On May 6, 2020, INTERPOL announced that more than 19,000 artifacts and other artworks (including a Colombian gold mask, a carved Romanian lion, and thousands of ancient coins) had been recovered during two operations.[1] These operations, Athena II and Pandora IV, included INTERPOL, Europol, and the World Customs Organization (WCO) and spanned 103 countries to focus on the dismantlement of international criminal networks of art and antiquities traffickers. 

On May 7, 2020, the European Commission issued an Action Plan to provide concrete measures over the next 12 months.[1] It will strengthen its enforcement, supervision, and coordination of the EU’s rules to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

Law 32 of 1927 on Corporations was enacted 93 years ago and has remained without changes; always requiring that all corporate charters list the name of their resident agent as a point of contact between the government and owners who could be anywhere in the world.  Decree 147 of 1966, later specified that only a lawyer or law firm accredited in Panama could act as resident agent of a corporation.  As special laws were enacted for limited liability companies, trusts, and private interest foundations, the requirement of a law firm acting as resident agent subsisted and remaining associations and charities were exempt.[1]

On April 30, 2020, Bank Hapoalim B.M. (BHBM), an Israeli bank with international operations, and its willy owned subsidiary, Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. (BHS), have agreed to forfeit $20,733,322 and pay a fine of $9,329,995 to settle a criminal investigation into their participation in a money laundering conspiracy that were allegedly part of the FIFA international bribery scheme.[1]

On April 30, 2020, the U.S. government announced the guilty plea of Bank Hapoalim (Switzerland) Ltd. and filing of criminal charges against Bank Hapoalim B.M. for conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide more than $7.6 billion in more than 5,500 secret Swiss and Israeli bank accounts and the income made from these accounts from the Internal Revenue Service.[1]

On April 30, 2020, the German Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer banned all activities by the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah (in English: Party of God, also transliterated as Hizbollah and Hizbullah) in Germany. To ensure that evidence of potential sub-organizations in Germany could not be destroyed when this ban was announced, police authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bremen, and Berlin have been conducting searches at 6 a.m.  on a total of four association premises and the private residences of the leaders of each association.

On Friday, April 24, 2020, a former FBI agent was arrested near his home in Lafayette, California for allegedly accepting more than $200,000 in cash bribes and gifts for providing sensitive information to Armenian organized crime.[1]

On April 22, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit affirmed the dismissal by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for failure to state a claim of an action brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by Almaty, the capital city in Kazakhstan.[1]

As the frauds and related crimes from Covid-19 occur, international organizations worldwide are providing guidance and assistance to their members to prevent, investigate, and prosecute crimes arising from the pandemic.  This article looks in particular at the efforts of the Egmont Group, IOSCO, and Eurojust.

On April 8, 2020, the High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court overturned lower court’s orders in favor of Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWOs) and related interim freezing orders (IFOs).[1] The lower court issued the orders based on the applications of the National Crime Agency (“NCA”), which were filed without notice to the Respondents.  The Respondents applied to discharge the orders.