On October 24, 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a best practice paper,[1] seeking to provide suggested solutions supported by cases and examples of best practices for beneficial ownership from delegations.  The paper responded to challenges faced by delegations in implementing FATF recommendations.  The results of FATF Mutual Evaluation Reports (MERs) indicate that jurisdictions find it challenging to achieve a satisfactory level of transparency regarding the beneficial ownership (BO) of legal persons.

On September 2, 2019, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court), with Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa presiding, delivered its judgment and rejected the appeal of the Prosecutor against the decision of Pre-Trial Chamber I on the “Application for Judicial Review by the Government of the Union of the Comoros” of November 15, 2018. The Appeals Chamber's judgment was taken by majority, with Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji and Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza issuing partly dissenting opinions. 

On November 7, 2019, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it has unveiled charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Ali Alzabarah, Ahmad Abouammo, and Ahmed Almutairi, aka Ahmed Aljbreen, for their respective roles in accessing private information in the accounts of certain Twitter users and transmitting that information to officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  The Criminal Complaint charges all three defendants with acting as illegal agents of a foreign government.  The complaint also charges Abouammo with destroying, altering, or falsifying records in a federal investigation.  On November 5, 2019, Abouammo was arrested in Seattle, Washington.[1]

On November 7, 2019, the Trial Chamber VI of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court), unanimously sentenced Bosco Ntaganda to 30 years of imprisonment.[1] This is the longest sentence the Court has ever given out. Although the penalty for these crimes ranges from eight to 30 years of detention per crime, his 30-year sentence is the maximum permitted under the ICC’s Rome Statute.

On October 21, 2019, during a case management hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser denied Mark Summers’ request, counsel for Julian Assange, to delay the extradition proceedings three months.  The next case management hearing will occur on December 19. The full extradition hearing will start February 25, 2020.[1] The U.S. charged Assange with 17 new counts under the Espionage Act for conspiring with former Army intelligence analyst Cheslea Manning to unlawfully encourage, receive, and publish national defense information.[2]

Human trafficking and labor servitude are occurring globally in the rapidly expanding marijuana cultivation “industry” in which the murky status between legal and illegal product entering the consumer supply chain allows transborder criminal organizations to capitalize on gaps in law enforcement and immigration laws.  Over the last several years, grow operations concealed in non-descript settings—suburban houses and warehouses in industrial areas—have been found throughout Great Britain, Ireland, and Western Europe.  With those discoveries, authorities have found numerous instances of undocumented immigrants, including children, toiling over the valuable crops while subjected to potentially fatal health risks from constant exposure to chemicals in poorly-ventilated rooms, malnutrition, constant illness, and the looming threat of fires and electrocution.

On October 30, 2019, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement of its civil forfeiture cases against assets acquired by Low Take Jho, also known as Jho Low, and his family using funds allegedly misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia’s investment development fund, and laundered through financial institutions in several jurisdictions, including the United States, Switzerland, Singapore, and Luxembourg.[1]

On October 29, 2019, the parents of a 19-year-old motorcyclist killed in a recent collision announced they are planning to sue the driver, who is the spouse of a U.S. diplomat, the U.S. and the UK governments.[1]

On October 25, 2019, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identified Iran as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 and issued a new rule to protect the U.S. financial system from malign Iranian financial activities.  Concurrently, the U.S. Departments of the Treasury and State announced a new mechanism to limit humanitarian trade with Iran.

On October 15, 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union – Grand Chamber (the Court) delivered its judgment in the case C-128/18 Dumitru-Tudor Dorobantu. The ruling concerns the interpretation of Article 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter) and Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA of June 13, 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States, as amended by Council Framework Decision 2009/299/JHA of February 26, 2009.