In December 2022, the Australian attorney-general accepted an extradition request from the U.S. for the rendition of Daniel Edmund Duggan, an ex-Marine who renounced his American citizenship to become an Australian citizen, to face charges relating to his alleged training of Chinese fighter pilots in a South African flight school.  The U.S. is charging him with unlawfully engaging in conspiracies to export defense services to China, launder money, and violate the Arms Export Control Act.  Duggan’s attorney Dennis Miralis has been actively making rounds through several media outlets to proclaim that the prosecution of his client is politically motivated and Duggan is being “singled out.”

On January 17, Artem Uss, son of Russian governor Alexander Uss, asked an Italian court to extradite him to Russia rather than the United States.[1]  Uss was arrested in mid-October 2022 at Milan’s Malpensa Airport pursuant to a request by the U.S. authorities relating to sanctions evasion, money laundering, and oil smuggling.  Soon after his arrest, Russia brought money laundering charges against Uss and said they will request his extradition as well.  While not all the details of both matters are openly known, the timing of Russia’s charges against and the notable status of the defendant has introduced the possibility that Russia is more interested in protecting the family of high-level officials and spiting America, rather than justice.

On January 18, 2023, the United States Department of Justice announced the arrest of the founder and majority owner of a cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato Ltd. (Bitzlato) the prior night in Miami for his alleged operation of a money transmitting business that transported and transmitted illicit funds, including through darknet channels, that failed to meet U.S. regulatory requirements, including with respect to anti-money laundering.[1]

On January 17, 2023, the Angolan government revealed it has already recovered $5 billion (4.6 billion euros) of assets removed illegally from the country and it is awaiting court decisions on assets worth $21 billion (19.4 billion euros).[1]

On January 19, 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the establishment of a tribunal on the crime of aggression against Ukraine. The resolution addresses a specific aspect of a way to hold Russia, including Putin, accountability for the atrocity during the aggression in Ukraine.

On January 17, 2023, the Supreme Court heard argument in Halkbank v. United States, Dkt. No. 21-1450.  That argument confirmed two things: the issue before the Court is very consequential, and all of the potential outcomes under consideration create thorny problems of interpretation or anomalies in their execution.  The Court’s ultimate decision, which remains very unclear after the argument, may depend on whether it will be strictly guided by the words actually used by Congress even in face of strong reason to doubt whether Congress actually intended that result.

On January 1, 2023, in a major international police operation led by the United Arab Emirates, based on information shared through Interpol, law enforcement authorities arrested in Sudan Kidane Zekarias Habtemariam (‘Kidane), an Eritrean national wanted for migrant smuggling, human trafficking and other related crimes. [1]

Colombian businessman Alex Saab Moran, was arrested in Cabo Verde (formerly Cape Verde) for extradition to the United States. To some, he is a hero kidnapped by the Americans while on a humanitarian mission to Iran; ^[1]  to others, he is a highly corrupt businessman, enriching himself while the Venezuelan people suffer.  ^[2]  

On December 9, 2022, the Belgian police executed a 20 different raids on 19 addresses across Brussels to investigate a suspected corruption incident.  During the enforcement action, Belgian police arrested Alexandros Kaili and found “several hundred thousand euros” on his person.  Alexandros is the father of European Parliament vice president Eva Kaili and the circumstances of his detention resulted in his daughter losing diplomatic immunity and allowed police to search her property.  Belgian police would eventually find 150,000 in an apartment she shared with her partner Francesco Giorgi and conduct similar raids on various high-level European officials, the results of which culminated into a continent-shaking scandal called Qatargate.

On December 22, 2022, Europol, Eurojust, and the European Judicial Network published  the 2022 edition of the SIRIUS European Union (EU) Digital Evidence Situation Report. This report gives the results of SIRIUS’ research on experiences of EU Member States’ competent authorities, as well as Online Service Providers (OSPs), with cross-border access to digital evidence in criminal investigations.