Day: July 30, 2020

A report from OCCRP on 30 July says that much less is known about Italy’s Chinese organised crime groups than the country’s more famous home-grown mafias, with previous research into Chinese organised crime focusing mainly on the Hong Kong triads and their offshoots in London, New York and California. However, it is said that Chinese organised crime has been operating in Italy since the 1990s, smuggling people and trafficking drugs, but Italian law enforcement has struggled to investigate them, with crimes done within the Chinese community, with only a handful of non-Chinese victims out of hundreds of violent acts. However, the report focuses on a new case, and a network based on a Rome-based transport company Euro Anda SRL, with branches run by front men in Paris in France, Neuss in Germany and Madrid and Barcelona in Spain., with the gang being accused of smuggling counterfeit Gucci, Fendi, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana goods imported from China around Europe.

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/murder-drugs-and-extortion-in-tuscanys-chinese-underworld

On 30 July, US law firm Morgan Lewis published a July update of its April 2020 presentation which highlights the most recent developments and then provides a detailed overview of the relevant frameworks and their possible implications—including a focus on the energy sector (as of 28 July).   The pdf of the slides are made available (89 in all!).

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/us-and-eu-russia-sanctions-update-67129/

On 30 July, Breaking News in Ireland reported that the SFO in the UK had charged the former boss of an Airbus subsidiary with corruption over work the company did for the Saudi Arabian military. Jeffrey Cook, the former MD of GPT Special Project Management, is charged over contracts awarded to the company between January 2007 and December 2012 – as well as a separate charge of misconduct in public office over commission he was paid between 2004 and 2008 while working for the MoD. Corruption charges have also been brought against John Mason, the financial officer and part-owner of GPT subcontractors Simec and Duranton, as well as against GPT itself.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/business/airbus-subsidiary-charged-with-corruption-over-saudi-arabia-contracts-1012754.html

An article in the Irish Times on 30 July reported that examples of false evidence given at tribunals down the decades was raised as the parliament debated legislation on perjury, on course to be passed earlier this year but lapsed because the general election was called.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/perjury-legislation-aims-to-tackle-insurance-fraud-1.4317604

On 30 July, EU Regulation 2020/1124/EU had the effect of adding Bryan D’ANCONA, a French national, to the sanctions lists.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2020.246.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2020:246:TOC

On 30 July, an article from Bird & Bird reported that the Court of Appeal has confirmed that HMRC are entitled to conduct an informal investigation into a taxpayer’s affairs outside of their formal enquiry powers.  The case involved centred on HMRC’s ancillary powers which allow it to do anything which they think is necessary, expedient, incidental or conducive for the exercise of their statutory functions.  The firm warns that, while one of the advantages to taxpayers of being within a formal enquiry is that they will have access to certain statutory protections, not least the right to ask the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) to close the enquiry altogether, a result of the Court of Appeal’s decision is foreseeable to be that HMRC will begin to conduct informal investigations with new-found confidence (knowing that the bar for successful judicial review in such cases has been set very high).

https://www.twobirds.com/en/news/articles/2020/uk/hmrcs-informal-investigation-powers-confirmed-by-the-court-of-appeal

On 30 July, EU Regulation 2020/1125/EU and Council Decision 2020/1127/CFSP have imposed sanctions (an asset freeze and travel ban) on 6 individuals and 3 entities responsible for various cyber attacks – ‘WannaCry‘, ‘NotPetya‘, and ‘Operation Cloud Hopper‘.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32020R1125&from=EN

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32020D1127&from=EN

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2020/07/30/eu-imposes-the-first-ever-sanctions-against-cyber-attacks

An article in The Wire in India on 30 July reported that the Pakistani team is facing a threat of a different kind from a company based in Isle Man, which has threatened to seize the team’s assets over its dispute with Pakistan. It is said that the company had won an arbitration case against the state of Pakistan and ahs reportedly sought court orders instructing professional bailiffs “to seize the assets of the Pakistani cricket team”. The team is currently in the UK preparing for a Test series against England. Pakistan had hired the company in 2000, a year after a military coup, to investigate corruption allegations against public officials, and with the task to help track down assets of politicians, generals and officials in the US and UK at its own expense – in return for 20% of any sums recovered from the designated targets. The company was formed in the Isle of Man, but entered liquidation proceedings in the Isle of Man in 2005, before being dissolved and then revived.

https://thewire.in/business/uk-company-threatens-to-seize-pakistan-cricket-teams-assets-over-dispute-with-state

On 30 July, The Shift reported that Malta has plummeted 60 places in a year in the Basel Institute’s Anti-Money Laundering Index, dropping from its “low risk” 113^th place in 2019 to 53^rd place in 2020. It now places Malta as the country with the highest risk within the EU.

https://theshiftnews.com/2020/07/30/malta-plummets-60-places-in-one-year-in-anti-money-laundering-index/

On 29 July, Newsmax quoted a former Obama Administration official as warning that the DPRK could buy equipment from Western or Chinese sources that would be necessary for their vaccine effort against the coronavirus, and then next year they could turn around and use it to produce biological weapons.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/north-korea-covid-vaccine-biological-weapons/2020/07/29/id/979631/