Practically every country has a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and it plays a vital role in combating money laundering and other financial crimes. Yet there is often confusion – even among anti-corruption authorities – about how it works, what it can and can’t do, and what value it brings.
Thierry Ravalomanda, Senior Asset Recovery Specialist offers a quick overview.
Sophisticated and complex financial crimes span the globe. “Following the trail of the money” can involve many jurisdictions, each with their own laws and practices, and varying capacity or willingness to cooperate internationally.
Fighting corruption and money laundering, and recovering criminal proceeds, are therefore complex challenges. Specialised legal, financial accounting, analytical and investigation skills are essential.
This quick guide offers a short introduction to illicit enrichment laws, which are emerging as a powerful tool to combat corruption and recover stolen assets. Originally published in May 2019, it was updated in June 2021 following the Basel Institute’s publication of an open-access book on Illicit Enrichment: a Guide to Laws Targeting Unexplained Wealth.
Jacopo Costa, Senior Research Fellow, offers this quick guide to social network analysis (SNA). He explains how it can help us to better understand and tackle the transnational organised crime and dark networks that sustain corruption, money laundering and illicit trafficking.
Gemma Aiolfi, Head of Compliance and Collective Action, explains that anti-corruption compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. Even small and mid-sized companies can easily build the basics of an effective anti-corruption compliance programme.
Find out five simple things a business leader can do to raise integrity in an organisation.
Manuel Medina, specialised Intelligence Analyst for our Illegal Wildlife Trade programme, sets out the basics of intelligence analysis and why we do it. Key questions are:
This quick guide to cryptocurrencies and money laundering investigations addresses the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Monero to facilitate serious crimes or to launder stolen money. It was originally published in March 2019 and updated in August 2023.
It explores, in brief:
An intensive Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery training programme by our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) training team in Kosovo last week had a novel twist: the participants had the opportunity to discuss and explore ways to use the country’s new Law of Extended Powers on Confiscation of Assets.
Conservationists and public health experts alike have welcomed the recent renewed commitment by the Chinese government to eliminate illegal wildlife trade in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency.
Swiss politician and businesswoman Magdalena Martullo-Blocher once confronted her managers with a strange question: “What do you do when the beamer [projector] breaks down?” She was looking for creative solutions to a relatively minor problem, though this seemed to baffle her team when she asked the question.
She certainly wasn’t demanding a business continuity plan, which is on an altogether different scale compared to a broken projector.