Open Government Partnership’s Post

Secrecy in financial systems in the U.S. and globally enables tax evasion, money laundering and corruption that benefits bad actors, including autocrats, at the expense citizens, democracy & security. As I join my The Brookings Institution Anti-Corruption, Democracy, & Security project (ACDS) colleagues in Vilnius this week at the International Anti-Corruption Conference (#IACC2024), we look forward to discussing our new article, “A better anti-corruption machine: Breakthroughs needed to fight illicit finance and protect democracy” with IACC participants & anti-corruption stakeholders m globally. The article illustrates the scope of publicly available beneficial ownership data from five country profiles, highlighting how public access to this information is essential to curb illicit finance & safeguarding democracy worldwide. Read the article here: https://lnkd.in/egA7__4B

Exciting News to start the Year! The USA has officially launched its Beneficial Ownership Registry, a significant move towards transparency and combating illicit finance. Better late than never! 🎉 The Corporate Transparency Act, enacted in 2021, is the driving force behind this registry. It mandates companies in the USA to report information about individuals who ultimately own or control them, helping curb money laundering, drug trafficking, terrorism, and corruption. 💼 Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen emphasizes the historic significance: "The launch of the United States' beneficial ownership registry marks a historic step forward to protect our economic and national security." Corporate anonymity is a thing of the past!? 💡 Filing is a breeze - simple, secure, and free of charge. Reporting companies must meet specific deadlines: Existing companies (created before January 1, 2024): File by January 1, 2025. Newly created or registered companies in 2024: File within 90 days of effective creation or registration notice. ⚰️ Say goodbye to anonymous shell companies! This registry deals a significant blow to unchecked money laundering by dictators and their cronies. Let's usher in an era of financial transparency and security! 💪🌐 Carole House Carol Van Cleef Dr Henry Balani #BeneficialOwnership #TransparencyMatters #FinancialSecurity #CorporateTransparencyAct #USABusiness 🇺🇸

This week in AML: Disinformation, Public Integrity, Foreign Investment, & More 📚 ✔George Mason University published a report about Anti-Muslim Discrimination and Information Manipulation ✔The Basel Institute on Governance reported on successful efforts to improve public integrity in Peru ✔The US Government Accountability Office issued a report on the need for more accurate data collection on foreign investment in US farmland Join John Byrne and Elliot Berman as they dive into these topics and explore their implications for our financial crime compliance community: https://lnkd.in/e-T3ernn #AMLRightSource #TWIA #FinancialCrimeCompliance

How to recover proceeds of #financialcrime like #moneylaundering? Financial Action Task Force (FATF) amends recommendations. Key Takeaways: In an era where criminals exploit technology to move assets across borders seamlessly, the revised FATF Recommendations empower countries to respond rapidly to criminal activity. Recognizing the inadequacy of current efforts, FATF made asset recovery a strategic priority under the Singapore Presidency, aiming to remove the financial incentive for criminal activity. These amendments represent the first significant overhaul of FATF Recommendations related to asset recovery since their inception in 1990, reflecting the necessity to adapt to the evolving landscape of global finance. Key Changes in the Amendments: 💼 Asset Recovery as a Priority: Countries are now mandated to prioritize asset recovery at both domestic and international levels, fostering a cultural shift in crime-fighting strategies. 🚫 Non-Conviction Based Confiscation: Introduction of a requirement for countries to establish a non-conviction-based confiscation regime, proving effective in combatting corruption-related crimes. 💰🚫Extended Confiscation: Implementation of extended confiscation, targeting assets exceeding known lawful income, is a crucial tool in the fight against organized crime. 💪Enhanced Powers for Temporary Freezing and Seizing: Stronger tools to temporarily freeze, seize, and restrain suspected criminal property during early-stage investigations, critical in preventing the dissipation of criminal proceeds. ⚖️Recognition of Court Orders: Detailed obligations for countries to recognize each other’s court orders, a major step forward in transnational money laundering investigations. 🤝Emphasis on Communication and Cooperation: The amendments underscore the importance of good communication and "informal" cooperation between countries, laying the groundwork for smoother international cooperation. 🚀Call to Action: The FATF expects all countries to promptly implement these new Standards, emphasizing a major shift towards prioritizing asset recovery in national crime prevention and criminal justice strategies. The FATF expects all countries to promptly implement these new Standards, emphasizing a major mindset shift towards prioritizing asset recovery in national crime prevention and criminal justice strategies. In the recent Europol report, “Other side of the coin”, Executive Director Catherine De Bolle emphasized this statistic in a short video introducing the report. “The amount of assets that law enforcement manages to take away from the hands of criminal networks still remains below 2% of the yearly estimated proceeds of organized crime, a drop in the ocean”. #AML #FATF #assetrecovery

Part 1 of 2: Rebuilding Trust between the Public and Private Sector, Cambridge, 2023 “At the 40th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, held at Jesus College, Cambridge in September 2023 the theme across the week was Integrity. In my experience, Integrity is a critical issue for the success of the fight against economic crime globally. I was fortunate enough to chair a panel with three highly rated colleagues from across the world - Clark Abrams from New York, Paul Davies from Melbourne, and Dr Mark Turkington from London. All three have had international careers demonstrating what integrity looks like in both professional and private worlds, and we wanted to leverage our knowledge and experience to drive a discussion on one of the key challenges we have all seen in recent years - trust between Private and Public sectors, and how to rebuild it. In sweltering heat of Cambridge, we covered the importance of Trust in enabling successful public/private work on tackling economic crime threats; examples were shared from our careers of how real time sharing of intelligence and data has supercharged investigations against organised crime, corruption, modern slavery, sanctions related events, and child exploitation, permitting much faster results than would have normally been the case. Secondary benefits were recounted of the long term development of trusted relationships between individuals which permitted rapid sharing of non sensitive information (such as emerging laundering typologies or technical mechanisms used by the financial sector which law enforcement may be unaware of). The audience was involved from the start of the discussion, and in a show of hands the room agreed - by a factor of four to one - that there was a crisis of trust in many jurisdictions between government and private sector (both individual citizens and legal entities), for reasons which could have taken an entire additional session to explore. This chilling effect risked undermining good efforts, by limiting the willingness for information sharing and outreach; cases were discussed where specific reporting entities limited involvement in public/private partnerships due to concerns that information provided might generate regulatory censure at some point in the future - in other cases, internal legal advice was present during all information exchanges, which slowed down the speed of intelligence sharing." continued in Part 2

Forensic Fact Friday! Exciting update: Europol Unveils Its First European Financial and Economic Crime Threat Assessment! In a world of boundless opportunities driven by global trade and technology, a darker reality lurks beneath the surface. Criminal networks exploit our interconnectedness, weaving a parallel global financial system through money laundering, illicit transactions, and corruption. These illicit practices have evolved into indispensable tools for modern organized crime, generating billions in profits by capitalizing on vulnerabilities within our economic systems. The European Financial and Economic Crime Threat Assessment offers a comprehensive analysis of these issues, covering a spectrum of crimes affecting the #EU, from money laundering to corruption, fraud, and counterfeiting. The report’s ultimate goal is to capture the pervasiveness and destructiveness of financial and economic crimes (#FEC) affecting the #EU, and to support all relevant stakeholders in untangling the large variety of financial and economic crimes. Together, through strengthened cooperation and innovative approaches, we can prevent criminal profits from infiltrating the legal financial system. Join us in this critical mission to safeguard our economies and societies. Let's work together to derail the world of criminal finances and strive for a safer, more secure Europe. Want to know more? Get in touch with me or my colleagues at KPMG Forensic (https://lnkd.in/eUWG83PG). #Europol #KPMG #Forensic

💡 KNOWLEDGE: Europol inaugural Report - Key Insights    Europol’s first-ever threat assessment on the topic, ‘The other side of the coin: an analysis of financial and economic crime in the EU’, sheds a light on this system which sustains the finances of criminals worldwide.   The report is based on a combination of operational insights and strategic intelligence contributed to Europol by EU Member States and Europol’s partners. It analyses all financial and economic crimes affecting the EU, such as money laundering, corruption, fraud, intellectual property crime, and commodity and currency counterfeiting.   Key findings of the report:   👉 Almost 70% of criminal networks operating in the EU make use of one form of money laundering or the other to fund their activities and conceal their assets.  👉 More than 60% of the criminal networks operating in the EU use corruptive methods to achieve their illicit objectives. 👉 80% of the criminal networks active in the EU misuse legal business structures for criminal activities. 👉 The criminal landscape in this area is fragmented, with key players often located outside of the EU.  👉 The techniques and tools used by the criminals advance quickly, as they take advantage of technological and geopolitical developments.    Europol’s Executive Director Catherine De Bolle aid:   "Organised crime has built a parallel global criminal economy around money laundering, illicit financial transfers and corruption. With modern technology, they have diversified their modi operandi to evade detection. The report presents Europol’s expertise in financial and economic crimes, detailing how the current threats are manifesting themselves and how these crimes impact the wider society. It serves as a roadmap to foster cooperation that will derail the world of criminal finances, intercept illicit profits, and – above all else – Make Europe Safer."   To read the full report, see the link in the comments below.  ____________ The Financial Integrity Hub (FIH) conducts research to equip Australia and the international community with knowledge, tools, and insights to understand, identify, and disrupt illicit finance threats.   If you want to see more from the FIH, don't forget to click the bell icon - top right (🔔) to receive notifications for future posts and events. #AML #CTF #economiccrime #europol #report #financialintegrityhub

Key players involved in a controversial US$40 million deal with the #Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (#Zec) are implicated in potential #money laundering activities, as revealed by leaked audios and correspondence. The #deal, orchestrated by figures including Wicknell Chivayo, Moses Mpofu, and Mike Chimombe, aimed to supply #biometric voter registration kits and other #electoral materials. It bypassed competitive bidding processes and involved inflated invoices, allegedly to facilitate #kickbacks and #bribes. #antimoneylaundering #AML #moneylaundering #dirtymoney #CFT #counterterrorismfinancing #financialcrime #financialcrimes #compliance #complianceofficer #duediligence #terroristfinancing #pep #sanctions #audit #FinancialIntelligenceUnits #FIU #SuspiciousActivityReport #cdd #kyc #regulations #CFP #risk #riskmanagement #investigation #monitoring #africa

Last week Europol published its inaugural threat assessment on financial and economic crimes in a comprehensive report. The report highlights that the world is getting smaller, as trade, communication and infrastructure on a global scale brings us closer together. However, our interconnected world is being abused by criminals who have created an underground economy to sustain their illegal operations. The key findings of the report are that: ❗️Almost 70% of criminal networks operating in the EU make use of money laundering to fund their activities and conceal their assets.  ❗️More than 60% of criminal networks operating in the EU use corruptive methods to achieve their illicit objectives. ❗️80% of criminal networks active in the EU misuse legal business structures for criminal activities. ❗️The criminal landscape in this area is fragmented, with key players often located outside of the EU. ❗️The techniques and tools used by criminals advance quickly, as they take advantage of technological and geopolitical developments. Asset recovery remains one of the most powerful tools to fight back. It deprives criminals of their ill-gotten assets and prevents them from reinvesting them in further crime or integrating them into the mainstream economy. Increasing efforts are being made by EU legislators, Member States and law enforcement through the recovery of confiscated assets. Yet the amount of captured proceeds still remains too low – below 2% of the yearly estimated proceeds of organised crime. #AML #FinancialCrime