On August 27, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights – Third Section (ECtHR or “the Court”) delivered a judgment in the case of Magnitsky and Others v. Russia (application numbers 32631/09 and 53799/12). It concerned Sergei Magnitsky, an auditor charged with organized tax evasion who died in pre-trial detention in November 2009. He was later convicted posthumously. In the Court’s judgment, it unanimously held that there had been: a violation of the substantive and procedural limbs of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR or “the Convention”), a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of ill-treatment) owing to the conditions of Mr. Magnitskiy’s detention; a violation of Article 3 owing to Mr. Magnitskiy’s ill-treatment by prison guards and the lack of an effective investigation into that issue; a violation of Article 5 § 3 (right to liberty and security) owing to the length of his detention; and a violation of Article 6 §§ 1 and 2 (right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence) owing to the posthumous proceedings and his conviction.

On September 3, 2019, the Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts (“Group of Experts”) on Yemen released its report on the situation of human rights in Yemen, including violations and abuses.[1] The report highlights incidents and patterns of conduct since September 2014, including those between September 2014 and June 2018 not covered in its previous report (A/HRC/39/43), and incidents and patterns between July 2018 and June 2019 in the context of the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis.

On August 12, 2019, the Swiss federal prosecutor Claudio Mascotto brought an indictment against Beny Steinmetz and two other defendants, charging them with foreign bribery and forgery offenses in relation to obtaining a mining license in the Republic of Guinea between 2005 and 2010.[1] The indictment charges the three defendants of promising, as early as 2005, and paying, or had paid, bribes to one of the wives of former Guinean President Lansana Conté, with a view to replacing a competitor and then granting Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR) mining rights in the region of Simandou in the Republic of Guinea.[2]

On August 30, 2019, Li Zhang, 56, who was living undetected in New Zealand, waived extradition and agreed to voluntarily return to Australia to face charges concerning an alleged multimillion-dollar tax fraud.  He announced his decision to voluntarily return when he appeared in an Auckland District Court before Judge Nevin Dawson.[1] Since April 4, Zhang has been detained in a New Zealand prison.[2]

On August 28, 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced the start of its Global Investigations Division (GID), which will have responsibility to implement targeted investigation strategies based on FinCEN’s unique authorities under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to combat illicit finance threats and related crimes, both domestically and internationally.[1] FinCEN Director, Kenneth A. Blanco, announced Matthew Stiglitz, a former Principal Deputy Chief in the United States Department of Justice’s Criminal Division with 24 years of experience as a state and federal prosecutor, will head GID.

On August 22, 2019, Deutsche Bank AG agreed to a settlement on enforcement actions with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), complying to pay $16 million in penalties and to take remedial action.[1] The case involves violations of the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (the “FCPA”) by Deutsche Bank.  Between at least 2006 and 2014, Deutsche Bank provided valuable employment to the relatives of foreign government officials in various parts of the world as a personal benefit to the officials in order to improperly influence them to help the bank obtain or retain business or other benefits.

On Tuesday, August 20, the U.S. Department of Treasury imposed economic sanctions on a notorious drug kingpin’s organization and members, including two former Major League Baseball (MLB) players, labeling the group as “significant narcotics traffickers.” The U.S. took this action after the two ex-MLB players Octavio Dotel and Luis Castillo, and 16 others were accused of being linked to a criminal network in the Dominican Republic to smuggle drugs from South America to the United States. Authorities arrested Dotel and cited Castillo for their involvement.[1]

On July 19, 2019, a new revised draft of an international treaty on the issue of business and human rights was released.[1] This is a step forward in regulating an uneasy, and sometimes stormy relations, between business and human rights. The drafters make it clear that they strive to contribute to the development of international law, international humanitarian law, and international human rights law in this field. The revised draft is devised to promote human rights and to end doing business at the expense of human rights, especially those most vulnerable.

On August 20, 2019, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security extradited Chilean national, Maurício Hernández Norambuena, to Chile.  He was extradited on charges of murder and kidnapping.[1] The Chilean government requested Norembuena’s extradition pursuant to the bilateral extradition treaty.  Chilean courts sentenced Norambuena to two sentences of life imprisonment for homicide and extortion during kidnapping.

The complexity of the United States-Iranian relationship continues to develop following continuous conflicts in the Persian Gulf and the Trump administration’s recent sanctions on Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The most recent development comes as a Gibraltar court rejected a U.S. attempt to seize an Iranian oil tanker.[1] The ship, renamed from the Grace 1 supertanker to the Adrian Darya 1, resumed its trip to its stated destination of the Greek port of Kalamata. The tanker held an unknown fate since the British Navy intercepted it on July 4, claiming it was carrying oil to Syria – a violation of European Union (EU) sanctions. Iran responded, labeling the seizure as an act of piracy.