On December 15, 2017, talks between the EU Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, and the European Commission reached a provisional agreement, amending and tightening the measures to the EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (the Directive).  A final text will be circulated, and on December 20, 2017, a meeting of the Permanent Representative’s Committee (COREPER, Ambassador’s level) will adopt the proposal.

The Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) (“the Assembly” or “ASP”) held its sixteenth session at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from December 4 to 14, 2017. In his opening remarks, the President of the Assembly, H. E. Mr. Sidiki Kaba (Senegal), called on all States to work towards the universal ratification of the Rome Statute and the integration of its norms into national legal systems. He underscored the link between State cooperation and the Court’s effectiveness, credibility and independence.

On December 13, 2017, amici curiae filed briefs in the United States v. Microsoft Corp case set to go before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2017-2018 term. The case concerns the U.S. Justice Department’s access to an individual’s private emails stored at Microsoft’s Dublin data center. At issue in this case is whether the warrant provisions of the Stored Communications Act (SCA) – which is part of the broader Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 – apply extraterritorially, such that they compel Microsoft, an electronic service provider, to produce private electronic communications stored on servers in Ireland for the United States government.

On December 5-8, 2017, hosted by INTERPOL’s Fugitive Investigative Support Sub Directorate (FIS) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the 7th Global Operational Symposium on Fugitives brought together specialized fugitive officers from INTERPOL member countries to exchange and review best practices in fugitive investigations, and work together on fugitive cases.

 On November 27, 2017, an indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (Pittsburg) against Wu Yingzhuo, Dong Hao and Xia Lei, all of whom are Chinese nationals and residents of China, for computer hacking, theft of trade secrets, conspiracy, and identity theft directed at U.S. and foreign employees and computers of three corporate victims in the financial, engineering and technology industries between 2010 and May 2017.  The three Chinese defendants work for the purported China-based Internet security from Guanzhou Bo Yu Information Technology Company Limited (hereafter “Boyusec”).

On December 2, 2017, agents of the Honduran Technical Criminal Investigation Agency (ATIC) arrested Kentucky attorney Eric Christopher Conn, 57, who has pleaded guilty to charges over his role in a more than $550 million disability fraud scheme.

In March 2017, Conn pleaded guilty to theft of government money and payment of gratuities.  He was placed under house arrest with a GPS monitor pending sentencing, and days before he was scheduled to testify against a co-conspirator in a fraud trial involving Social Security benefits.  The ankle monitor was found in Lexington, Kentucky, in a backpack along Interstate-75.

Subsequent to fleeing, a court sentenced him in absentia to 12 years in prison.

On December 6 and 7, 2017, the Attorneys General of the United States, Colombia and Mexico met in Cartagena, Colombia for the “Trilateral Summit against Transnational Organized Crime.”  The purpose of the summit was to renew the existing commitment to international judicial cooperation and to strengthen joint strategies to combat transnational organized crime.

During the summit, the Attorneys General and their staff discussed various criminal phenomena connected to organized crime, such as narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, and human trafficking.  The criminal activity has affected security and prosperity in the Americas.  As a result, the Attorneys General agreed it is important to fortify each country’s efforts and strengthen cooperation amongst all three countries in order effectively to combat the problems.

On December 5, 2017, the European Council issued its conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.  The conclusions also set forth the criteria and proposed sanctions for the countries blacklisted.

The reasons the EU has developed its program and list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes is to combat tax evasion and avoidance and enable the EU to more robustly combat external threats to EU Members’ tax bases and third countries that “consistently refuse to play fair on tax matters.”  Until now, EU Members have had a patchwork approach to dealing with tax havens, which has had limited impact.  The Commission in its External Strategy for Effective Taxation suggested that a common EU list could be a more effective means of dealing with countries that encourage abusive tax practices.

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) held its 73rd plenary session from November 28 to December 1, 2017, in Strasbourg, Germany.

At the opening address,Mr. Jan Kleijssen, Director of the Information Society and Action against Crime Directorate, presented the conclusions of the 2nd International Conference on Terrorism and Organized Crime, jointly organized by the Criminal Law and Counter-Terrorism Divisions of the CoE in cooperation with the City Hall and the University of Malaga (September 21-22, 2017). The conclusions highlight the need to both develop and implement appropriate and specialized investigative tools capable of coping with the evolution in crime problems. The conclusions also noted the intention to set up a joint working group of CODEXTER and CDPC experts aimed at dealing with topics of common interest.

On November 30, 2017, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that she had decided to close the Preliminary Examination into the Comoros situation, more commonly known as the situation relating to incidents aboard the Mavi Marmara. The decision, which was filed with Pre-Trial Chamber I on November 29, 2017, has been described by the ICC Prosecutor as “final,” and subject only to the OTP’s ongoing discretion under Article 53(4) of the Rome Statute – the Court's founding treaty – to reconsider a decision not to proceed on the basis of new facts or information. Annexed to the decision is a 145-page report explaining the Prosecutor’s position in detail.