On March 23, 2018, an indictment against nine Iranian nationals was unsealed in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.  It charges them as serving as leaders, contractors, associates, hackers-for-hire, and affiliates of the Mabna Institute, an Iran-based company responsible for a coordinated campaign of cyber intrusions starting in at least 2013 into computer systems belonging to 144 U.S.-based universities, 176 universities across 21 foreign countries, 47 domestic  and private sector companies, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the State of Hawaii, the State of Indiana, the United Nations, and the U.N. Children’s Fund.  The Mabna Institute allegedly used the acts of the defendants to steal over 30 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from universities, and email in boxes from employees of victim private sector companies, government victims, and non-governmental organizations.  The defendants made many of these intrusions on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”), one of several entities within the government of Iran responsible for gathering intelligence, as well as other Iranian government clients.  In addition to the criminal charges, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Mabna Institute and the nine defendants for sanctions for the malicious cyber-enabled activity discussed in the indictment.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced plans this week to do away with a requirement from a 2014 ruling by the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals that demands that all asylum seekers be given a full hearing in front of an immigration judge. Once this rule is eliminated, immigration judges will have the power to deny asylum to those seeking it based only upon an initial review of their petition. While Sessions and others in the Justice Department claim that this will ease the backlog of cases currently in the court system that are preventing judges from providing relief to deserving candidates, there are others who have expressed concern at the possibility of endangering thousands of people by sending them back to their native countries without giving them adequate time to explain their situation.

On March 20, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union – Grand Chamber delivered three important judgments concerning the essence of the principle ne bis in idem (non bis in idem) and its possible limitations, particularly under the law of the European Union. The Court delivered judgments in Joined Cases C-524/15 Luca Menci, C-537/16 Garlsson Real Estate SA and Others v Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (Consob) and Joined Cases C-596/16 Enzo Di Puma v Consob and C-597/16 Consob v Antonio Zecca.

“There is no alternative conclusion,” the prime minister declared, “other than that the Russian State was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr. Skripal and his daughter -- and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury.” In an address to the House of Commons on March 14, 2018, UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats in retaliation for the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England. May gave the diplomats, who the British government has identified as undeclared intelligence officials, just one week to leave the country. The expulsion would be the largest such measure in over 30 years, when Britain had expelled 91 Soviet diplomats acting as undeclared spies during the height of the Cold War.

On March 13, 2018, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the European Union reached agreement on a proposal to achieve greater transparency in tax planning schemes.  In particular, the directive is aimed at preventing aggressive tax planning by enabling increased scrutiny of the activities of tax intermediaries, including tax advisors, accountants, and lawyers who design and/or promote tax planning schemes

On March 14, 2018, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced that the Philippines will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC, the Court) “effective immediately.” According to Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, the withdrawal could be “the beginning of the end” for the institution, as more countries would follow suit and non-members would be discouraged from joining.

On March 1, 2018, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), U.S. Department of the Interior issued a memorandum, withdrawing certain findings on Endangered Species Act (ESA) enhancement of the species for trophies of African elephants acquired in certain African countries.  As a result, the decision allows hunters to import big-game trophies, including elephant tusks and lion hides with approvals granted on an individual basis.

On March 15, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five entities and 19 individuals under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) as well as Executive Order (E.O.) 13694, “Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities,” as amended, and codified pursuant to CAATSA.

On March 19, 2018, U.S. President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order, prohibiting all transactions in Venezuela’s new crypto-currency, called the Petro digital currency. On the same day, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin announced that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated four current or former Venezuelan government officials pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13692, as part of Treasury’s continuing efforts to highlight the economic mismanagement and endemic corruption within the Maduro regime.

Acting on a request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Indonesian officials seized the luxury yacht Equanimity at Benoa Harbor in Bali, Indonesia on February 28, 2018. On March 8, they handed it over to the FBI. Investigators suspect the yacht was bought with the proceeds of embezzlement from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a Malaysian government-owned investment company.