In December 2023, the Manhattan District Attorney, partnering with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), announced the recovery and repatriation of looted art to Turkey, Greece, and Nepal. 

On December 5, 2023, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond, Virginia announced that it has deaccessioned and returned 44 works of ancient art after an investigation by the Manhattan D.A.’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) and Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) into the international trafficking of looted or stolen antiquities.

On December 20, 2023, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials announced the unsealing of a five-count indictment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. charging a Georgia businessman, a former Honduran government official, and a former Florida resident for their alleged participation in an international conspiracy to pay and hide bribes to Honduran government officials to obtain contracts to furnish uniforms and other products to the Honduran National Police.

On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, concerning alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the “Genocide Convention”) in relation to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On December 21, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule implementing the access and safeguard provisions of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) (the “Access Rule”).  The Access Rule sets forth the circumstances under which beneficial ownership information (BOIA) reported to FinCEN may be disclosed to authorized BOI recipients and how recipients must protect it.

On December 20, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the unsealing of terrorism charges against Samuel Salman El Reda, aka Samuel Salman El Reda, Salman Raouf Salman, Sulayman Rammal, Salman Ramal, Salman Raouf Salman, and Hajj, 58, a dual Colombian-Lebanese citizen and member of Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), in connection with El Reda’s alleged role leading decades of terrorist activity on behalf of Hezbollah and the IJO.

On November 30, 2023, the Office of the Prosecutor at the Int’l Criminal Court (ICC) issued a report on the situation in Colombia (https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2023-11/2023-11-30-otp-report-colombia-eng.pdf). This report determined that potential cases on alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes during the six-decade Colombian civil war are likely inadmissible to the ICC, due to genuine proceedings by the Colombian government aimed at handling all the cases. 

On December 15, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it has begun the process to return 16 Khmer sculptures – 14 to Cambodia and two to Thailand.  The return will effectively remove from its collection all Angkorian sculptures works which the Met knows are linked with the dealer Douglass Latchford. 

On December 21, 2023, the United States and Venezuela agreed to a major exchange of prisoners, which has significance for the state of U.S.-Venezuelan relations.  The U.S. released Alex Saab, a close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in exchange for 10 jailed Americans and a fugitive defense contractor known as “Fat Leonard,” who has been convicted in U.S. District Court in San Diego for corruption involving the U.S. Navy.

On October 12, 2017, the Regulation establishing the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) was adopted by  Member States which are part of the EPPO “enhanced cooperation.”[1] The EPPO is in charge of investigating, prosecuting, and bringing to justice the perpetrators of offenses against the Union's financial interests.