On February 12, 2019, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York convicted Joaquin Achivaldo Guzman Loera, known as “El Chapo,” of leading a continuing criminal enterprise – the Mexican organized crime syndicate - commonly known as the Sinaloa Cartel.  In particular, he was convicted of 26 drug-related violations and one murder conspiracy.  He was convicted of all 10 counts of a superseding indictment,[1] including narcotics trafficking, using a firearm in furtherance of his enterprise, and participating in a money laundering conspiracy.  As the U.S. Justice Department press release discusses, the verdict came after a 12-week trial before U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan.[2]  El Chapo faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment at his sentencing schedule on June 25.

On February 7, 2019, upon the application of the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) the City of London Magistrates Court, District Judge Michael Snow granted forfeiture orders on Vlad Luca’s three frozen accounts, requiring the forfeiture of £466,321.72.[1] In May 2018, after NCA financial investigators suspected the funds came from illegal activity by his father, Vladimir Filat, the former Prime Minister of Moldova, and pursuant to new forfeiture provisions introduced by the Criminal Finances Act 2017, a court granted freezing orders for three HSBC accounts held by 22-year-old Vlad Luca Filat.

On February 7, 2019, the United States law enforcement announced the unsealing of indictments, charging 20 people, including 16 foreign nationals, for their roles in an international organized crime group that defrauded U.S. victims through online auction fraud, causing millions of dollars in losses. The prosecution arises out of a multi-year investigation, beginning in Kentucky, that was led by the U.S. Secret Service and featured cooperation with several local, state, federal, and international (i.e., Romanian) law enforcement partners.

On February 1, 2019, the Appeals Chamber (AC) of the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) unanimously ruled that conditions are to be imposed on Mr. Laurent Gbagbo and Mr. Charles Blé Goudé upon their release to a State not only willing to accept them on its territory, but willing and able to enforce the conditions set by the Appeals Chamber.

Federal authorities have filed charges against eight individuals, several of whom are of Russian or Ukrainian nationality, for hacking into a government database as part of an illegal trading scheme. In a civil complaint filed on January 15, 2019, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges that some of the defendants employed a “variety of deceptive means” to gain access to thousands of nonpublic documents from the  SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system (EDGAR).

As previously reported in the International Enforcement Law Reporter, Marie Colvin, an internationally renowned American journalist, was killed on February 22, 2012 while on assignment for The Sunday Times. Her sister, nephew, and nieces have sued the Government of Syria for an intentional and purposeful extrajudicial killing of Ms. Colvin as part of the regime’s campaign to eradicate journalists reporting on atrocities.

On January 24, 2019, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgment, awarding €18,400 to Amanda Knox, a U.S. national and former student who spent years in detention in Italy after her conviction in connection with the murder of her flatmate. The Court’s press release explains that in the case of Knox v. Italy (application no. 76577/13) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, in her favor on three of the four issues.

At its 9^th sitting held on January 25, 2019, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Resolution 2263 (2019) and Recommendation 2145 (2019). These policies discuss the deprivation of nationality in the context of counter-terrorism strategies as a drastic measure which can be extremely socially divisive and may be at odds with human rights. The debate as well as recommendation and resolution were based on a Report prepared by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights

On January 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice partly unsealed two indictments against Huawei corporate entities and the Huawei Chief Financial Officer Wanzhou Meng. In the U.S. Court Eastern District of New York, a 13-count indictment was unsealed, charging four defendants, including Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei), and two Huawei affiliates – Huawei Device USA Inc. (Huawei USA) and Skycom Tech Co. Ltd. (Skycom) as well as Meng. The indictment occurs in the context of a proactive campaign by the United States government to curb China’s large telecom equipment maker and seller of smart phones.   U.S. government officials are concerned that Huawei is trying to further China’s global goals and that such goals undermine U.S. interests to control high-tech superiority.