On November 22, 2022, the Grand Chambers of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a judgment declaring that the European Union anti-money-laundering directive,[1] as adopted by a Luxembourg law in 2019, establishing a Register of Beneficial Ownership,  with some of the information accessible to the general public, is invalid.  The Luxembourg law makes information accessible on at least the name, the month and year of birth, the nationality and country of residence of the beneficial owner, as well as the nature and to extent of the beneficial interest held. 

 

On December 3, 2022, ABB Ltd. (ABB), a Swiss-based multinational technology company listed on the New York Stock Exchange with core businesses focused on electrification, automation, motion, and robotics has agreed to pay more than $315 million to resolve an investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising from the bribery of a high-ranking official at Eskom Holdings  SOC Limited (Eskom), a South African public utility and the largest producer of electricity in South Africa.[1]

 

On November 26^th, the Unitary Platform and Maduro government reached an agreement to request that billions of dollars that have been frozen abroad be funneled to the United Nations (UN) humanitarian fund.[1]  This UN fund will be focused on improving Venezuelan education, healthcare, food, and infrastructure.  This agreement comes as Venezuelan refugees flee the country in record numbers, with 34,000 Venezuelans arriving at the U.S. borders in September.[2]

 

On November 28, 2022, the media reported that the Angolan government has requested that Interpol issue a Red Notice against Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s former president and ex-billionaire, in connection with the corruption investigation that is continuing.[1]  On November 30, Interpol confirmed it has issued a Red Notice. Although no criminal charges have been filed yet, Angolan prosecutors are investigating her of causing more than $5 billion in losses to Angola during her father’s  administration.[2]      

 

On November 17, Interpol South Africa announced the arrest of Israeli fugitive Yaniv Ben Simon and seven others in a pre-dawn raid in Bryanston, Johannesburg.  The raid was carried out by South African law enforcement and was made pursuant to a 2015 Interpol Red Notice issued by Israel for Simon’s suspected role in a 2003 car bombing in Tel Aviv, a separate attack in 2004, and large-scale drug smuggling operations in conjunction with the Abergil crime family, an Israeli organized crime group.   South African authorities are also investigating Simon’s potential involvement in the murder of at least 12 South Africans.

On November 15, 2022, National Small Business United, doing business as the National Small Business Association, brought a complaint against the United States Department of the Treasury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Northeastern Division, requesting declaratory and injunctive relief.  The complaint requests that the court declare the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) to be unconstitutional, declare that the CTA violates the due process requirements of the Fifth Amendment; and enjoin the Treasury from enforcing the Act.

 

On November 22, 2022, the Grand Chambers of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a judgment declaring that the European Union anti-money-laundering directive,[1] as adopted by a Luxembourg law in 2019, establishing a Register of Beneficial Ownership,  with some of the information accessible to the general public, is invalid.  The Luxembourg law makes information accessible on at least the name, the month and year of birth, the nationality and country of residence of the beneficial owner, as well as the nature and to extent of the beneficial interest held. 

 

Both the European Parliament and the Council of Europe continue involvement in the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

 

On November 16, 2022, a perfunctory entry appeared in the docket of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in the case of United States v. Hoskins, Dkt. No. 20-842: Without comment, the Court noted the “issuance of the mandate” in the case.  The issuance of a “mandate” signifies that no pending matters remain in the appellate court, it is the Court’s laconic way of saying that an appeal is over and done with.  In this instance, the issuance was caused by the non-occurrence of an event:  November 11 had been the last day on which the Department of Justice (DoJ) could have sought en banc review of a decision it lost on August 12, 2022 in its appeal of a partial post-trial acquittal of a long-running money laundering and foreign corruption case; without comment, the DoJ declined to do so.

The Department of Justice, on behalf of the US Department of Treasury, has succeeded  in bringing Russian national Alexander Vinnik, accused co-owner of crypto exchange BTC-e,  to the United States for criminal proceedings.    BTC-e was an early success and purportedly one of the largest crypto-exchanges in the world, it is claimed that BTC-e received more than $4 billion worth of bitcoin in the six years of operation before being shut down in 2017.