In August, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the extradition of two Russian citizens for cybercrime and money laundering. On August 5, 2022, the DOJ announced that Greece had extradited a Russian citizen the previous day  for operating an illicit cryptocurrency exchange BTC-3.[1]  On August 17, 2022, the DOJ announced that Netherlands extradited, that week, a Russian citizen to face charges of money laundering from cryptocurrency.[2]

On October 6, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will hear arguments in two consolidated appeals that together raise an unusually broad array of issues peculiar to efforts by the Department of Justice (DoJ) to prosecute alleged offenders of federal criminal laws even when they have few contacts with the United States.  Both appeals are by the DoJ from separate decisions of Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt of the Southern District of Texas dismissing “for lack of jurisdiction” an indictment as against two European citizens.

On August 10, 2022, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Shahran Poursafi (or Mehdi Rezayi) of Tehran, Iran for his alleged attempt to arrange the murder of former National Security Advisor John Bolton.  The indictment alleges that Poursafi, working on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force (IRGC-QF), attempted to pay individuals in the U.S. $300,000 to carry out the assassination of John Bolton in Washington D.C. or Maryland.

On August 10, 2022 the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the United Kingdom (UK) extradited three Nigerian citizens wanted by the United States in connection to their alleged participation in multimillion-dollar cyber-enabled business email compromise (BEC) fraud schemes in the Eastern District of Virginia, the Western District of North Carolina, and the Southern District of Texas.  The defendants and their co-conspirators allegedly targeted unsuspecting victims, including universities in Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas, and tried to cause more than $5 million in losses.[1]

On August 15, 2022, the Israel Tax Authority announced the arrest of three suspects in a money laundering scheme involving tens of millions of shekels using complex arrangements of crypto-graphic currencies.  The arrests follow a joint investigation by the Israel Police and the Israel Tax Authority and cooperation with Europol and the French Police, as well as the Cyber Department and the International Department of the State Attorney’s Office.[1]

On August 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it received court authorization to seize an Airbus A319-100 (the Airbus) owned and controlled by sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrei Skoch, pursuant to a seizure warrant from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  The warrant found that the airplane is subject to seizure and forfeiture based on probable cause of violation of U.S. anti-money laundering laws.[1]

On August 9, 2022, President Joseph Biden  signed into law the CHIPS Act of 2022.  It enables the U.S. Government a primary role in deciding which chip makers will benefit from the legislation’s funding.  It also gives the Department of Commerce the authority to review future company investments in sensitive countries (e.g., China) and to claw back funds from any firm that it deems to have violated its rules.  The law also authorizes the Commerce Department to update the rules for foreign investment in the future.  The law also requires Federal research agencies to prohibit participation in “foreign talent recruit programs” and requires Federal research agencies to create policies to prohibit awards to individuals party to a “malign foreign talent recruitment program.”  To a large extent the new law is an adjunct to the “Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats,” which Matthew Olsen, the new head of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, announced on February 23, 2022 replaced the China Initiative.  This article discusses the restrictive parts of the CHIPS Act. 

On July 8, 2022, the Colombian Attorney General announced that, through the Specialized Unit against Human Rights Crimes and with the National Police, it succeeded in arresting three persons whose extradition the United States has requested for transporting skins of exotic animals and endangered species.[1]

On August 2, 2022, the Guatemalan National Civil Police (PNC) executed a significant enforcement operation targeting a transnational human smuggling organization.  The operation was conducted with extensive cooperation from the United States and led to the arrest of four alleged human smugglers indicted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA).  In total, the Guatemalan authorities detained 19 alleged members of Alfa Siete, a gang generating nearly $2 million from human smuggling to the U.S.[1]

On June 8, 2022, the Clooney Foundation for Justice published a report, documenting the harms created by looting of antiquities as a weapon of war and a major source of financing state and non-state armed groups in conflicts in the Middle East.  The report makes a number of excellent recommendations.