On Monday, January 29, 2018, the Justice Department announced charges against eight individuals accused of manipulating U.S. commodities markets for financial gain. Seven of the eight individuals were charged with spoofing. Spoofing refers to a manipulative market tactic that involves the placing of hundreds to thousands of “spoof orders” – orders that the spoofer does not intend to trade – in order to incentive market participants to buy, sell, or trade at artificial prices. In doing so, spoofing fools market participants to make their investment decisions based on a false perception of supply and demand.

On February 6, 2018, Senior District Judge (the Chief Magistrate) Emma Arbuthnot denied Julian Assange’s application to withdraw an arrest warrant issued at this court when Assange did not surrender for extradition to Sweden. On February 13, 2018, Judge Arbuthnot considered the public interest arguments and whether it is in the public interest to initiate proceedings against Assange under Section 6 of the Bail Act.

    On February 7, 2018, the battle between Chris Brann, a Houston physician and his wife, Marcelle Guimaraes, over the custody of their 8-year-old son Nicolas Brann escalated when federal agents at Miami’s airport arrest the child’s Brazilian grandparents Carlos and Jemima Guimaraes at Miami’s airport after their flight landed from Brazil.  Both of them have been charged with conspiracy and international parental kidnapping.

 On February 12, 2018, the Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and other law enforcement officials announced the unsealing of an indictment against five former Venezuelan government officials for their alleged participation in an international money laundering scheme involving bribes made to corruptly secure energy contracts from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).  Two of the defendants are also charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

On February 6, 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “Beneficial Ownership: Fighting Illicit International Financial Networks Through Transparency.” The hearing was the latest in a series of hearing on the issue of anonymous corporations.                

On February 1, 2018, the Ireland’s Supreme Court  delivered its decision in the case Minister for Justice and Equality v. O’Connor. The Court refused to extradite an Irish businessman to the United Kingdom upon a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by the London court. At the same time, the Court ruled that the case should be referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg.

On January 4, 2018, a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee, returned a 14-count superseding indictment unsealed on January 19, 2018, charging seven individuals for their roles in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) and drug trafficking conspiracy to distribute and dispense oxycodone, oxymorphone and morphine outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, and resulting in deaths, maintenance of drug involved premises, distribution of oxycodone resulting in death, conspiracy to defraud the United States through the solicitation and receipt of illegal healthcare kickbacks and money laundering.

On February 5, 2018, the High Court of Justice Queen’s Bench Division issued a judgment and opinion overturning the lower court’s decision to extradite to the U.S. Lauri Love, a dual national of the U.K. and Finland, on the basis that such extradition would be oppressive by reason of his physical and mental condition.

On February 5, 2018, Judge Brian M. Cogan of the U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York issued an order that the case will be heard by an anonymous and partly sequestered jury.

On January 18, 2018, Italian law enforcement arrested thirty-three people in Tuscany, Italy on suspicion of being members of the Chinese mafia.