The International Enforcement Law Reporter is a monthly print and online journal covering news and trends in international enforcement law.
Since September 1985, the International Enforcement Law Reporter has analyzed the premier developments in both the substantive and procedural aspects of international enforcement law. Read by practitioners, academics, and politicians, the IELR is a valuable guide to the difficult and dynamic field of international law.
On July 15, 2022, Mexican marines captured drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who is on the FBI’s Top 10 most wanted fugitives list and subject to a $20 million bounty.
On July 12, 2022, in a Ministerial-level virtual meeting with over 17 countries and several international organizations, the United States government has reaffirmed and provided additional commitments with respect to supporting Haiti with respect to police and security assistance, including investigating the assassination of President Moïse and combating gang activity. The U.S. also made commitments with respect to migration.
On June 27, 2022, a court in Switzerland ordered Credit Suisse to pay 21 million francs in connection to money laundering offences between 2007 and 2008. During that period, a bank employee aided Bulgarian drug smugglers in laundering millions of dollars’ worth of cash through a process known as “smurfing.” The ruling is the latest in a line of legal woes faced by the bank in recent years.
On July 5, 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order filing and simultaneously settling charges against BNP Paribas (BNPP), an international financial services corporation and swap dealer, for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and Commission regulations concerning swap reporting and daily mark disclosures.[1]
[1] CFTC, CFTC Orders Swap Dealer to Pay $6 Million for Swap Reporting and Daily Mark Disclosure Violations, July 5, 2022.
On July 12, 2022, Herdade Lokua, 34, and Jospin Mjangi, 32, of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle to conspiracy and Lacey Act charges. On November 3, 2021, indictments were issued on eleven counts concerning trafficking wildlife from the DRC to Seattle. The court scheduled the sentencing hearing for November 1.[1]
[1] U.S. Department of Justice, Two Foreign Nationals Plead Guilty to Trafficking Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn from the Democratic of the Congo, Press Rel. No. 22-745, July 13, 2022.
On June 22, 2022, Bram van der Kolk and Mathias Ortmann, who have fought extradition to the U.S. for more than a decade, pleaded guilty in New Zealand. Meanwhile, the U.S. extradition case for Kim Dotcom continues.[1]
[1] Megaupload Pair Convicted: The Specific Crimes They Admitted in Detail, 2022 World Justice News, June 27, 2022.
On June 30, 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it has given Notification of Blocked Property to Heritage Trust, a Delaware-based trust in which OFAC-designated Russian oligarch Suleiman Abusaidovich Kerimov has a property interest. On June 29, 2022, the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarch (REPO) Task Force announced it has blocked or frozen more than $30 billion worth of sanctioned Russians’ assets. On June 28, 2022, the U.S. Treasury announced it was implementing G7 commitments by prohibiting gold imports and targeting Russian defense industrial base, military and intelligence units, and sanctions evaders.
On July 6, 2022, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York returned a superseding indictment, charging five defendants, including one current federal law enforcement officer and one retired federal law enforcement officer, with crimes concerning an alleged transnational repression scheme executed on behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).[1]
[1] U.S. Department of Justice, Five Men Indicted for Crimes Related to Transnational Repression Scheme to Silence Critics of the People’s Republic of China Residing in the United States, Press Rel. 22-716, July 7, 2022.
On June 30, 2022, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Palestinian rights group Lawyers for Justice released (LFJ) a joint report on the situation of detainees held by the security and police forces. The report was submitted to the United Nations' Committee Against Torture.[1]
* Professor Plachta specializes in criminal law and international criminal law. He has authored numerous publication on a wide range of problems concerning law enforcement and international cooperation in criminal matters. He currently teaches criminal law and European criminal law at the University of Security in Poznan, Poland.
[1] Joint Submission by Human Rights Watch and Lawyers for Justice to the Committee Against Torture on Palestine, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, June 30, 2022. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/30/joint-submission-human-rights-watch-....
On July 1, 2022, an agreement to return 1,130 bronze and other cultural artifacts was signed in Berlin by Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Commissioner for Culture, the Media, and Claudia Roth, Nigeria’s Minister of Culture Lai Mohammed and Minister for State for Foreign Affairs Zabairo Dada. The agreement is the single largest repatriation of artifacts anywhere in the world and follows a century of controverted restitution claims.[1]
