The International Enforcement Law Reporter is a monthly print and online journal covering news and trends in international enforcement law.
Since September 1985, the International Enforcement Law Reporter has analyzed the premier developments in both the substantive and procedural aspects of international enforcement law. Read by practitioners, academics, and politicians, the IELR is a valuable guide to the difficult and dynamic field of international law.
We at the IELR send you the best wishes for a warm and joyous holiday season. 2021 was momentous for the international enforcement community, and we are grateful to have had you following along with our coverage during our 37th year of discussing international enforcement developments.
On January 6, 2021, law enforcement officials arrested Pierre Girgis, of Manhattan, for allegedly acting as an agent of the Egyptian government, without registering with the United States Department of Justice, as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[1]
[1] U.S. Department of Justice, Man Arrested for Acting in United States as Agent of Egyptian Government, Press Rel., Jan. 6, 2022.
On December 22, 2021, the European Commission unveiled an initiative to stop the abuse of shell entities for improper tax and criminal purposes.
On January 2, 2021, the Jamaican Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte announced that Mario Antonio Palacios, 43, a former Colombian military official whose extradition Haiti requested for his participation in last year’s assassination of the Haitian President will be deported from Jamaica to Colombia on January 3. On January 4, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Palacios was arrested based on a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Florida.
On December 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of Treasury issued sanctions against the Bangladeshi paramilitary force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). The sanctions were pursuant to Executive Order 13818 which expanded the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act passed in 2016.
On December 2, 2021, the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court affirmed the conviction of former reservist police officer Simo Stupar of participating in illegally detaining, beating, and killing Bosniaks in the Vlasenica, Republika Srpska in 1992.
On December 21, 2021, a jury in U.S. District Court in Boston, Massachusetts convicted the former chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department relating to false statements to federal authorities concerning his affiliation with the People’s Republic of China’s Thousand Talents Program and the Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in Wuhan China, as well as failing to report income he received from WUT and bank accounts in the PRC.[1] The prosecution arises out of the U.S. Department of Justice’s China Initiative.[2]
[1] U.S. Department of Justice, Harvard University Professor Convicted of Making Dale Statements and Tax Offenses, Press Rel. No. 21-1284, Dec. 21, 2021.
[2] U.S. Department of Justice, Information about the Department of Justice’s China Initiative and a Compilation of China-Related prosecutions since 2018, Nov. 19, 2021.
On December 15, 2021, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. announced the repatriation of 200 antiquities valued at an estimated $10 million to Italy during a repatriation ceremony attended by the Italy Consul General Fabrizio Di Michele, Italian Carbiniera Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (“TPC”) Brigadier General Roberto Riccardi, and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) Deputy Special Agent in Charge Erik Rosenblatt.[1]
[1] Manhattan D.A.’s Office, Manhattan D.A.’s Office Returns 200 Antiquities to Italy, Press Rel., Dec. 15, 2021.
On December 15, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. issued an Executive Order, establishing the United States Council on Transnational Organized Crime (USCTOC).[1]
[1] For the text of the Executive Order, see https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/12/15/executive-order-on-establishing-the-united-states-council-on-transnational-organized-crime.
