The 13th Public Edition of the Basel AML Index highlights a gradual improvement in national systems to counter money laundering – at least in terms of technical compliance with global standards, and among countries with long-standing weaknesses. But the effectiveness of anti-money laundering systems in practice remains alarmingly low in the face of evolving threats from fraud and other complex, often transnational financial crimes.

On December 23, 2024, United States District Judge John P. Cronan, Southern District of New York, issued an order granting an ex parte petition for leave to serve “John Doe” summonses on entities doing business with the Trident Trust Group (TT-Group) to obtain information concerning its clients who during the tax years 2014 through 2023 may violate U.S. tax laws.[1]

Increasingly, Israeli soldiers traveling abroad are facing criminal investigations for their participation in alleged atrocities in Gaza. The investigations are partly generated by international human rights organizations that have collected and provided courts with documentation of the alleged atrocities.

On December 31, 2024, Montenegro extradited South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon to the United States. His extradition to South Korea was also requested.[1]

On December 5, 2024, McKinsey and Company Africa Ltd., a subsidiary of McKinsey & Company, agreed to pay over $122 million to settle a bribery investigation regarding schemes orchestrated between 2012-2016 to bribe South African government officials. The fine was part of an agreement to dismiss the pending bribery charges against McKinsey so long as the corporation upholds its part of the deal. This fine comes shortly after Vikas Sagar, a former senior partner at McKinsey, pleaded guilty to violating an anti-corruption law.[1]

We at the IELR send you best wishes for the new year. 2024 was momentous for the international enforcement community, and we are grateful to have had you following along with our coverage during our 39th year of discussing international enforcement developments.

We are grateful for the continuing long partnership with Professor Michael Plachta and contributions from practitioners and professors, including the Aljohrh Al Abdulsalam, Basel Institute, Kayla de Alto, Kenneth Boggess, Dr. Ted Bromund, Jack Crovitz, Frederick T. Davis, Sandra Grossman, Adrienne Hababou, Kaila Hall, Emily Hong, Paul Gully-Hart, Rodrigo Labardini, Valentina Lana, Marco Stewart Lopez, Elisabeth Lees, Luz E. Nagle,  Konstantinos Magliveras, Gino Naldi, Yuri L. Nemets,  Simran Pandey, Michel Sapin, and Katherine Scher.   Since April, Austin Wahl, a second-year law student at Washington College of Law, American Univ., has produced the IELR. Since May, Morinsola Tinubu has served as assistant editor.

We are also grateful for our partnerships with LexisNexis, WestLaw, EBSCO, and William Hein & Co. in distributing the IELR.

The following is a highlight of some of the articles we covered. In many cases, there are overlapping categories into which the articles fall, so we had to choose which category to discuss the article in.

On December 3, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted the plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction, making it effective nationwide.[1]  Judge Amos L. Mazzant preliminarily enjoined the Corporate Transparency Act and Reporting Rule enforcement. The decision also postponed the effective date of the Reporting Rule.

On October 3, 2024, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the court and its governing European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). He said there was a “strong case for a proper referendum” after accusing the court of being “legally adventurist” and “trying to second-guess what national jurisdiction should do.”[1]

On December 23, 2024, Bangladesh stated that it had sent a formal request to India to extradite former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who abandoned her post for India in August during widespread protests, ending her 15 years in office.[1]

On December 17, 2024, a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment[1] charging former U.S. Congressman David Rivera, 59, of Miami, with a scheme to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and launder funds to conceal and promote his criminal conduct.[2]