On October 7, 2022, President Joseph Biden signed an Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (E.O.) directing the steps that the U.S. will take to implement the U.S. commitments under the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) announced by President Biden and European Commission President von der Leyen in March of 2022.   The goal of the order is to implement the framework to respond to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) Order in Schrems II (July 16, 2020), which found serious gaps in the way the U.S. protects personal data.  By upgrading the U.S. privacy shield and providing a multilayer redress mechanism with independent and binding authority for EU individuals to seek redress if they believe they are unlawfully targeted by U.S. intelligence activities, the U.S. is trying to implement the framework and respond to the gaps pointed out by the CJEU.[1]

On October 5, 2022, the Council of the European Union added three jurisdictions  to its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, also known as its tax haven black list.  They include Anguilla, Bahamas and Turks, and Caicos. The three Caribbean countries were added because, according to the Council, they facilitate offshore structures and arrangements aimed at attracting profits without real economic substance by failing to take all necessary actions to ensure the effective implementation of substance requirements under criterion 2.2.    American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands, and Vanuatu are also part of the list.

The 11th Public Edition of the Basel AML Index was released on October 4, 2022. The Basel AML Index is an independent ranking of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks around the world, published by the Basel Institute on Governance since 2012 through its International Centre for Asset Recovery. The composite index draws on 18 indicators measuring different factors that contribute to high ML/TF risks and are relevant to assessing jurisdictions’ capacity to counter their risks. The indicators are categorized in five domains: Quality of anti-money laundering/counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) Framework; Bribery and Corruption; Financial Transparency and Standards; Public Transparency and Accountability; and Legal and Political Risks. The Basel AML Index thus seeks to reflect a holistic picture of money laundering risk, beyond the narrow focus on AML/CFT systems.

In July of 2022, approximately five months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) released a draft law for a Ukrainian High War Crimes Court (UHWCC). The draft law was prepared by PILPG in collaboration with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Ukrainian and international experts. 

On September 27, 2022, the Spanish court in the town of Esplugues de Llobregat near Barcelona said Shakira will go on trial for six counts of tax fraud at a date yet to be set.  Spanish prosecutors charged Shakira in 2018 of failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($13.9 million) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and 2014.  Prosecutors have asked for a sentence of eight years in prison and a large fine.[1]

On September 26, 2022, two wealth management subsidiaries of Crédit Agricole Corp. (CASA) agreed to pay more than $1.1 million to settle enforcement cases with the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).  The claims concerned alleged illegal transactions in sanctioned jurisdictions, namely Cuba, Syria, Crimea, and Iran.

On September 29, 2022, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule implementing the Corporate Transparency Act’s (CTA) beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting provisions.

On September 28, 2022, the U.S. Senate Committee on Judiciary held a hearing from “Nuremburg to Ukraine: Accountability for War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.”  It featured a discussion of proposed laws, such as the Human Rights Violators Act (S. 4201), which was introduced earlier this year.  The legislation would establish grounds of inadmissibility for any alien who participated in the persecution of people because of race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion as well as any alien who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in war crimes as defined in federal law. It would also make any alien already in the country deportable if they fit those definitions. It would formally authorize ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center.[1]

On September 14, 2022, the media reported that a South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, and six other individuals for allegedly violating South Korea’s capital market rules.[1]

On September 20, Judge Timothy Godfrey of the Westminster magistrates’ court ruled that a British national and hedge fund trader can be extradited to Denmark, where he is facing charges that he participated in a cum-ex trading scam that defrauded the Danish tax authorities approximately $1.2 billion.[1]