A new initiative launched by Europol will give Europe more bite to tackle financial and economic crime and help disrupt the flow of money to organised crime networks by following the money to trace, seize and confiscate criminal assets in the EU and beyond.

A new initiative launched by Europol will give Europe more bite to tackle financial and economic crime and help disrupt the flow of money to organised crime networks by following the money to trace, seize and confiscate criminal assets in the EU and beyond.

The European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) will deal with crimes such as fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting, intellectual property infringement and currency counterfeiting.

It will enhance the operational support provided to EU Member States and EU bodies in the fields of financial and economic crime and promote the systematic use of financial investigations.

The Centre has been set up within the current organisational structure of Europol and will be staffed with 65 international experts and analysts. 

“Economic and financial crimes are a highly complex and a significant threat affecting millions of individual EU citizens and thousands of companies in the EU every year. In addition money laundering and criminal finances are the engines of organised crime, without them criminals would not be able to make use of the illicit profits they generate with the various serious and organised crime activities carried out in the EU,” Europol says.

Additionally, the Covid-19 pandemic has provided ample evidence that criminals are quick to adapt their criminal schemes to changing conditions to exploit fears and vulnerabilities, Europol says.

Catherine de Bolle, Europol Executive Director told a news conference at the launch of the EFECC that it was not enough to do house searches or confiscations.

“We must take away the oxygen that criminals breathe, and you do that by following the money. This means having timely and accurate information and engaging and having closer cooperation with all those involved including police, customs and asset recovery officers.”

She added, “This often takes us outside national and EU jurisdictions [hence] a need for a systematic and multilateral approach. The new Centre will fill this need.”

The estimated annual cost of organised crime in Europe is €110bn, however, only some €1.2bn of criminal assets are confiscated annually in Europe.

To coincide with the launch of the EFECC, Europol also launched a report which shows that despite all measures taken to combat economic and financial crimes, opportunities for these types of crimes have increased as the market for legal financial services has diversified and technology continues to change the way and speed of how financial transactions occur.

“Corruption remains systematically under investigated,” the report says. “The use of online transfers of criminal money and the use of cash for lower level bribery often make it difficult to detect financial flows and to uncover corruption.”

EFECC will forge alliances with public and private entities to trace, seize and confiscate criminal assets in the EU and beyond, placing it at the centre of a systematic multilateral approach to combating fraud, money laundering and corruption, which will entail close involvement of public and private sector stakeholders.

In welcoming the launch of the Centre, ICC Commercial Crime Services (CCS) emphasised that good intelligence is key to preventing and tackling financial and economic crime.

CCS through its specialised Bureaus – the International Maritime Bureau, Financial Investigation Bureau, Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau and FraudNet provides members with unique intelligence on the modus operandi and parties involved in suspicious financial transactions and fraud, as well as a global network of law firms specialising in asset tracing and recovery.

More information at https://www.icc-ccs.org/icc-commercial-crime-services-ccs