A new course on Strategic and Practical Considerations in Money Laundering Investigations

The IMF’s Legal Department in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Global Program on Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime, and Terrorism Financing (GPML) delivered to participants from the Caucasus , Central Asia, and the Balkans a course on Strategic and Practical Considerations in Money Laundering Investigations (December 11-14, 2023). Participants came from Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, North Macedonia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan and included financial intelligence analysts, financial investigators, prosecutors, and judges. 

The course afforded participants a unique opportunity to understand the key money laundering risks in the region, the efforts of neighboring countries to address these risks, and share ideas on novel approaches in the detection and prosecution of financial crime and the confiscation of the proceeds of such crimes.

The course included lectures on various aspects of intelligence gathering, investigations, prosecutions, confiscation, and international co-operation; presentations by participants on successful money laundering investigations and prosecutions in their home countries; and the completion of an investigatory exercise based on the facts of a major case recently completed in the United Kingdom, which resulted in a confiscation order in the amount of US$130 million. 

Participants engaged in robust discussions throughout the course and the feedback from was overwhelmingly positive. Participants also indicated that they would leverage the contacts made during the course to facilitate their operational activities. The Fund and the UNODC GPML will continue to deepen their collaboration on the delivery of this course, building on the experience gained.

Robin M. Sykes, Senior Counsel, Financial Integrity Group, Legal Department, IMF