On January 3, 2018, a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found Mehmet Hakan Atilla guilty of conspiring with others, including Reza Zarrab, who already pleaded guilty to evading U.S. sanctions among other offenses, to use the U.S. financial system to make transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and other Iranian entities, which U.S. sanctions barred, and to defraud U.S. financial institutions by concealing these transactions’ true nature.

On December 21, 2017, the United Nations Security Council adopted two resolutions addressing various aspects of counter-terrorism.

The first resolution concerns foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) connected to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), the Nusrah Front (ANF) and other cells, affiliates, splinter groups or derivatives. The Council, along with many experts in security cricles, are increasingly concerned about FTFs returning to their home countries to foster radicalization and attacks on soft targets. The Council urged Member States to step up implementation of resolution 2178 (2014) and to strengthen their efforts to stem the threat through measures related to border control, criminal justice, information‑sharing and counter‑extremism.

The 16^th session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP or Assembly) to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) was held from December 4 to December 14, 2017 in New York.

The expectations were high – and so were the stakes. During the session, the Assembly was to consider matters fundamental to the Court, through holding a General Debate on the ICC and its operations, holding two plenary discussions on cooperation and the 20^th anniversary of the ICC Statute, adopting a number of resolutions on matters such as cooperation, complementarity, and universality, and its mandate towards victims, aiming at ameliorating the ICC implementation of its mandate.

On December 20, 2017, the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (hereafter the “Global Forum”), which consists of 147 members and 17 observers, issued its annual report. It noted the fact that 50 jurisdictions have committed to starting Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) in September 2017 pursuant to the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS).  78 jurisdictions and 3 international organizations observers are participating in the AEOI group and carry out the mandate related to effective implementation of the AEOI standard.  As the jurisdictions that participated in the 2017 exchanges are preparing to use the data for enforcement purposes, most of the remaining jurisdictions are preparing now to make their initial exchanges in September 2018.  Already the report on the 2017 implementation period is ready.  The Global Forum is preparing to conduct full reviews of the implementation of automatic exchange of information (AEOI) by 2020.

On December 22, U.S. private investigative firm Kroll published its second report on the 2014 Moldovan bank fraud scandal. This article provides background on the scandal, as well as commentary on the contents of the report.

On November 21, 2017, Danish authorities detained Alexander Panesh, who is an attorney for Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, as Panesh was en route from France to Lithuania when his plane landed in Copenhagen. Danish police detained him because he is wanted by the Russian authorities on charges of bribery of public officials, corruption, making false statements in court, and giving false evidence.  Panesh has denied the charges.

On December 20, 2017, United States President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order, designating 13 persons under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (the Act), the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA), and 3 U.S.C. § 301.

On December 23, 2017, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia issued an opinion, ruling that a U.S. citizen detained as an “enemy combatant” has the right to a lawyer. On or about September 12, 2017, the U.S. and Saudi Arabian dual national surrendered to Syrian Democratic forces, after which he was transferred to the U.S. Armed Forces.  He has been held since, without charges or counsel, as an enemy combatant.   According to the Defense Department (DOD), he remains detained within an armed conflict zone with restricted civilian access.  Other than two visits from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross – on September 29, 2017 and October 23, 2017 – the detainee has had no contact or communication with anyone except government personnel since his detention.

On December 22, 2017, Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd. (KOM), a company based in Singapore that operates shipyards and repairs and upgrades shipping vessels, and its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Keppel Offshore & Marine USA Inc. (KOM USA), agreed to resolve criminal charges and pay a combined total penalty of more than $422 million to resolve charges with law enforcement authorities in the United States, Brazil and Singapore.  The case arises out of a scheme dating back ten years to pay millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Brazil.  KOM is the largest builder of oil rigs in the world.

On December 21, 2017, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) finished enforcement proceedings by concluding that the bank seriously violated anti-money laundering regulations by failing to screen adequately transactions and business relationships booked in Switzerland with respect to the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund (1MDB) and one of its business partners.