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.

On October 18, 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) President Xiangmin Liu of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) chaired the first meeting under the Chinese presidency.  It dealt with two major strategic initiatives: the money laundering risk from “stablecoins” and other emerging assets; and understanding and leveraging the use of digital identity.  The meeting also considered promoting and facilitating more effective supervision at a national level, best practices on beneficial ownership for legal persons, new work on combating the laundering of proceeds of illegal wildlife trade, and a strategic review.  The plenary also reviewed mutual evaluations, including issues experienced by Pakistan and Iran.

On October 25, 2019, U.S. Marshals Service arrested former Argentine naval officer Roberto Guillermo Brovo, 77, on charges in Argentina.  Bravo faces 16 aggravated homicide charges and three attempted aggravated homicide charges for his alleged role in the August 22, 1972 massacre at an Argentine Navy base in Trelew.[1]

On Friday September 27, 2019, U.S. citizen Xuehua “Edward” Peng was arrested in Hayward, California for providing classified U.S. security information to the Chinese government.  Peng allegedly conferred at least four secure digital cards (SD) to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) in Beijing.  This incident was one of six cases in the past three years, in which U.S. citizens have been arrested for spying on behalf of the Chinese government.  It also represents one of many methods of espionage the Chinese government currently uses to acquire U.S. security or trade secrets.

On October 15, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the 4^th Circuit agreed to rehear en banc the emoluments lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia, which a three-judge panel dismissed due to standing. Meanwhile, on October 17, 2019, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. government has awarded the meeting of the 2020 Group of Seven (G7) summit of the world leaders to his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort in Florida.  On or around the night of October 19, President Trump retracted the announcement that his hotel would host the G7 summit.

On October 15, the two partners of the now-dissolved law firm Mossack Fonseca & Co. confirmed that they were being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Intelligence (FBI). Subsequently at this time, they filed a lawsuit against Netflix. The lawsuit was filed over the Panama-based lawyers’, Ramon Fonseca and Jurgen Mossack, portrayal in the film The Laundromat. The suit claims the movie includes libel and trademark infringement. The lawyers also filed a temporary restraining order to prevent the movie’s release.[1]

On October 16, 2019, the United States Justice Department (DOJ) announced the federal grand jury in the District of Columbia’s indictment of Jong Woo Son, 23, a South Korean national, for his ‘Welcome To Video’ operation, the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content.  The Justice Department unsealed a nine-count indictment along with a parallel civil forfeiture action.  South Korean prosecutors have already charged and convicted Son in South Korea.  He is currently in custody serving his sentence in South Korea.  The Justice Department announced that an additional 337 site users have been arrested and charged.  They reside in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington State.[1]

On September 20, two of Rudy Giuliani’s associates were about to leave the U.S. with one-way tickets when they were arrested outside of the Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia on charges of campaign-finance violations.[1] These charges accused them of funneling foreign money into U.S. elections. The timing is significant as it is known that the Soviet-born men, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, were linked to efforts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine.

On October 15, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that an indictment was returned, charging Túrkiye Halk Bankasi A.S (“Halkbank”) in a six-count indictment with fraud, money laundering, and sanctions offenses concerning the bank’s participation in a multibillion-dollar scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.[1] The indictment alleges that from approximately 2012 through 2016, Halkbank was a foreign financial institution organized under the laws of and headquartered in Turkey.