On May 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a finding and notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act identifying Cambodia-based Huione Group as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern and proposing to close its access to the U.S. financial system.[1]

On April 15, 2025, a former soldier within Gambia’s military force was convicted by a U.S. jury of five counts of torture and one count of conspiracy to commit torture in Denver, Colorado. Following a five-day trial, this historic judgment marks the first time a non-U.S. citizen has ever been found criminally responsible for torture committed internationally by a jury in the United States.

On May 16, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded its prohibition on removal from the United States of Venezuelan men now in immigration custody in Texas. The Court issued an eight-page unsigned opinion, returning the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, a federal jury ordered NSO Group, an Israeli-based government spyware company, to pay a record $167 million in damages for hacking more than 1,000 people through WhatsApp messages, concluding six years of litigation.[2] The jury returned its verdict on the second day of deliberations in the damages phase of the trial held in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In a prior ruling issued in December, Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton granted summary judgment in favor of WhatsApp, holding that the Israel-based NSO Group violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,[3] (CFAA) as well as California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act[4] (CDAFA), through its deployment of NSO’s Pegasus spyware.

On May 16, 2025, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the first indictment, which was unsealed that day, for providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO). The charge was made against a Mexican national based on her involvement with the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), including furnishing the cartel with grenades and engaging in alien smuggling, firearms trafficking, bulk cash smuggling, and narcotics trafficking on its behalf.

For the first time in the United States, two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel have been charged by indictment with narco-terrorism and materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization, in addition to the trafficking of illicit narcotics and money laundering.

More than ten years after the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, the Malaysian government continues to actively take steps in enforcement, both in trying to extradite former Goldman Sachs partner Tim Leissner and in trying to recover assets.

On May 5, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Credit Suisse Services AG (hereafter Credit Suisse) pleaded guilty and was sentenced to conspiring to hide more than $4 billion from the IRS in at least 475 offshore accounts. The guilty plea arises from a years-long investigation by U.S. law enforcement.[1]

The northern part of Cyprus remains a blind spot in international policing. Controlled by the unrecognised “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (“TRNC”), the occupied territory operates outside the reach of INTERPOL, extradition treaties, and cross-border legal cooperation. This legal vacuum, rooted in an unlawful occupation since 1974, has turned the area into a haven for fugitives and organised crime. Grounded in UN Security Council Resolutions 541 and 550, and the ICJ’s Kosovo Advisory Opinion, this article argues that recognition is not a solution. Upholding the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus while closing the enforcement gap is the only lawful and practical way forward.

On April 30, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez issued a 36-page opinion permanently barring the Trump administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport Venezuelans it has deemed to be criminals from the Southern District of Texas, finding that the White House’s use of the statute was illegal.