On July 19, 2023, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated as Specially Designated nationals (SDNs) for international drug trafficking, including cocaine and fentanyl.  The persons designated are allegedly involved in the importation and distribution of narcotics destined for U.S. and European markets. [1]

  On July 18, 2023, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered, in open Court, its judgment confirming, by majority, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I’s decision granting authorization to the ICC Prosecutor to resume the investigations in relation to the situation in the Republic of the Philippines (the “Philippines”).[1]

On July 10, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of Gal Luft, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who serves as the co-director a Maryland-based think tank for allegedly participating in several international criminal activities.

 

On July 14, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Estonia has extradited a Russian citizen with alleged links to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and would be arraigned that day on conspiracy and other charges related to a global procurement and money laundering network on behalf of the Russian government.[1]

On July 12, 2023, the Italian authorities rearrested Frank Butselaar, a Dutch tax advisor, for participating in a conspiracy to commit tax fraud on behalf of U.S. taxpayers.  Butselaar advised high-net-worth DJs and fashion industry clients who earned income internationally.  The clients earned millions of dollars each year.  In certain years, the clients became U.S. tax residents and, as a result, were required to report and pay U.S. taxes on their worldwide income. 

On June 22, 2023, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted by consensus a resolution on the eighth biennial review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (UNGCTS).

   On July 4, 2023, the British Government extradited a 52-year-old- British citizen to Denmark to face charges of contributing to aggravated fraud amounting to more than nine billion kroner and attempted fraud of an especially serious kind amount to more than 500 million kroner.[1]

    On July 10, 2023, the United States Department of Justice announced the European Commission’s adoption on the same day of an adequacy decision for the U.S. as part of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), to which President Biden and European Commission President von der Leyen agreed in March 2022.  The adequacy decision enables the European Union to transfer personal data from EU countries to the U.S. for commercial purposes.[1]

            On June 12, 2023, the prosecutor’s office in the Suwon district of South Korea     announced an indictment against a 65-year old former high-level executive of “the world’s number one market share holder in the memory and semiconductors field” on charges of corporate spying and data theft.   Based on the description provided in the announcement and comments from people familiar with the matter, the company in question is Samsung.^[1]

 

On May 24, fugitive Fulgence Kayishema was arrested on a grape farm in Paarl, a town outside of Cape Town.  He was caught operating under the alias Donatien Nibashumba, a Burundian national, one of many false identities that he used while on the run.  The arrest was the result of joint efforts by a multinational team, made possible by the collaboration between the South African police force and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR), and later with the Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunal (RMCT).