On January 30, the United States (U.S.) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agreed to serve Gautam Adani with a civil fraud action, permitting the case against India’s second-wealthiest person to proceed. The SEC’s filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York reveals that counsel for Adani and his nephew, Sagar Adani, states the lawyers agreed to accept the SEC’s legal filing, thereby eliminating the requirement that U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garufis must rule on how the defendants should be served.

A recent Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) report published in January 2026 shines light on the illegal lumber trade between Brazilian exporters and both American and European importers. The illegal logging in the Brazilian state of Pará, fueled by an appetite for cheap lumber in Europe and America, ravages protected indigenous lands and virgin rainforests.

On January 23, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a joint stipulation with Defendant Gemini Trust Company, LLC (hereafter Gemini Trust) to dismiss, with prejudice, the SEC’s pending civil enforcement action against it. The joint stipulation states that the SEC’s decision to request dismissal of the action is “in the exercise of its discretion,” and takes into consideration the “100 percent in-kind return of Gemini Earn investors’ crypto assets,” and the state and regulatory settlements involving Gemini related to the Gemini Earn program.

In January 2026, American authorities, working with their Mexican counterparts, apprehended Ryan Wedding, one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, for his role in a multinational cocaine trafficking operation.

On January 28, 2026, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art announced plans to return three sculptures to the Government of India, after conducting an internal investigation and provenance research, showing that the sculptures had been removed illegally from temple settings. 

On January 28, 2026, the United Kingdom (UK) Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) discussed the recent blog post by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), which is part of HM Treasury, on closing the abuse of crypto assets by sanctions evaders.

On January 20, 2026, the Republic of Togo confirmed that it had extradited Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba --- the former transitional president of Burkina Faso --- to authorities in Burkina Faso. The extradition comes after the current government, led by Ibrahim Traoré, leveled accusations of corruption and involvement in attempted coups against the former president

On November 25, 2025, International Rights Advocates, a D.C.-based anti-forced labor advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company engages in deceptive marketing of its products by concealing minerals in its supply chain linked to conflict and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

On January 28, 2026, the Ecuador Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it had made a formal diplomatic complaint with the United States (U.S.) after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent tried to enter the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis without permission.

 In a prisoner swap facilitated on January 8, 2026, Russia and France agreed to release an imprisoned French researcher in exchange for the return of a detained Russian basketball player, in an uncommon display of bilateral relations between the two countries.