boling breaks it down with @FinancialTimes.com👇
Ships on Taiwan maritime blacklist also have North Korea smuggling ties
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Your investigation doesn’t start in Horizons — it starts with the files you already have. Today we’re launching Bring Your Own Data so that you can upload your files and search them alongside 3B+ public records, all in one private workspace. 1/2 Learn more about BYOD 👇 buff.ly/Gr8saKY
C4ADS Launches “Bring Your Own Data” on Horizons
C4ADS launches Bring Your Own Data (BYOD) on Horizons, enabling users to upload their own files and search them alongside 3+ billion public records in one private, access-controlled workspace.
c4ads.org
Two C4ADS investigations, two different industries, same architecture for illicit activity. Oil & Water, tracked 56 CCP-tied supertankers shipping 400M+ barrels of illicit oil using shell companies and flag registries built to hide. Keeping the Lights On, found the same system in squid fishing.
Oil and Water
Since 2019, a China-based fleet of at least 56 supertankers has funneled more than 400 million barrels of illicit oil between high-risk states like China, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela — now, Oil &…
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ICYMI: C4ADS Senior Director of Analysis Mollie Zapata joined experts from Google, OpenAI, and ChongLuaDao for a @stimsoncenter.bsky.social-hosted discussion on the ways transnational criminal organizations are using AI to enhance their scam operations. Watch the recording 👇
AI and Scams: Beyond the Hype • Stimson Center
Join us for a discussion about how both criminal actors and trusted platform providers are using artificial intelligence, and what AI means for the future of fighting fraud
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ICYMI: We worked with @apnews.com and @pbs.org to document how AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini have been integrated into the commercial software platforms powering industrial-scale cam centers in Southeast Asia. Read 👇
Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people
Technology from American companies is being used to power a revolution in the scam industry, playing a key role in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have not been clear…
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In 2025, C4ADS and @france24.com traced chlorine shipments into Sudan to Ports Engineering, finding evidence of chemical weapons use in the conflict. OFAC just sanctioned the company, citing ownership by Giad Industrial Group (mapped in our prior analysis). More 👇 home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...
Treasury Sanctions Networks Fueling Sudan’s Civil War and Worsening Humanitarian Crisis
WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on eight individuals and entities linked to procurement and recruitment networks that ...
home.treasury.gov
Data centers in XUAR are the least-scrutinized part of China's surveillance system. Our analysis of procurement records reveals Western technology still embedded in their infrastructure. Read 👇
Hardwired Repression
Data centers are an essential component of China's expansive mass surveillance system in the Uyghur region, quietly processing biometric and behavioral data to target ethnic minorities — yet they…
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Last week, we partnered with @thewirechina.bsky.social and Wirescreen for an exclusive in-person discussion on the illicit networks, transshipment routes, and state-linked procurement efforts enabling China’s access to advanced AI computing power. A few key takeaways from the event:
“Everyone is a robot there.” Trafficked workers in Southeast Asia scam compounds are running 100+ fake dating profiles at once, powered by software built on Western AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini. New from @apnews.com & @frontlinepbs.bsky.social, with analysis from C4ADS. 🧵 1/ buff.ly/m3xUVq2
Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people
Technology from American companies is being used to power a revolution in the scam industry, playing a key role in the industrialization and globalization of fraud in ways that have not been clear…
apnews.com
ICYMI: A convicted Zimbabwean fraudster is now a joint venture partner on Kenya's $2.9B JKIA airport deal. Kenya Insights’ new investigation draws on C4ADS documentation of Chinese contractor CCCC's tax evasion in Kenya. Read 👇
How A Convicted Zimbabwean Fraudster Quietly Bought His Way Into Kenya’s Sh375 Billion JKIA Mega-Deal
Nairobi — While Kenyans were still digesting the announcement that China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) had walked away with the Sh375.4 billion ($2.9 billion) tender to rebuild Jomo Kenya
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We're hiring a Communications Intern for Fall 2026! In this role, you'll get hands-on experience: identifying priority audiences, writing email and social media content for public dissemination, supporting event production, and more. Apply today 👇 buff.ly/SeW0YEr
Internships
At C4ADS, we value the perspectives, skills, and interests that our interns bring to the organization. As a C4ADS intern, you won’t make coffee or arrange conference room furniture. You will work…
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What will it take to prevent Iran’s military reconstitution? @trade.csis.org’s Kate Koren, Kevin Kurland, and Emma Surnow, alongside Patrick Panjeti (@deptofwar.bsky.social) and Omar Al-Ghusbi (@c4ads.org), examine what Tehran lost and what it will need next. Read: tinyurl.com/ydbapbs8
Preventing Iran’s Military Reconstitution
Iran’s ability to reconstitute its military depends on its ability to import key materials and equipment. With the UAE’s role as Iran’s central reexport hub up in the air, policymakers have a narrow w...
tinyurl.com
Iran will rebuild. A new @csis.org report, co-authored by C4ADS Senior Analyst Omar Al-Ghusbi, examines what comes next now that UAE reexport routes are in doubt — and how the US and its allies can get ahead of emerging procurement networks. Read 👇
Preventing Iran’s Military Reconstitution
Iran’s ability to reconstitute its military depends on its ability to import key materials and equipment. With the UAE’s role as Iran’s central reexport hub up in the air, policymakers have a narrow…
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Join us June 25 for an exclusive in-person conversation with @thewirechina.bsky.social and WireScreen on illicit GPU networks, sanctions gaps, and the global race for AI computing power. Space is limited 👇 buff.ly/mFtADWd
Form
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Join C4ADS’ Senior Director of Analysis Mollie Zapata alongside other experts from Google, OpenAI, and ChongLuaDao for The Stimson Center’s AI and Scams: Beyond the Hype — to discuss how AI is being used by scammers to enhance online fraud. 📅 June 25 📍 In-person and online RSVP 👇
AI and Scams: Beyond the Hype • Stimson Center
Join us for a discussion about how both criminal actors and trusted platform providers are using artificial intelligence, and what AI means for the future of fighting fraud
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Next week, C4ADS’ Mollie Zapata joins @stimsoncenter.bsky.social alongside other experts from Google, OpenAI, and ChongLuaDao to discuss how AI is being used by scammers to enhance online fraud. RSVP 👇 buff.ly/tydynRX #openai #google #chongluadao
AI and Scams: Beyond the Hype • Stimson Center
Join us for a discussion about how both criminal actors and trusted platform providers are using artificial intelligence, and what AI means for the future of fighting fraud
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Last month we hosted our first C4ADS happy hour of the year — It was great to see so many familiar faces, meet new ones, and kick off the start of summer with amazing conversations! If you would like to be notified about future happy hours, sign up for our mailing list. buff.ly/2C7el7a
🚨 INTERNSHIP ALERT 🚨 This fall, we’re offering opportunities with six different teams, from analysis to comms. Apply now to join us in the fight to defeat the illicit networks that threaten global peace and security! Apply 👇 buff.ly/GYQAlhn
