On March 3, 2020, the English High Court issued its decision on when the fraud or other iniquity exception overrides the legal professional privilege. The case concerns advice given by the defendant, Dentons Europe LLP, to its former client, Anabus Holdings Limited (“Anabus”).  The claimants in the case are 240 investors whom Anabus invited to invest in gold dust (“the scheme”).  Beginning in the spring of 2010, an agent and network of introducers promoted the scheme.  The scheme closed in October 2010.  Despite the promises of payment, a majority of investors claim the scheme was fraudulent and they lost collectively $6.5 million.[1]

On December 19, 2019, the United States Congress adopted the historic bipartisan Global Fragility Act (GFA), as part of the 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act.  The GFA established the first-ever U.S. government strategy to tackle alarming levels of global violence around the world. The violence is causing unimaginable suffering and instability, with almost 70 million people around the world trying to flee the violence.

On January 30, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and M.Y. Safra Bank, FSB, New York, entered into a consent order concerning alleged violations  of the Bank Secrecy Act/antimony laundering (BSA/AML) compliance program requirements, 12 U.S.C. § 1818(s), 12 C.F.R. § 21.21 and those related to the failure to monitor and investigate suspicious transactions and timely file suspicious activity reports (“SAR”), 12 C.F.R. § 163.180 and for noncompliance with the Operating Agreement.[1]

On March 2, 2020, the United Department of Justice unsealed a two-count indictment in the District of Columbia, charging two Chinese nationals with laundering more than $100 million worth of cryptocurrency from a hack of a cryptocurrency exchange.[1] A civil forfeiture complaint also unsealed on March 3 alleges that North Korean actors stole the funds in 2018.[2]

On March 5, 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a week earlier British authorities arrested Oleg Tinkov, the founder of a Russian bank, charging him with filing false tax returns.[1]   DOJ officials unsealed the September 26, 2019 indictment.[2]

On March 5, 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) decided unanimously to authorize the Prosecutor to commence an investigation into alleged crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court in relation to the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (hereinafter: Afghanistan).[1]

On February 26, 2020, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed a fine of $450,000 against former compliance officer Michael LaFontaine, after he agreed that since he left employment with U.S. Bank in June 2014, he has not performed a compliance management function for any “financial institution.” LaFontaine also agreed that, if FinCEN files a complaint against him seeking injunctive relief he will consent to an order requiring him to comply with this undertaking.[1]

On January 10, 2020, the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leona (RSCSL) granted the application of inmate Augustine Gbao for conditional early release from his confinement in Rwanda.[1] In March 2009, the majority of Trial Chamber I of the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Gbao on 14 counts and sentenced him to a total term of 25 years of imprisonment on April 8, 2009, with credit given for time already served in custody.  On October 26, 2009, the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone upheld the sentence.

On March 3, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union, Grand Chamber, (the Court) delivered a judgment giving its interpretation of one of the key concepts underlying the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) scheme based on the 2002 Framework Decision (EAW FD),^[1] that is, the “double (dual) criminality.” This is not the first time that the Court has been called to clarify the legal elements of the EAW procedure.^[2]

On March 3, 2020, the Spanish government approved an extradition request from the United States for General Hugo Carvajal, Venezuela’s former intelligence chief.  However, he has now disappeared to an unknown location.[1] His extradition is sought for drug trafficking crimes.  One indictment accuses him of coordinating a 5,600kg (12,345lb) shipment of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico.[2] The 2006 New York indictment alleges Carvajal assisted Walid Makled to smuggle cocaine found in Mexico inside a DC-9 plane.[3]