On December 6, 2023, United States law enforcement authorities unsealed two separate indictments against Hans Maria De Geetere, 61, of Knokke-Heist, Belgium, charging him with crimes concerning a years-long scheme to unlawfully export sensitive, military-grade technology from the U.S. to end users located in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation.

On December 4, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the start of a Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force to assemble Treasury’s resources and expertise in a coordinated and streamlined operation to combat the trafficking of illicit fentanyl.  

On December 4, 2023, Swiss private bank Banque Pictet et Cie SA (hereafter “Pictet”)entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York for conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to conceal more than $5.6 billion in 1,637 secret bank accounts in Switzerland and elsewhere and to hide the income generated in those accounts from the IRS.[1]

On December 5, 2023, U.S. law enforcement authorities announced the unsealing of a two-count indictment in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, charging Vladimir Jovancic, 52, a national of Bosnia and Herzegovina residing in Serbia with obstructing justice[1] and helping a Russian defendant escape from Italian custody[2] where he was involved in an extradition proceeding on U.S. charges.[3]

On September 14, 2023, the Human Rights Council held its biennial panel discussion on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, under the theme of the impact of unilateral coercive measures and over-compliance on the right to development[1] and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

As gang and gun violence surges in the Western Hemisphere, Sir Ronald Sanders, in his capacity as president of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) convened a special meeting on November 1, 2023.  

On December 1, 2023, the United States government deported a former Chilean Army officer from Florida to Chile to answer criminal charges in the kidnapping, torture, and killing of a popular singer and prison director in the aftermath of the 1973 military coup which overthrew the administration of Chilean President Salvador Allende.

  On November 20, 2023, the Danish Supreme Court overruled a lower court decision and order a large Danish law firm Bech-Bruun to pay DKK 400 million (approximately $58.6 million) for its advise to Germany’s North Channel Bank about cum ex-dividend transactions

 On November 30, 2023, the Twenty-Eighth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) adopted a decision titled “Addressing the Threat from Chemical Weapons Use and the Threat of Future Use."

                On November 22, 2023, the Financial Action Task Force released a joint 62-page report with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) holistically examining money laundering and financial crime risks associated with investment migration programs, including risks related to foreign bribery, fraud, and corruption, alongside other policy considerations related to public integrity, tax, and migration.