gender and will take you to hong kong where measures to contain a fresh corona virus outbreak have spark antic buying amongst citizen. i'm chris kolber and berlin. welcome to the program. 94000 bitcoin. that is $3600000000.00 a record seizure by the us justice department, tuesday police in new york, arrested a husband and wife couple that allegedly tried to launder just that amount, which seems to be connected to a 2016 hack of the virtual currency exchange bid in facts find next, the attorney general says the arrest or prove that, quote, crip, the currency is not a safe haven for criminals and that the law will and can, we will follow the money. no matter from the law, no matter what form it takes us. earlier i spoke to our financial reporter and form a wall street correspondent lars culture, and i asked him who the people are who stand accused of laundering the 3600000000

dollars worth of bitcoin? here's what he had to say. chris, as they said before, they are a husband and wife team, and let's look at him 1st. ilya lisa steining calls himself dutch. he seems to be pretty tech savvy. he is an angel investor, and he used to be a part of the y coordinator. that's a startup accelerator that has helped some important, some really big text firms. get to the next level among those are air b and b or dropbox, but also coin base, which of course, is a link, a possible link here to the crypt occurrences. and then if we look at her head more again, she is a little bit all over the place. she says about herself that she started many different companies. she was also bankrupt and homeless a couple of times then rich again. and where do i notice from i went through her instagram and youtube account earlier today, and i can't tell you whether that was the best part of the worst part of my day. but she's also, she's putting a lot of stuff up there,

including some rap videos which i think are really the worst i've ever seen. so quite an interesting person here. quite an interesting background. how did the to get caught? well, you know, people used to think of crypt occurrences as untraceable and they're really not every crypto transaction isa in that block. and that block chain, a publicly available ledger, it is transcribed there. that is essentially code and code. of course, if you're into the tech world and if you understand it can be traced. if you have parts of a code here and it appears here and they are again, you can trace it. and that's exactly how they did it as alter from the w business. thank you. and now to some of the other global business stories making headlines around the world, toyota has locked in almost $7000000000.00 net profit 1st 1st quarter. that's despite a global chip shortage that has led to production cuts for the japanese auto giant

less toyota to lower is production goals for the full year. while it's profit forecast remains unchanged. cell phone replacement cycles are getting longer according to a study european users hold on to a smart phone for 40 months, on average. for us users, that's 24 months. that's more than 25 percent longer than it used to be. it's because of growing sustainability concerns and the trend is set to cost phone makers, billions in revenue. australia says it is standing by lithuania and made a dispute with china. the baltic country has been slapped with sanctions by china, including a boycott of its products, all because it allowed taiwan to set up a representative office. there. now both lithuania and australia, calling on the world trade organization to intervene. the lithuanian foreign minister met with his australian counterpart on tuesday. both countries want to strengthen their ties and take a joint action against china trade blockade by from

a engine. ma'am, at these developments this way now has urged countries to resist what it calls chinese coercion. here's what the lithuanian for foreign minister had to say. both russia and china currently asked act as a disruptors of the global rules based order. so basically it's not, it's not regional. it's not just in the pacific regional issues or european regional issues is somehow global players that are acting destructively. and we have to act act counter destructively, the left lithuanian foreign minister gabriella lance burgess speaking. there relations are frosty, between lithuania and china, all because the baltic country and taiwan are forging closer economic ties. taiwan is a self ruled island which nevertheless, beijing claims as its own and the chinese boycott of its goods is having an impact

on businesses. in lithuania, this lithuanian liquor isn't allowed in china. $60000.00 bottles were headed there, but within, diverted to taiwan. yet this drink is very popular in lithuania, it's inexpensive them and we're proud of it because it's made here. it's there but it was pain. i'm a kind relations are frosty between, with the waning and china, and there's much more at stake than alcoholic beverages. china is boycotting all goods from the small country. the crisis was triggered by the opening of an official taiwanese representatives office in the lithuanian capital, vilnius. eric long as ty, one's representative in lithuania and understands how tricky the situation is for his host country chenise 3rd party of which is responsible for this. i think china should uh find

a solution they should step back. lee should not do this any more. and at the same time, we understand that china will continue to bully towns, friend. so taiwan is willing to provide or what whatever assistance we, we could over. as recently as the summer containers were growing from lithuania to china via the new silk robe route. in the meantime, china white lithuania from its customs database. the result, the loading terminal in lithuania is at a standstill. with the waning politicians plain china, pierre seized, trying to build a final centric world, ignore the international world order. and instead of supporting fee market build a system where beijing's political will is dictating where businesses should go and what they should do. the lithuanian economy is suffering from the boycott. german

and french companies are also caught in the middle. china insists on blocking all goods made in lithuania, german business representatives in the baltic states are counting on a solution through the world trade organization. class of clear china is violating w t o renewals here the e u internal market is also affected because of our close economic ties been which is why brussels has now actively intervened. it was earned on active in concert and in the interest of our company, often we hope the situation will ease up soon. thus, this laga national and bond taiwan also wants to play it's part to ease the burden . it wants to fund investment projects in lithuania, to the tune of 1200000000 euros. for more in the spring in the w corresponded, so song pan entire page. so australia seemingly on lithuania side here. are we

seeing a trend and support for taiwan or these isolated cases? yes, we are seeing a trend. that's exactly what china is worried about, is that there will be a anti china force like united to counter it's a power. so of course that at the beginning, like china, hope that this will be all the single cases. for example, the dispute with our most railey, and the dispute with the any. and sometimes china and their official media will call these country a small countries. but together, they can have big power to cow to china. taiwan is a planning to set up a fund to invest in lithuania, trying to offset some of the damage. this dispute is causing tell us more on that town has established a $1000000000.00 us dollar financing fund to promote bilateral business corporation between taiwan and their lithia, tony manufacturers who are willing to invest in lithuania or have joint ventures

with the country as well as ali any and manufacturers who have cooperative relations with high one can apply for these funds and lead to any effects. the new credit scheme can a boost projects in technology sector is facing chinese pressure, such as computer chips, laser manufacturing, and biotechnology. and so i'm wondering what does taiwan get out of all of this? i mean they are poking the hornets nest here. so the move from time one is not only to help lithuania, but as a part of time effort to strengthen relations with european countries. and what we need to know is that behind all this, there's this very important us factor. both taiwan ended leave the ann lee who any a hack, closed military and security ties with the united states and are 2 of the most pro american places in the world. maybe both at the top of the government and at the grassroots level as a us, china rivalry intensifies luthey luthey any

a decision to establish a presence in taiwan if halted due to pressure from beijing will certainly bring shame to the united states dw, so sung han reporting from ty bay, so thank you. hong kong has announced fresh corona virus restrictions as the severe record of 625 new infections on tuesday. a number paling and comparison with outbreaks around the world, but an alarming signal to officials and argon that have adopted china, that 0 covert strategy. the news sparked panic buying among citizens. ah, in hong kong, soon one district rushed to buy vegetables as fears of a shortage grow rising prices and to top it all tough new rules to try. and copper serge and corona virus infections yoke i go to hong kong, people are having a hard time and on the, on the spreading viruses piling pressure. and the hong kong governments covered 0

strategy. while that approaches kept overall infections. lo, it is isolated the asian financial hub from much of the world through strict border controls and aggressive local measures. data show business confidence has slipped badly. also controversial is the requirement to show a vaccine pass and mandatory check in with the governments leap homesafe tracking up to enter restaurants public trust and the beijing back to authorities is running out historic lows. i'm many hong kong are anxious about sharing their data. i think the app is quite problematic, especially given the current collector coats are consensus in hong kong and be at the source code at the app. it's never, it like opens or so there is no way he actually there people could check at where data goes and how does it operate. an increasing number of people are avoiding eateries. instead, they're simply ordering take away and find

a quiet spots to eat with friends. bushnell. a picnic with privacy that such over now, as usual, you can find more on our website at d, w dot com slash business. i'm chris kolber. relent, thanks for watching herself a successfully ah, with

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