FEDERAL COURT

Malaysian ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak has begun a 12-year prison sentence after losing his final appeal in a graft case linked to the looting of the 1MDB state fund, with the top court unanimously upholding his conviction and sentence.

Former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown on Wednesday returned to federal court where she pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud in her federal case, admitting that she lied to the IRS about deductions that were made.

Australia’s highest court has rejected a challenge to foreign interference laws in a case that involved a U.S. conservative political organization and free speech arguments.

Australia’s largest electricity generator AGL Energy has taken Greenpeace to court alleging breaches of copyright and trademark laws by the environmental group.

An Australian court has rejected a challenge to the federal government’s draconian power to prevent most citizens from leaving the country so they don’t bring COVID-19 home.

Australia’s largest telecommunications company Telstra has been fined 50 million Australian dollars ($39 million) for unconscionable conduct in selling remote Indigenous customers mobile phone contracts that they did not understand and could not afford.

Ghislaine Maxwell has faced her trial judge in person for the first time as lawyers squabble over exactly when she should be tried on sex trafficking charges alleging that she procured teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse at his posh residences.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended that retired Navy Capt. John Nettleton be sentenced to more than three years in prison on charges stemming from the 2015 death of a civilian employee at Guantanamo Bay – the base Nettleton commanded. Nettleton and Tur were in a fight two nights before the Coast Guard found Tur’s body floating in the bay. In a sentencing memo filed Thursday, the DOJ recommended Nettleton serve between 37 and 46 months. “There is no question that John R. Nettleton (“Defendant”) misled, concealed, and lied about facts he knew regarding the disappearance and death of Christopher Tur (“Tur”),” the memo states.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The COVID-19 pandemic has led to another delay for the federal sentencing of retired Navy Capt. John Nettleton, on charges stemming from the 2015 death of a civilian employee at Guantanamo Bay – the base Nettleton commanded. In January, a federal jury in Jacksonville convicted Nettleton on six of the eight charges he faced. In light of the pandemic, federal courts have been holding some sentencing hearings via video, rather than in person. The sentencing hearing is now set for Oct. 8 at 9:30 a.m.

This week, the Federal Court ordered Air Canada to pay more than $15,000 ($21,000 CAD) and send formal apology letters to a French-speaking couple in Ottawa for repeated language equality violations. The couple also alleged violations of their French language rights on the airline in 2005, 2011 and 2012. Meanwhile, Air Canada said the plaintiffs was interpreting the country's Languages Act too strictly. Air Canada was ordered to pay $1,500 CAD for each of the Thibodeau's 14 successful complaints. "It's [Air Canada] that should be serving francophone customers in the same way that you're serving anglophone customers."