The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently announced that Trade Fraud Task Force (TFTF), assembled in August 2025, surpassed $1 billion in recoveries and charged losses since its inception.  The TFTF was launched as a joint venture between the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prosecute those who defraud the government through U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), including mislabeling, transshipment and false declaration. On July 14, the DOJ and DHS also released “A Resource Guide to Trade Fraud Enforcement”, or “The Guide”, which functions as a one-stop-shop resource for businesses, individuals and the public to inform them about the new strategy the government is pursuing to stop trade fraud, and to provide information on how trade fraud happens.

              In response to Russia’s’ invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) has progressively expanded its range of sanctions.  While they first primarily targeted politically exposed individuals, state-owned enterprises, and key sectors of the Russian economy, more recent packages have increasingly focused on preventing sanctions circumvention through intermediaries, financial facilitators, and complex corporate structures.  On July 15, 2026, the General Courts delivered a judgment in Beloglazov v Council, which is among the first to examine the legality of this evolving approach.  It provides important guidance on the interpretation of the listing criterion concerning the facilitation of sanctions circumvention and is therefore likely to become a leading authority for future challenges to anti-circumvention listings.

               On August 4, 2026, Liechtenstein Prime Minister Brigitte Haas revealed that hackers accessed data on the names and residencies of the beneficial owners of some 31,000 entities registered in the country’s confidential registry of foundations and trusts.  Haas said authorities are intensively investigating the purpose of the attack and the persons behind it.  The unknown hackers gained access to the Register of Beneficial Owners for two days starting on July 29.  Liechtenstein established the Register in 2021 in accordance with European Union rules concerning anti-money laundering and financial transparency.

                On August 11, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule that permanently removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information (BOI) to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act.  The final rule is effective on its publication in the Federal Register.  FinCEN also announced that it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons—now exempt from the reporting requirements—from the beneficial ownership information database.  Under the final rule, foreign entities that are reporting companies will still be required to report beneficial ownership information for foreign individuals.

                In July 2026, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced the formation of a council that includes war crime lawyers from Europe and the United States to investigate crimes against humanity committed during the insurgency in the country’s east.  The formation of the council follows the DRC’s 2025 actions at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where they filed a case against neighboring Rwanda, alleging that the small African nation funds and supports Congolese rebel groups and is directly responsible for the implementation of crimes against humanity in the DRC’s east.  In addition to domestic actions by Kinshasa, the United Nations (UN) security council recently voted to add multiple individuals and entities linked to various rebel groups to an international sanctions list.

               On July 26, 2026, the Israel Tax Authority announced that, after almost two and a-half years of an international manhunt, Panama extradited Yaniv Moualem to Israel.  Israeli courts have convicted Moualem of tax fraud and money laundering.  He fled Israel during  during criminal proceedings against him.  A complex international enforcement operation headed by the Israel law enforcement authorities and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) succeeded in his extradition to Israel to continue the legal proceedings against him.

                In 2024, Eugène Rwamucyo was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his complicity in the Rwandan genocide after his appeal was dismissed July 2026. This brings 16 years of judicial action to an end and concludes 32 years since his genocidal crimes were committed.

            On July 28, 2026, the United States (U.S.) Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Brian Nelson Booker, a former resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, appeared in federal court on tax and false statement charges after Belarus expelled him. In July 2021, a federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment charging Booker with failing to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs), filing false documents with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and making false statements.

On July 16, 2026, United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota announced that Somalia had transferred Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, 42, of Burnsville, Minnesota to the United States.  An indictment in September 2022 charged Eidleh and other defendants in the Feeding Our Future scheme.  The indictment has 31 charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery, federal programs bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering. 

On July 23, 2026, Trial Chamber IV of the International Criminal Court (ICC) terminated the proceedings against Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and thereby vacated the arrest warrant against him.