On October 31, 2023, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released a draft Risk-Based Guidance on Beneficial Ownership and Transparency of Legal Arrangements with respect to FATF Recommendation 25.  FATF explains that countries should assess the money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks of misuse of legal arrangements and take preventive measures. 

Recent reports indicate that wildlife smugglers are taking advantage of ineffective enforcement of wildlife protection treaties to smuggle protected species through South and Southeast Asian airports. Research by TRAFFIC found that wildlife traffickers often use Indian airports to smuggle protected species internationally. 

On October 11, 2023, the OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann welcomed the announcement that 48 countries and jurisdictions have agreed to implement the OECD’s global tax transparency framework for the reporting and exchanging of information with respect to crypto assets by 2027.

 A French appellate court affirmed the denial of an extradition request from the Ukrainian government, ruling that Ukrainian billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago should not be extradited. In 2019, Ukraine charged Zhevago with embezzling and laundering $113 million at Finance & Credit Bank.  In 2021, at the request of Ukraine Interpol issued a Red Notice against him.  After his arrest, a French court granted him pre-trial release on bail for € 1 million.

On November 1, 2023, Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo resigned after the publication of audio messages in which he seemed to ask a former official to not furnish evidence in an investigation concerning a passport issued to Sebastián Marset, an accused drug trafficker and fugitive.

 Global money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks just keep on rising, according to the 2023 Public Edition of the Basel AML Index, released on  November 13, 2023. And that has a real impact on people’s lives today – from well-funded terrorist attacks to trillions of dollars flowing out of countries through corruption and organized crime.

On September 29, 2023, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced new agency-wide guidance on the use of INTERPOL Red Notices and Wanted Person Diffusions (WPD). While questions remain about how ICE will interpret and implement this guidance in practice, it marks a major step forward in the sophistication of ICE’s use of INTERPOL communications in law enforcement actions and immigration proceedings.

On October 27, 2023, the fourth Plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) under the Presidency of T. Raja Kumar of Singapore concluded and acted on a number of items, which this article discusses. The FATF granted full membership to Indonesia and continued the suspension of the membership of Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine.

On November 8, 2023, the U.K. Supreme Court held that the Danish tax authority can proceed with claims in U.K. courts to recover approximately $1.9 billion in dividend tax refunds that were allegedly fraudulently claimed by cum-ex traders. The appeal concerned the admissibility of claims made by Skaffeforvaltningen (SKAT), the Danish customs and Tax Administration, against Mr. Sanjay Shah and the companies related to him.  Shah and entities (appellants) argued that the claims seek to enforce, directly or indirectly, Danish tax laws or the public laws.  The question was whether “the revenue rule,” which is a common law principle whereby courts on one country should not enforce tax laws of another country, applies to this case.

On November 9, 2023, Manny and Patricia Oliver, parents of the then 16-year-old son, Joaquin, who was killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida filed a first-of-its kind human rights lawsuit against the U.S. government.  The action requests a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)  that U.S. gun policy violates human rights law and cost their son Oliver his right to life.