On December 5, 2017, the European Council issued its conclusions on the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.  The conclusions also set forth the criteria and proposed sanctions for the countries blacklisted.

The reasons the EU has developed its program and list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes is to combat tax evasion and avoidance and enable the EU to more robustly combat external threats to EU Members’ tax bases and third countries that “consistently refuse to play fair on tax matters.”  Until now, EU Members have had a patchwork approach to dealing with tax havens, which has had limited impact.  The Commission in its External Strategy for Effective Taxation suggested that a common EU list could be a more effective means of dealing with countries that encourage abusive tax practices.

The Council of Europe’s (CoE) European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC) held its 73rd plenary session from November 28 to December 1, 2017, in Strasbourg, Germany.

At the opening address,Mr. Jan Kleijssen, Director of the Information Society and Action against Crime Directorate, presented the conclusions of the 2nd International Conference on Terrorism and Organized Crime, jointly organized by the Criminal Law and Counter-Terrorism Divisions of the CoE in cooperation with the City Hall and the University of Malaga (September 21-22, 2017). The conclusions highlight the need to both develop and implement appropriate and specialized investigative tools capable of coping with the evolution in crime problems. The conclusions also noted the intention to set up a joint working group of CODEXTER and CDPC experts aimed at dealing with topics of common interest.

On November 30, 2017, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that she had decided to close the Preliminary Examination into the Comoros situation, more commonly known as the situation relating to incidents aboard the Mavi Marmara. The decision, which was filed with Pre-Trial Chamber I on November 29, 2017, has been described by the ICC Prosecutor as “final,” and subject only to the OTP’s ongoing discretion under Article 53(4) of the Rome Statute – the Court's founding treaty – to reconsider a decision not to proceed on the basis of new facts or information. Annexed to the decision is a 145-page report explaining the Prosecutor’s position in detail.

 On November 15, 2017, after a two-week trial, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found Luis Diaz Jr. and Luis Javier Diaz, owners of Miami Equipment and Export Company (“Miami Equipment”), guilty of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and international money laundering in connection with their transmission of over $100 million from foreign businesses into and through the U.S. financial system.  In addition, the jury convicted Diaz Jr. of conspiracies to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and engage in international money laundering.

On November 21, 2017, an indictment was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against an Iranian national, Behzad Mesri, 29, also known as “Skote Vahshat,” for his involvement in a scheme to obtain unauthorized access to the computer systems of Home Box Office, Inc. (“HBO”), steal proprietary data from those systems, and obtain $6 million worth of Bitcoin from HBO through extortion by threatening to disseminate stolen content.  After HBO did not meet his demands, Mesri leaked the stolen content on the Internet, including but not limited to confidential information about future episodes of the popular television series, “Games of Thrones,” and video files containing unreleased episodes of other television series of HBO.

On November 21, 2017, a criminal complaint was unsealed, charging the head of a non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong and Virginia and the former Foreign Minister of Senegal with participating in a multi-year, multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe high-level officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for a Chinese oil and gas company, which is apparently CEFC China Energy Company CEFCCEC).

On November 22, 2017, in the final trial of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Ratko Mladić, former Commander of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war.  Trial Chamber I sentenced Mladić to life imprisonment for the crimes that were committed by Serb forces during the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from 1992 until 1995. On the ICTY website are five volumes of the judgment.

Late October 2017, the Sixth Committee (“Legal”) of the United Nations General Assembly concluded its debate on several items on its agenda during the seventy-second session, including the immunity of state officials from criminal investigation and prosecution, particularly for the most serious international crimes,

On October 19, 2017, Canada’s “Magnitsky-style” law, the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act (Sergei Magnitsky Law) received royal assent and came into force. Consistent with the category of legislation identified with its namesake, the Magnitsky Law was enacted as a criminal law to prevent and combat gross human rights violations such as those suffered by the Russian tax lawyer. Mr. Sergei Magnitsky was detained for 11 months and eventually tortured to his death in a Moscow prison in 2009 for his role in uncovering a $230 million tax fraud scheme involving various high level Russian officials. This relatively brief legislation commences with an extraordinary 600-word Preamble that reads like an historical narrative of – and tribute to – Sergei Magnitsky, Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Nemtsov and Nadiya Savchenko. It is the exercise of legislation to serve as political condemnation of Russia for “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Canada is the fourth country to enact such legislation, following the lead of the United States, the United Kingdom and Estonia.