Welcome back. It's great to have your company wherever you may be listening. This is

M-X's weekly podcast covering the top stories in the world of regulatory affairs with the

assistance of our global team of reporters.

My name is James Panicki. I'm Emnex's Asia Pacific Senior Editor.

Now, if you know what cryptocurrencies are, I'm guessing that you'll also have heard all about their bad boy reputation.

Crypto can be used by criminals of all shapes and sizes to hide ill-gotten gains from authorities,

or at least that's what we've been told. But is that actually the case?

Well, an insider trading prosecution in the US may suggest that law enforcement agencies

can successfully use blockchain analysis to work out who owns what. And that would tell us that,

in fact, it's very difficult to use crypto assets to evade the long arm of the law. We'll hear all

about that in just under 10 minutes from now. First up, though, the prosecution in Italy of oil and gas

giants, Shell and any, over allegations of bribery,

had all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster, corrupt politicians, middlemen, and a former justice minister.

But not unlike the recent Warner Brothers Batgirl, this movie won't make it to our screens.

The reason for that is the Italian prosecutor assigned to handle the appeal has pulled the plug on the case. It's all over.

Now, whatever the legal merits of that decision, it has sparked an intense debate both within and outside Italy.

The prosecution would have been the biggest ever of its kind,

with alleged bribes worth 1.3 billion US dollars, and the concern was that the case

could have been susceptible to political influence, while international campaigners are afraid

that the scuttling of the prosecution could undermine Italy's international anti-bribery credentials.

M-Mex's award-winning anti-bribery and corruption reporter Phoebe Sears has been covering this case

for years now, and she joins us from London today. So, Phoebe, when did this all begin,

...