On October 23, 2020, Dr. Marcus Pleyer, the FATF President, chaired his first three-day virtual Plenary meeting of the two-year German Presidency of the FATF.[1]

On October 15, 2020, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Fionnuala Ni Aoláin, presented her report to the UN General Assembly. The report was submitted in accordance with General Assembly resolution 72/180 and Human Rights Council resolution 40/16.[1]

On September 30, 2020, the Group of Independent Experts released its final Report on the review of the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute system, as requested by the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December 2019 through its resolution ICC-ASP/18/Res.7. The Report was submitted pursuant to the Assembly’s request that the Experts present their final report and recommendations to the Bureau, the Assembly, the Court, and other stakeholders no later than September 30, 2020.

On October 7, 2020, a Committee established by the Dutch Minister of Culture, Education, and Science  called for the return of cultural objects stolen from former colonies that are currently held in the Netherlands. The Committee’s recommendations highlight the impact of colonialism on local populations, including those in  the, Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Suriname, and call for the Netherlands to rectify this “historical injustice,” and demand the unconditional return of stolen cultural objects.

On October 28, 2020, prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charging eight persons with conspiring to act in the U.S. as illegal agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).[1] In addition, the complaint charges six defendants with related charges of conspiring to commit interstate and international stalking. According to the complaint, the defendants acted at the direction and under the control of PRC government officials to surveil and harass, stalk, and coerce certain residents of the U.S. in an effort to force them to return to the PRC to face criminal charges. The campaign is part of a global, concerted, and extralegal repatriation initiative known as “Operation Fox Hunt.”[2]

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2020)3 to Member States concerning the practical application of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and the Additional Protocol thereto. The Recommendation was adopted by the Committee of Ministers on July 1, 2020 at the 1380th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies.

In a resolution adopted on July 10, 2020, with 534 votes to 25 and 122 abstentions, Members of the European Parliament welcomed the European Commission’s Action Plan on how to fight effectively against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML-TF resolution) and highlighted the most pressing changes needed to achieve an efficient EU framework.

The Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which contains several controversial provisions, had its 2nd Reading in the UK House of Commons on September 23, 2020 and started its Committee stage on October 6. The Government presented the Bill on March 18, 2020.[1]

                On October 22, 2020, the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Goldman Sachs or the Company), a global financial institution headquartered in New York, New York, and Gold Sachs (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. (GS Malaysia), its Malaysian subsidiary, settled criminal charges. The settlement required them to admit to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)in connection with a scheme to pay one billion dollars in bribes to high-ranking government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to obtain valuable business for Goldman Sachs, underwriting approximately $6.5 billion in three bond deals for 1Malasyia Development Bhd. (1MDB). Goldman Sachs earned hundreds of millions in fees on the deals.  Goldman Sachs will pay more than $2.9 billion as part of a coordinated resolution with criminal and civil authorities in the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, and elsewhere.[1]

On October 14, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, J&F Investimentos SA (J&F), a multinational enterprise headquarters in Brazil and engaged primarily in meat and agriculture businesses, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The plea requires it to pay a criminal fine of more than $256 million. The charges concern schemes by J&F to pay millions of dollars in bribes to Brazilian government officials through, inter alia, bank accounts based in New York.[1] Simultaneously J&F entered into a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).