On March 1, 2013, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and other law enforcement officials announced that Ernst & Young LLP (“E&Y”) has admitted wrongful conduct by certain E&Y partners and employees in connection with the firm’s participation, from 1999 to 2004, in four tax shelters that were used by approximately 200 E&Y clients in an effort to defer, reduce, or eliminate tax liabilities of more than $2 billion.

On March 1, 2013, the Court of Appeal in New Zealand overturned the lower court's decisions by Judge Winkelmann and Judge Harvey who both had ordered the U.S. government to disclose evidence it has against Kim Dotcom ahead of his extradition hearing.

Kim Dotcom's counsel have indicated they will appeal to the Supreme Court to challenge a ruling that the U.S. government does not have to hand over all all its evidence in the extradition case.

31 year-old Admir Suljic was arrested in Italy immediately after his flight from Singapore landed in Milan's Malpensa airport on Thursday, February 21st. After Suljic, who is wanted by Italian authorities, boarded the plane, Singapore's Police Force informed officers from INTERPOL's Fugitive Investigative Support unit, who worked with Italian State Police to prepare for his arrival.

On February 19, 2013, The Mandiant® Intelligence Center™ released a report exposing Advanced Persistent Threat 1's (or APT1) multi-year, enterprise-scale computer espionage campaign.

    The highlights of the report include:

              On February 14, 2013, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced today that it has signed a bilateral agreement with Switzerland to facilitate the implementation of the information reporting and withholding tax provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

    On January 22, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed the appeal by defendant/appellant Arab Bank PLC and denied the defendant’s petition for a writ of mandamus. The court found that the sanctions order was not a reviewable collateral order. As such, the court lacked jurisdiction.

GJIL Symposia

2013 Symposium - The Evolution of Economic Sanctions: Increasingly Financial, Multilateral, and Robust

Georgetown University Law Center, Gewirz Student Center
Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 8:30A.M. to 5:30P.M.

Below are excerpts from the official transcripts of the October 16, 2012 meeting of the House of Commons in United Kingdom, during which British Secretary of State, Theresa May, made the decision to block the extradition of alleged computer hacker, Gary McKinnon, to the United States on the basis of violations of human rights. Also included is the opposing viewpoint, presented by Labour Party Parliament Member, Yvette Cooper :

On October 13, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals in a unanimous (3-0) decision overturned the conviction of Salim Ahmed Hamdam, a former driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden whose case has been in the Military Commission Tribunal in Guantanamo and heavily litigated in the U.S. Article III courts.  In Salim Ahmed Hamdan v. U.S., the appellate court held that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 does not authorize retroactive prosecution of crimes that were not prohibited as war crimes triable by military commission under U.S.

On October 5, 2012, after a legal battle covering 8 to 14 years years in each case, five suspected terrorists, including radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, will be extradited to the US, UK judges have ruled. 

The other men being sent to the US are Babar Ahmad, Syed Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, in cases that are not linked to Abu Hamza's case.

In their ruling, the judges said there was no further avenue of appeal open to the five men. The Home Office said it was working to "extradite these men as quickly as possible."