On January 25, 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13857, yet again escalating economic sanctions targeting the regime of Nicolas Maduro.  This is the latest in a string of sanctions against Venezuela, following just days after Juan Guaidó, President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, declared himself Interim President of Venezuela, with support from the United States and numerous other nations.  The Executive Order expands the scope of the definition of the “Government of Venezuela” to include “any person who has acted or purported to act directly or indirectly for or on behalf of” the Government of Venezuela, “including as a member of the Maduro regime,” thus paving the way toward new sanctions against any individual members of the Maduro regime.  This action raises the stakes for Maduro’s supporters even higher, as the Trump Administration threatens sanctions to encourage defections.

On February 15, 2019, the Center for Investigative Reporting shared news that the United States Justice Department is currently in the process of dismantling the FBI’s highly specialized International Human Rights Unit (IHRU). The IHRU’s mission has been “to mitigate the most significant threats posed by international human rights violators through effective intelligence collection and targeted enforcement action in collaboration with both domestic and international accountability efforts.” Human rights experts have raised alarm over the fact that such a move will dilute, if not eliminate, the FBI’s ability to pursue complex international human rights investigations. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigations Press Office responded to this author’s request for additional information, “International Human Rights (IHR) violations fall under the FBI’s Civil Rights Program, as such, a decision was made to merge the IHR Unit with the Civil Rights Unit to create the Civil Rights and International Human Rights Unit to more effectively utilize these FBI resources. This re-organization in no way reflects a reduced commitment by the FBI to work the IHR threat or diminish established relationships with government and non-government partners. This shift will increase the number of personnel available to oversee the IHR threat as the FBI continues its important work on these violations under the newly created unit.”

On March 1, 2019, Canada’s Justice Department authorized an extradition hearing for Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, the Chinese telecom and electronics company, on 13 criminal counts of conspiracy, fraud, and obstruction.  The extradition hearing will start on March 6 at the British Columbia’s Supreme Court.  On that day the court will set a date for the start of her extradition hearing. Meanwhile, Ms. Meng has sued the Canadian government for violating her constitutional rights when she was detained, as authorities seized and reviewed her electronic devices. Additionally, the Chinese government has recently charged two Canadians – one a former diplomat – of espionage and violating state secrets.

On  February 15, 2019, a grand jury in New Jersey returned an indictment against the former president and the former chief legal officer of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, a publicly trade Fortune 200 technology services company based in Teaneck, New Jersey, in connection with an alleged foreign bribery scheme. The 12-count indictment charges Gordon Coburn, 55, of Beaver Creek, Colorado, and Steven Schwartz, 51, of Greenwich, Connecticut with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), three counts of violating the FCPA, seven counts of falsifying books and records, and one count of circumventing and failing to implement internal accounting controls. The charges arise out of an alleged scheme to bribe one or more government officials in India to secure a construction permit required to complete the development of an office campus.

On February 19, 2019, the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (FSA) gave Danske Bank 20 days to submit an action plan to close its local branch within eight months. In December, Estonian authorities detained 10 former Danske Bank employees on suspicion they had facilitated money laundering through non-resident clients, including many Russians.  On February 20, 2019, Estonia’s state prosecution said it is investigating allegations linking Swedbank to suspicious transactions in the country involving Danske Bank.

On February 19, 2019, Shamima Begum heard the news. While nursing her newborn son at a Syrian refugee camp, her family – contacting her from the UK – informed her that they had received a letter from the Home Office. The government, Begum’s family told her, planned to strip her of her British citizenship for joining the Islamic State (IS) in 2015. On February 20, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a similar statement to Hoda Muthana – an American that joined IS in 2014. Disqualifying any claim that Muthana may return to the US, Secretary Pompeo stated that, “Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States. She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States.

Following his mysterious disappearance and arrest in China, Meng Hongwei resigned as INTERPOL’s President in October 2018, leaving INTERPOL no option but to find a successor.  Among the top contenders for the post was Alexander Prokopchuk, a high-ranking official in the Russian Ministry of the Interior and already a vice president at INTERPOL.  The prospect of a Russian representative becoming the President of the world’s largest international police organization met strong opposition.  Some called the upcoming election the “Kremlin’s planned takeover of INTERPOL” and warned that Putin was about to gain control over the organization, making it an arm of the Russian mafia.  Human rights advocates once again pointed to Russia’s continuing abuse of INTERPOL’s resources to harass its regime’s political opponents. 

On February 5, 2019, the European Commission published its recommendations for the Council to engage in two international negotiations on cross-border rules to obtain electronic evidence. Following up on the European Council Conclusions from October 2018, the Commission presented two negotiating mandates, one for negotiations with the United States and one on the Second Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe “Budapest” Convention on Cybercrime. Both mandates, which need to be approved by the Council of the European Union, include specific safeguards on data protection, privacy, and procedural rights of individuals.

The decision by the United States to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) has left Iran and many European nations scrambling to salvage the agreement.  Soon after the U.S. announcement, EU Member States signaled their support for continuing their obligations under the agreement.  To avoid U.S. secondary sanctions, the UK, France, and Germany (the “E3”) have created a special purpose vehicle (“SPV”) in order to facilitate commerce between the European countries and Iran.

On February 13, 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested two high-net-worth fugitives from Ecuador who have battled for at least a decade to avoid returning to Ecuador where an Ecuadorian court convicted and sentenced them in 2012 in absentia. ICE detained Roberto and William Isaías, 74 and 25, and brought them to a detention facility for undocumented immigrants awaiting deportation. ICE only said the detainees were “unlawfully present” in the United States.