Good morning. Voting-machine company Smartmatic is fighting the Justice Department’s bribery indictment, reports Risk Journal’s Mengqi Sun, with the company saying the charges against it are vindictive and politically motivated.

• Why is it fighting? Smartmatic, in a motion to dismiss filed on Tuesday, argued that the government’s superseding indictment against the company for alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act amounts to “selective prosecution” from the Trump administration. The company said the charges are retribution by President Trump “against his perceived enemies,” especially those that “undermine his mantra that the 2020 election was rigged,” according to court filings.
   
• Background: The Justice Department, in a superseding indictment filed in October in the Southern District of Florida, charged Smartmatic’s parent company, SGO Corporation, with conspiring to bribe foreign officials and money laundering over a decade-old effort to win business in the Philippines. 
   
• One of a series of lawsuits: The motion to dismiss is the latest legal development for Smartmatic. The company has been in court for the past several years suing conservative news outlets and allies of President Trump who said voting-machine companies rigged the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.

Democratic lawmakers introduce bill banning event contracts tied to war, death.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) on Tuesday introduced legislation seeking to explicitly ban any entity regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from listing a contract “that involves, relates to, or references” terrorism, assassination, war or death. Rep. Mike Levin (D., Calif.) introduced companion legislation to the House of Representatives, according to Sen. Schiff’s office.

Federal law gives the CFTC the authority to prohibit event contracts involving war, terrorism, assassination or any activity that violates federal or state laws or is against the public interest. The bill seeks to explicitly ban such contracts from being listed, according to Sen. Schiff’s office.

Justice Department probes Iran’s use of Binance to evade sanctions.

The Justice Department is investigating Iran’s use of Binance to evade U.S. sanctions.

The probe follows the crypto exchange’s dismantling of an internal investigation into more than $1 billion that flowed through the platform to a network funding Iran-backed terror groups, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter.

• A federal judge on Tuesday ordered a coalition of states and Live Nation to try to hammer out a resolution in a monopolization lawsuit against the dominant concert promoter, a day after the Justice Department and the company announced a proposed settlement.
   
• Exxon Mobil plans to move its legal home to Texas from New Jersey, joining other companies that have flocked to the Lone Star state in search of a more business-friendly environment.
   
• Canada said Monday it is formally reversing its decision to shut down TikTok’s unit in the country on national-security grounds.
   
• Two former luxury real-estate brokers and their brother were convicted of sex trafficking Monday after a criminal trial in which 11 women testified that they had been lured to exclusive parties and trips, then drugged and assaulted.

As Iran war pushes up oil prices, Putin can barely conceal a smirk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t been shy about gloating over the upside of the Iran conflict for Russia, as oil prices surge and the U.S. reevaluates its punitive measures on Russian crude.

When the Kremlin leader sat down with the heads of Russia’s top oil-and-gas companies late Monday, he took the opportunity to taunt European countries that have spent the last four years weaning their economies off Russian energy supplies over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

With a heavy dose of schadenfreude, Putin said he wanted a clear signal from Europe if it wanted to return to Russian gas, which is cheaper than liquefied natural gas from the U.S. or the Persian Gulf.

• Easing Russian Oil Sanctions Would Harm U.S. Aims in Iran, Says EU Official
• IEA Proposes Largest Ever Oil Release From Strategic Reserves
• Iran’s Control of Hormuz Means It’s Exporting More Oil Today Than Before the War
• China Has Spent Years Preparing for the Iran Oil Crisis
• Trump Warns Iran Against Mining Strait of Hormuz
• Shadow Fleet Ships Among Few Plying Strait of Hormuz, Analysis Shows
• Exxon Mobil Evacuates Some Workers From Middle East

• Anthropic’s standoff with the Defense Department has cost it Uncle Sam as a customer, but it has brought a momentary advantage in the ferocious talent war between rival artificial intelligence labs.
   
• China’s shipments of goods abroad surged at the beginning of the year and its trade surplus rose, showing the country’s export juggernaut is chugging along ahead of President Trump’s visit to Beijing later this month.
   
• A potential three-way merger between the space units of Airbus, Leonardo and Thales is facing pushback from some rivals that fear the deal could curtail competition in the European satellite market.
   
• Boeing said it will delay deliveries of some 737 MAX planes after discovering a problem with wiring on newly built aircraft, a new setback for the company’s bid to get jets to customers faster.

• The average American senior’s Medicare premiums last year were about 10% higher, or more than $200 annually, because of alleged overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans, congressional investigators found.
   
• Hedge funds were off to a roaring start this year, overcoming market fears about artificial intelligence, tariffs and private credit to post two straight months of solid gains. Then came the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
   
• The U.S. consulate in Toronto was hit by gunfire Tuesday morning, according to Canadian authorities.
   
• In the days following the U.S.’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, his government pledged to release a significant number of political prisoners, calling it a gesture “to seek peace.” But how many prisoners and which ones are released has become a bellwether of the country’s future after the removal of its strongman leader.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at max.fillion@dowjones.com, Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at richard.vanderford@wsj.com.

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