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]

On January 10, 2020, the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leona (RSCSL) granted the application of inmate Augustine Gbao for conditional early release from his confinement in Rwanda.[1] In March 2009, the majority of Trial Chamber I of the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Gbao on 14 counts and sentenced him to a total term of 25 years of imprisonment on April 8, 2009, with credit given for time already served in custody.  On October 26, 2009, the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone upheld the sentence.

On March 3, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union, Grand Chamber, (the Court) delivered a judgment giving its interpretation of one of the key concepts underlying the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) scheme based on the 2002 Framework Decision (EAW FD),^[1] that is, the “double (dual) criminality.” This is not the first time that the Court has been called to clarify the legal elements of the EAW procedure.^[2]

On March 3, 2020, the Spanish government approved an extradition request from the United States for General Hugo Carvajal, Venezuela’s former intelligence chief.  However, he has now disappeared to an unknown location.[1] His extradition is sought for drug trafficking crimes.  One indictment accuses him of coordinating a 5,600kg (12,345lb) shipment of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico.[2] The 2006 New York indictment alleges Carvajal assisted Walid Makled to smuggle cocaine found in Mexico inside a DC-9 plane.[3]

On February 20, 2020, the UN Council on Human Rights (UNCHR) released a report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan finding that millions of South Sudanese civilians “have been deliberately deprived of access to basic services and many deliberately starved.”[1] The report was delivered to the Council for its forty-third session scheduled for March.

On February 20, 2020, Mexico extradited another alleged top figure in the Jalisco New Generation cartel to the United States, one of approximately 40 alleged organized-crime figures it has extradited to the U.S. since U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr’s December 5, 2019 visit to Mexico.[1] On February 21, U.S. authorities arraigned Rubén Oseguera González, also known as El Menchito on counts of distributing cocaine and methamphetamine and using a firearm to facilitate drug trafficking.  He pleaded not guilty on all counts.  The counts carry a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.[2]

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]