Experts in law enforcement, money laundering investigations and cryptocurrencies will meet in the Hague on 6–7 March 2019 for the 3rd Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies.

Co-founded and co-organised by the Basel Institute on Governance, the conference is hosted by Europol and Interpol on alternate years. The 2019 conference will be held at the Europol headquarters.

Up to 200 representatives of law enforcement agencies from all over the world are due to attend the conference. Their aim is to share experiences on developments in Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) and the soaring number of money laundering investigations that involve cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. In this fast-changing field, it's vital to exchange expertise on challenges in cryptocurrency-related investigations and how to overcome them.

Representatives from cryptocurrency exchanges and custodial wallet providers will also contribute to the conference, as they play a key role in combating misuse of these new payment methods.

Among other topics on the agenda are:

• tackling the virtual assets phenomenon from the financial investigation perspective;
• how criminals are using cryptocurrencies to launder money
• how criminals launder their crypto proceeds;
• techniques for tracing, freezing and seizing virtual assets;
• how cryptocurrencies can be abused for terrorism financing purposes.

The Basel Institute's chief cryptocurrency expert, Senior Financial Investigation Specialist Federico Paesano, will be present at the conference and making opening remarks. As well as training law enforcement agencies and others worldwide in financial investigation techniques, Federico co-leads an open course on blockchain and AML aimed at FinTech, RegTech and compliance professionals. The next course will be held in Zurich on 25-26 February 2019.