Within the context of the recently launched three-year initiative on "Mapping and Visualising Cross-Border Crime” funded by the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Program, experts from the International Centre for Asset recovery (ICAR) conducted its first training workshop in Bucharest during 21-23 April 2015.

In partnership with two Romanian non-for-profit organisations, the Journalism Development Network (JDN) and the Rise Project, the Basel Institute aims to enhance the investigative and research skills of journalists, civil society activists and law enforcement in Romania to detect and uncover local and cross-border illicit networks, and to increase the exposure of organised crime structures as well as their modus of operandi.

The training workshop covered a variety of topics such as financial investigative techniques and asset recovery, an introduction to ICAR’s existing tools that support these investigative processes such as its Asset Recovery Intelligence System (ARIS), JDN’s research platform “Investigative Dashboard” and online data visualisation platform “Visual Investigation Scenarios”. It also dealt with the potential use of offshore structures and the virtual currency, Bitcoin, for money laundering purposes. It was attended by 32 participants, including investigative journalists, law enforcement officers and bankers from the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, Directorate for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorist Offences, General Inspectorate of the Police (Organised Crime and Economic Crime Investigation Service), National Bank of Romania, Financial Supervisory Authority and Court of Accounts. This diverse mix of attendees provided for a unique networking experience.