On May 10, the United States Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and other federal law enforcement agencies completed the annual Money Mule Initiative, which identifies, disrupts, and criminally prosecutes networks of individuals who send funds from fraud victims to international fraudsters. Fraudsters depend on money mules to facilitate a range of fraud schemes, including ones that mainly impact older Americans, such as lottery fraud, romance scams, and grandparent scams, and persons who target businesses or government pandemic funds.

        On May 7, 2024, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the unsealing of charges against a Russian national for his alleged role as the creator, developer, and administrator of the LockBit ransomware group from its start in September 2019.  LockBit is believed to be the most prolific ransomware group in the world.

        On Thursday, May 2, 2024, President Joseph Bokai signed an executive order to establish a war crimes court in Liberia. The establishment of this court is in direct response to Liberia’s back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003, where over 250,000 people were killed, and sexual violence and torture ran rampant in the country.

        In recent months, there has been considerable activity in Liberia and in The Gambia towards establishing courts of a criminal remit to prosecute and try those allegedly responsible for having carried out war crimes, crimes against humanity, human rights violations and other serious and heinous crimes in these two West African countries.

        On April 30, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an 15–1 Order rejecting a request by Nicaragua for the indication of provisional measures in connection with claims relating to Germany’s support for Israel in the ongoing Gaza conflict. It is recalled that on March 1, 2024, Nicaragua filed an Application instituting proceedings against Germany concerning alleged violations by Germany of its obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, “intransgressible principles of international humanitarian law” and other norms of general international law in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly the Gaza Strip.

        Amid concern from Caribbean governments over the destabilizing potential of U.S. firearm exportations, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released on April 30, 2024 an interim final rule (IFR) on controls of firearms and related items in BIS’ scope.  Guided by a working group headed by the U.S. Department of State, the IFR tightens licensing and export restrictions on firearms for 36 countries.

        On April 3, 2024, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court rendered a judgement on tax administrative assistance, regarding the topics of fishing expeditions and attorney-client privilege between U.S. lawyers and their Swiss clients.  The event that triggered the case was a request for administrative assistance from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA), regarding a U.S. taxpayer (hereafter: the Taxpayer). 

        After the bribery and money laundering accusations, Polit was arrested in March 2022. Court documents and evidence presented at the trial show that, between 2010 to 2015, Carlos Roman Polit Faggioni, 73, solicited and received over $10 million in bribe payments from Odebrecht  S.A., the Brazil-based construction multinational.