On February 13, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a finding and notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, prohibiting the opening or maintaining of a correspondent account in the United States for, or on behalf of, ABLV Bank.  FinCEN proposed the action based on its finding in the NPRM that ABLV is a foreign bank of primary money laundering concern.  Written comments on the NPRM are due April 17, 2018.

On Tuesday, February 27, 2018, a Czech court ordered the release of a top Kurdish official despite an INTERPOL Red Notice request submitted by Turkish authorities, the Czech News Agency reported. The official, Salih Muslim, 67, is the foreign affairs spokesman for the Movement for a Democratic Society, a polyethnic leftist coalition based in northern Syria and former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a prominent Kurdish opposition party in Syria. The Turkish government considers PYD a terrorist organization, alleging that the party has links to Kurdish insurgents that Turkey believes to be responsible for terrorist attacks that killed dozens in the country.

On February 19, 2018, the OECD issued a consultation document on preventing the abuse of residence by investment schemes to circumvent the CRS.  The OECD is looking into the use of “residence by investment” (RBI) or “citizenship by investment” (CBI) schemes that allow individuals to obtain citizenship or temporary or permanent residence rights in exchange for local investments or against a flat fee.

 On January 31, 2018, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FinTRAC) issued alerts concerning the laundering of the proceeds of fentanyl trafficking.

On February 23, 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the largest North Korea-related sanctions tranche, directed at disrupting North Korean shipping and trading companies and vessels to further isolate the regime and advance the U.S. pressure campaign.  The action targets one individual, 27 entities, and 28 vessels located, registered, or flagged in North Korea, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Panama, and Comoros.  Also on February 23, 2018, Treasury, along with the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Coast Guard, issued an advisory alerting the public to the significant sanctions risks to those continuing to enable shipments of goods to and from North Korea.

On Friday, February 16, 2018, The DOJ Special Counsel’s Office released a 37-page indictment charging the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization, as well as thirteen Russian nationals who carried out the organization’s mission in the U.S, with crimes related to meddling in the U.S. political system, including in the 2016 presidential election.

On February 7, 2018, Rabobank N.A. (Rabobank), a California-based subsidiary of Cooperatieve Rabobank U.A.,  a Dutch multinational banking company, entered a guilty plea to a felony count of Conspiracy to Commit an Offense against the U.S. and to Defraud the U.S. in violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 371.  It also agreed to forfeit $368,701,259 in money laundering proceeds that the bank permitted to pass through its accounts. In essence, Rabobank admitted that it allowed narcotics traffickers, human traffickers and other criminals to use its banking branches to engage in structuring and money laundering, failed to file, or at least to file timely, Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR’s) for suspicious activities.  These unlawful activities continued from at least 2009 until 2012.

 On January 30, shortly before delivering his first State of the Union address, President Trump signed an executive order rolling back efforts by his predecessor, Barack Obama, to close Guantanamo Bay, vowing instead to keep it open indefinitely. Trump also indicated that he intends to use the prison to detain future terrorism suspects, which would be the first time in a decade that new prisoners have been brought into the facility. Although President Obama was unable to overcome opposition in order to close the facility for good, his administration was able to transfer a total of 196 of its prisoners overseas.  Now 41 detainees remain, only a small minority of who have ever been charged with a crime or completed trial in a military court.

On February 8, 2018, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament agreed to establish a Special Committee on financial crime, tax fraud and tax avoidance.  The Committee constitutes the 4^th committee after TAXE, TAX2, and the Committee on Inquiry PANA.  The Committee is designed to respond to the publication of the Paradise Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).