On March 23, 2020, Swedbank released the investigative report conducted by law firm Clifford Chance showing anti-money laundering (“AML”) and sanctions gaps during the period 2014-2019, mainly in Swedbank’s Baltic operations.[1]  The report[2] comes at a time when Swedbank faces a joint investigation conducted by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority, an investigation by Sweden’s economic crimes body and the U.S. and New York investigative and law enforcement authorities.[3]

On March 23, 2020, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Cohen in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis approved a request to extradite a man to Bosnia to face a war crime charge.[1] According to the extradition request, Adem Kostjerevac, the relator, was a military police officer with the 1^st Muslim Brigade of the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time.  On September 17, 1992, the victim, a pregnant Serbian, was arrested after Muslim forces surrounded her village.  She was held for two weeks in the basement of a mill in another small village.[2]

On February 24, 2020, China announced a sweeping controversial national ban on wild animal consumption. However, critics of the “Comprehensively Prohibiting the Illegal Trade of Wild Animals, Eliminating the Bad Habits of Wild Animal Consumption, and Protecting the Health and Safety of the People Decision” point out that the ban still leaves room for wildlife trading. Most notable is the ban’s allowance for wildlife trading within the realms of biomedical research and commercial fur farms, which complicates law enforcement efforts.

On March 3, 2020, the English High Court issued its decision on when the fraud or other iniquity exception overrides the legal professional privilege. The case concerns advice given by the defendant, Dentons Europe LLP, to its former client, Anabus Holdings Limited (“Anabus”).  The claimants in the case are 240 investors whom Anabus invited to invest in gold dust (“the scheme”).  Beginning in the spring of 2010, an agent and network of introducers promoted the scheme.  The scheme closed in October 2010.  Despite the promises of payment, a majority of investors claim the scheme was fraudulent and they lost collectively $6.5 million.[1]

On December 19, 2019, the United States Congress adopted the historic bipartisan Global Fragility Act (GFA), as part of the 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act.  The GFA established the first-ever U.S. government strategy to tackle alarming levels of global violence around the world. The violence is causing unimaginable suffering and instability, with almost 70 million people around the world trying to flee the violence.

On January 30, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and M.Y. Safra Bank, FSB, New York, entered into a consent order concerning alleged violations  of the Bank Secrecy Act/antimony laundering (BSA/AML) compliance program requirements, 12 U.S.C. § 1818(s), 12 C.F.R. § 21.21 and those related to the failure to monitor and investigate suspicious transactions and timely file suspicious activity reports (“SAR”), 12 C.F.R. § 163.180 and for noncompliance with the Operating Agreement.[1]

On March 2, 2020, the United Department of Justice unsealed a two-count indictment in the District of Columbia, charging two Chinese nationals with laundering more than $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from a hack of a cryptocurrency exchange.[1] A civil forfeiture complaint also unsealed on March 3 alleges that North Korean actors stole the funds in 2018.[2]

On March 5, 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a week earlier British authorities arrested Oleg Tinkov, the founder of a Russian bank, charging him with filing false tax returns.[1]   DOJ officials unsealed the September 26, 2019 indictment.[2]

On March 5, 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) decided unanimously to authorize the Prosecutor to commence an investigation into alleged crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court in relation to the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (hereinafter: Afghanistan).[1]

On February 26, 2020, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed a fine of $450,000 against former compliance officer Michael LaFontaine, after he agreed that since he left employment with U.S. Bank in June 2014, he has not performed a compliance management function for any “financial institution.” LaFontaine also agreed that, if FinCEN files a complaint against him seeking injunctive relief he will consent to an order requiring him to comply with this undertaking.[1]