On February 12, 2018, the Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and other law enforcement officials announced the unsealing of an indictment against five former Venezuelan government officials for their alleged participation in an international money laundering scheme involving bribes made to corruptly secure energy contracts from Venezuela’s state-owned and state-controlled energy company, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA).  Two of the defendants are also charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

On February 6, 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “Beneficial Ownership: Fighting Illicit International Financial Networks Through Transparency.” The hearing was the latest in a series of hearing on the issue of anonymous corporations.                

On February 1, 2018, the Ireland’s Supreme Court  delivered its decision in the case Minister for Justice and Equality v. O’Connor. The Court refused to extradite an Irish businessman to the United Kingdom upon a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by the London court. At the same time, the Court ruled that the case should be referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg.

On January 4, 2018, a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee, returned a 14-count superseding indictment unsealed on January 19, 2018, charging seven individuals for their roles in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) and drug trafficking conspiracy to distribute and dispense oxycodone, oxymorphone and morphine outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, and resulting in deaths, maintenance of drug involved premises, distribution of oxycodone resulting in death, conspiracy to defraud the United States through the solicitation and receipt of illegal healthcare kickbacks and money laundering.

On February 5, 2018, the High Court of Justice Queen’s Bench Division issued a judgment and opinion overturning the lower court’s decision to extradite to the U.S. Lauri Love, a dual national of the U.K. and Finland, on the basis that such extradition would be oppressive by reason of his physical and mental condition.

On February 5, 2018, Judge Brian M. Cogan of the U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York issued an order that the case will be heard by an anonymous and partly sequestered jury.

On January 18, 2018, Italian law enforcement arrested thirty-three people in Tuscany, Italy on suspicion of being members of the Chinese mafia.

In September 2017, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published its report on the law and practice of states pertaining to national security-based transfers of a variety of persons across borders. Composed of 60 eminent judges and lawyers from all regions of the world, the International Commission of Jurists promotes and protects human rights through the Rule of Law, by using its unique legal expertise to develop and strengthen national and international justice systems.

On June 25, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Brinkema in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Hyong Kwon Kim, a citizen of South Korea and, since 1998, a legal permanent resident of the United States, who resided in Massachusetts and later in Connecticut, to serve a sentence of six-months imprisonment for failing to report accounts in Switzerland with a value exceeding $28 million.  The sentence took into account Kim’s cooperation with the government, which occurred for more than a five-year span.

At its 9^th sitting held on January 26, 2018, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted Recommendation 2123 (2018) calling for strengthening international regulations against trade in goods used for torture and the death penalty. The debate and recommendation were based on a Report prepared by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.