On August 14, 2020, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced the successful disruption of a multimillion dollar fuel shipment by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization that was on its way to Venezuela.  The move represents the government’s largest seizure of fuel shipments from Iran.[1]  Also on August 14, the Security Council announced  its failure to adopt a draft resolution aimed at extending arms-related restrictions on Iran, set to expire in October under resolution 2231 (2015).[2]

On August 13, 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the dismantling of three terrorist financing cyber-enabled campaigns, involving the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Three forfeiture complaints set forth the coordinated operation and a criminal complaint, which was unsealed on August 13 in the District of Columbia. The actions represent the government’s largest-ever seizure of cryptocurrency in the terrorism context.[1]

                On August 6, 2020, Dr. Saad Aljabri, a former top Saudi intelligence official, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, accusing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of sending a team of agents to Canada to kill him, as well as arresting and holding his children and brother in an effort to force him to return to Saudi Arabia.[1]

                On August 6, 2020, the United States Department of Justice brought two civil forfeiture complaints in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, charging that funds misappropriated from PrivatBank in Ukraine were used to buy commercial real estate in Louisville, Kentucky, and Dallas, Texas. As a result, the suits say they are subject to forfeiture for violating federal money laundering laws.[1]

                On July 29, 2020, the Senate Permanent Investigative Subcommittee issued a report detailing how a prominent family of Russian oligarchs, sanctioned by the U.S. since Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, has used the opacity of the U.S. art industry to evade sanctions.

On July 24, 2020, the European Commission published a new EU Security Union Strategy for the period 2020 to 2025, focusing on priority areas where the EU can support Member States in fostering security for all those living in Europe.[1] The strategy lays out the tools and measures to be developed over the next 5 years to ensure security in the EU’s physical and digital environment including: combatting terrorism and organized crime; preventing and detecting hybrid threats; increasing the resilience of our critical infrastructure; promoting cybersecurity; and fostering research and innovation.

On July 6, 2020, Guatemalan law enforcement authorities detained two sons of former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli for their alleged roles in a bribery and money laundering scheme involving the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.[1]

On July 15, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) revealed that on July 10, 2020, the Government of the Netherlands had lodged an inter-State application under Article 33 (Inter-State cases) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR or the Convention) against the Russian Federation.[1] The inter-State application has been registered under no. 28525/20.[2]

                On July 21, 2020, a federal grand jury in Spokane, Washington, returned an indictment that earlier in the month charged two nationals and residents of the People’s Republic of China with hacking into the computer systems of hundreds of victim companies, governments, and non-governmental organizations, as well as individual dissidents, clergy, and democratic and human rights activists in the United States and abroad, including Hong Kong and China.  The defendants acted for their own personal financial gain in some cases, and for the benefit of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) or other Chinese government agencies in other cases.[1] On July 23, 2020, the US ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, Texas, within 72 hours, due to  "stealing intellectual property” - a move described as "political provocation" by Beijing.[2]  On July 24, China ordered the U.S. to close its consulate in Chengdu in response to the U.S.’s order that China close the Houston consulate.[3]

  On July 22, 2020, the United States arrested Yoo Hyuk-kee, the second son of Semo Group’s late former chairman Yoo Byung-eun, on an extradition warrant for embezzlement offenses.[1]