On February 21, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the extradition by the Czech Republic of Polad Omarov, a/k/a “Araz Aliyev,” a/k/a “Polad Qaqa,” a/k/a “Haci Qaqa,” on murder-for-hire and money laundering charges in a Superseding Indictment in the Southern District of New York.  The Czech Republic arrested Omarov on January 4, 2023.[1]

On February 16, 2024, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged two former Petrofac senior executives Marwan Chedid and George Salibi, with bribery.[1] Both Chedid and Salibi served in various senior roles within the Petrofac Group in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

On February 27, 2024, the European Parliament approved new rules on environmental crimes and related sanctions. The new directive was adopted with 499 votes in favor, 100 against and 23 abstentions. It contains an updated list of criminal offences including illegal timber trade, depletion of water resources, serious breaches of EU chemicals legislation and pollution caused by ships.

                On February 7, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published the 2024 National Risk Assessments on Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Proliferation Financing (NRAML).  The report highlights the most significant illicit finance threats, vulnerabilities, and risks confronting the U.S.[1]

                On December 13, 2024, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the Use of Digital Assets to Evade U.S. Sanctions.  The GAO found that digital assets and other virtual currencies pose risks to implementing and enforcing U.S. sanctions.  A principal element of digital assets is that they enable their users to quickly transfer value worldwide.  On the one hand, many digital assets are recorded on a public ledger, which may enable U.S. agencies and analytics firms to trace transactions and potentially identify illicit actors.  However, digital asset owners also use the anonymizing features of some digital assets or other techniques that obscure their identities in an effort to evade sanctions.

On February 15, 2024, the Department of Justice announced that through a court-authorized operation, it has neutralized a network of hundreds of small office/home office (SOHO) routers that GRU Military Unit 26165, also known as APT 28, Sofacy Group, Forest Blizzard, Pawn Storm, Fancy Bear, and Sednit, used to hide and enable a variety of crimes.[1]  The network allegedly engaged in vast spear phishing and similar credential harvesting exercises against targets of intelligence interest to the Russian government, such as U.S. and foreign governments and military, security, and corporate organizations.  In recent months a private sector cybersecurity advisory and the Ukrainian government [2] have warned of the activity of Unit 26165.

On December 2, 2023, the Philippine Consulate in Guangzhou, China announced the deaths of two Filipino nationals by Chinese authorities on charges of drug trafficking. The two Filipinos were executed on November 24, 2023, ten years after their arrest.

On February 9, 2024, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that, as part of an international law enforcement initiative, U.S. law enforcement authorities in Boston seized internet domains that were employed to sell computer malware used by cybercriminals to secretly access and steal data from victims’ computers.

On February 8, 2024, Kenyan law enforcement authorities revealed that Kevin Kangethe, 42, is accused of murdering his girlfriend in Boston before fleeing to Kenya, where he escaped from a Nairobi jail, while he awaited extradition.

On February 7, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to combat and prevent money laundering in the U.S. residential real estate sector by increasing transparency.