It has taken nearly 20 years, but a decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has cleared the way for the return of around USD 8.5 million in corruptly obtained assets to Peru. The money to be returned is part of a complex of cases linked to Vladimiro Montesinos, Head of Intelligence under former President Alberto Fujimori.

On May 9, 2023, the United States Department of Justice announced the completion of a court-authorized operation, code-named MEDUSA, to disrupt a global peer-to-peer network of computers compromised by sophisticated malware, named “Snake”,  that is attributed to a unit within Center 16 of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB).  For approximately twenty years, this unit, called “Turla” in court documents, has deployed versions of the Snake malware to steal sensitive documents from hundreds of computer systems in at least 50 countries, belonging to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member governments, journalists, and other targets of interest to the Russian Federation.  After it stole these documents, Turla exfiltrated them through a covert network of unwitting Snake-compromised computers in the U.S. and worldwide.[1]

On April 6, 2023, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), which is established under the United Nations Human Rights Council, issued an opinion, finding various violations of the international human rights of Abu Zubaydah, whom the U.S. has held in Guantánamo since 2006 without charges.[1]

On or about May 11, 2023, the Peruvian Government  indicated its willingness to extradite Joran van der Sloot, the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance and presumed murder of 18 year-old Natalee Holloway, to the U.S. to stand trial on charges that he allegedly extorted her mother.[1]

On May 16, 2023, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed two indictments charging Mikhail Pavolovish Matveev,  a Russian national and resident, with using three different ransomware variants to attack numerous victims throughout the United States and sell access to ransomware know how in a wholesale way.[1]  The U.S. Department of the Treasury added the same person to its list of Specially Designated Nationals.[2]  In addition, the U.S. Department of State announced a reward offer, under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP), of up to $10 million, for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Matveev for transnational organized crime.[3]

Jurisdictions have been under pressure to demonstrate their effectiveness in the Fourth Round of Financial Action Task Force Mutual Evaluations, and this will be intensified during the Fifth Round, due to commence in 2024. Mutual Evaluations assess the level of a jurisdiction’s compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti Terrorist Financing, Counter Proliferation Financing and Targeted Financial Sanctions framework laid down by the FATF as the global standard setter. The assessment consists of two parts, technical compliance (whether the jurisdiction has the legal framework in place) and effectiveness (how well the jurisdiction is implementing this framework). There are particularly dire consequences for those jurisdictions that receive poor Mutual Evaluation results[1] and meet the M3[2] financial threshold, as these countries, following an observation period[3], if they fail to demonstrate ‘positive and tangible’ progress will be placed on the FATF list of ‘Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring’. Following the February 2023 FATF Plenary, 26 countries feature on this so called ‘grey list’, which can result in adverse economic consequences for the grey-listed countries.

On April 20, 2023, the European Parliament approved the first common EU rules on anti-money laundering with respect to crypto-assets, tracing crypto-asset transfers, and supervision and consumer protection.[1]

On May 8, 2023, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ordered the appointment of a commission to secure a subpoena for bank records to be sent to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Foreign Litigation.  In turn, the DOJ will transmit the information to the National Tax Court in Buenos Aires for use in a tax dispute.[1]

On May 2, 2023, the United States Department of Justice and its Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team, Europol, and its international partners announced the results of Operation Spector.  In particular, the operation resulted in 288 arrests, the most ever for any JCODE operation and approximately twice as many of the prior operation.  In addition, law enforcement made more seizures than any prior operation, including 117 firearms, 850 kilograms of drugs that include 64 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies.[1]

On April 24, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed two federal indictments against a representative for the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank (FTB) for his role in a money laundering conspiracy through cryptocurrency.  The indictments allege that North Korean operatives evaded sanctions, conspiring with over-the-counter cryptocurrency traders to launder stolen funds to buy stolen goods previously unavailable to North Korea due to U.S. sanctions.^[1]  This case also relates to a settlement by a British Tobacco Company for selling tobacco to North Korea despite previously exclaiming that they were ceasing these illicit operations.