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 April 3, 2023, the trial started against former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) leaders in the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) in The Hague.
On April 7, 2023, the United Arab Emirates announced its denial of South Africa’s request to extradite Atul and Rajesh Gupta, two brothers. South Africa has charged the Gupta brothers of working with former President Jacob Zuma to commit fraud and launder millions of dollars. South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola confirmed that the UAE had denied its extradition request.[1]
On April 3, the Dubai attorney general, Essam Al Humaidan, issued a statement that the Dubai Court of Cassation has ruled that British hedge fund trader Sanjay Shah must be extradited to Denmark, where Danish authorities have charged him with orchestrating a $1.8 billion tax fraud.[1]
On March 23, 2023, Montenegrin authorities arrested Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, who is wanted in both South Korea and the United States after a $40 billion crash of his firm’s cryptocurrency that had adverse consequences throughout the world.[1]
On March 27, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) brought suit against Binance, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange based in Malta, alleging violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC rules. These allegations include: allowing users to trade on the platform without verifying their identities, instructing U.S. customers on how to avoid compliance controls despite purporting to bar American users from its offshore platform, failing to register as a futures commission merchant (FCM) under the CFTC, and willfully evading the requirements of the CEA.[1]
On March 23, 2023, Montenegrin authorities arrested Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, who is wanted in both South Korea and the United States after a $40 billion crash of his firm’s cryptocurrency that had adverse consequences throughout the world.[1]
The jury found Jean Morose Viliena, a former Haitian mayor, guilty in the U.S. District Court in Boston on March 21st and ordered him to pay $15.5 million in damages. Viliena was charged under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) of 1991 by three Haitian men who they or their families have been victims of. The following day, Viliena was sent back to court where a grand jury found him guilty on three-counts of visa fraud for allegedly lying about his previous violence charges to get a green card.[1]
[1] Dowling, Brian, Ex-Haitian Mayor Hit With Visa Charge After Torture Verdict, LAW360, March 22, 2023.
On March 28, 2023, Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. announced that he would cut off contact with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it rejected an appeal asking it to stop investigating his predecessor's (Rodrigo Duterte) lethal war on drugs.[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] Philippines' Marcos to shut out ICC after losing drugs war appeal, Reuters, March 28, 2023.
On March 21, 2023, U.S. law enforcement officials announced the unsealing of charges against Irina Dilkinska relating to her participation in the massive OneCoin fraud scheme.[1] OneCoin, which started operations in 2014 and was headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, marketed and sold a fraudulent cryptocurrency called OneCoin through a global multi-level-marketing (“MLM”) network. The marketing and misrepresentations tricked victims into investing over $4 billion worldwide in fraudulent cryptocurrency. On March 20, Bulgaria extradited Dilkinska from Bulgaria and she was presented to U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn the following day.[2]
[1] United States v. Irina Dilkinska, U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y., S14 17 Cr. 630 (ER), Sealed Superseding Indictment.
[2] Id. para. 2. U.S. Attorney Office, SDNY, Bulgarian Woman for Role in Multi-Billion-Dollar Cryptocurrency Pyramid Scheme “OneCoin” and Extradited from Bulgaria to the United States, Press Rel. 23-108, Mar. 21, 2023.
On January 31, a Finnish Appeals Court arrived in Liberia to begin a trial against Sierra Leonean rebel commander Gibril Massaquoi. A lower Finish Court acquitted Massaquoi of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but this appeals trial will take place in Liberia because many of the witnesses were unable to travel to Finland.
