On August 19, 2022, the United States Court in Philadelphia awarded $84 million to four victims of the Lutheran Church Massacre on civilians during the Liberian civil wars.  The ruling will impose pressure on the Liberian courts and government to enforce the award or take enforcement action of their own.

On September 15, 2022, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) sent down a decision ordering Europol to hand over their stored data of Dutch activist Frank Van der Linde to him.  The decision is the culmination of two year long investigation which also revealed that Europol tried to delete Van der Linde’s data to avoid complying with supervision.[1]

On September 15, 2022, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced resolutions with GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL), an airline headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, whereby GOL will pay more than $41 million to resolve parallel bribery investigations by criminal and civil authorities in the U.S. and Brazil.  Court documents indicate that GOL entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the DOJ in connection with criminal information filed in the District of Maryland charging the company with conspiracy to violate the antibribery and books and records provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).[1]

On September 12, 2022, a  United Arab Emirates court denied the extradition request by Denmark for Dubai to extradite British national Sanjay Shah, the principal suspect in a Danish cum-ex dividend tax fraud cause.[1]   On September 16, a Dubai court ordered Shah and several other people and companies connected to him to repay Denmark more than 8 billion kroner ($1.1 billion).[2]

On September 16, the United States Department of Justice announce significant new actions concerning digital assets, including the public release of its report, pursuant to the President’s March 9 Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets, on The Role of Law Enforcement in Detecting Investigation, and Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related to Digital Assets; and the establishment of the nationwide Digital Asset Coordinator (DAC) Network, in furtherance of the DOJ’s efforts to comb at the increasing threat posed by the illicit use of digital assets to the U.S. public.[1]

On September 12, Liberian President George Weah accepted the resignations of two of three senior officials following corruption allegations levied against all of them by the United States.  On August 15, the Department of the Treasury announced the imposition of sanctions on Nathanial McGill, Weah’s Chief of Staff, Sayma Syrenius Cephus, Chief Prosecutor of Liberia, and Bill Twehway, the Managing Director of the National Port Authority.[1]

On September 14, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed the unsealing of indictments in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey against three Iranian nationals for allegedly devising and implementing a scheme to hack into computer networks of multiple U.S. victims and try to extort money from them.[1]   Simultaneously, the Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned ten individuals, including the three indictees, and two entities for their roles in perpetrating malicious cyber acts, including ransomware activity.[2]

On August 26, 2022, Latvia extradited Ivars Auzins, a citizen of Latvia, to the United States to answer a six-count indictment charging him with wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracies to commit wire fraud and securities fraud in connection with the operation of eight companies purporting to offer, invest in, or mine digital assets.  Auzins was arraigned in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York on August 27 before Judge Roanne L. Mann.[1]

On August 31, 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Mrs. Michelle Bachelet, released a report into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). She has concluded that crimes against humanity against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.[1]

On August 24, 2022, Jose Manuel Perez, also known as “Julio Rodriguez,” 30 years of age, pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for illegally importing into the United States more than 1,700 wild animals, including 60 reptiles found hidden in his clothes earlier this year at the U.S.-Mexico border.  From Oxnard in Ventura County, Perez pleaded guilty to two counts of smuggling goods into the U.S. and one count of wildlife trafficking.[1]