On 12-13 December 2022, the Council of Europe Economic Crime and Cooperation Division, through the Action “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime” and in partnership with the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan, organised a regional workshop on financial investigations in corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing for law enforcement authorities, financial intelligence units and anti-corruption agencies of the Central Asia region. The two-day hybrid event was organised in Astana, the Republic of Kazakhstan and aimed at presenting and discussing with prosecutors and investigators from the region targeted Guidelines on financial investigations including specific issues related to the flow from intelligence to evidence as well as reactive and pro-active investigation processes.
The workshop provided the opportunity for around 100 participants from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to share experience on intelligence in the context of investigation and prosecution, get knowledge on the interinstitutional cooperation processes between financial supervision institutions and law enforcement agencies, and discuss the development of adequate strategies for investigation and prosecution. Participants also exchanged views and experiences on the deployment of special investigative means in economic crime cases.
In addition, interactive presentations from Council of Europe experts touching on the role of financial investigation, the use of open-source intelligence as well as specific case studies on financial investigation methods allowed participants to reflect on concrete application of the guidelines presented for prosecutors and investigators. The event also served as a platform for participating counterparts from jurisdictions of the Central Asia region to discuss the specific aspect of their legislation related to investigation and prosecution while exchanging on the related good practice and challenges encountered in the area at the international level, including on asset tracing and recovery.
The event was held within the wider framework of the effort of the Action to assist beneficiaries from Central Asia to strengthen the authorities’ capacities in the region to fight and prevent economic crime and corruption through enhancing the effectiveness of anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and asset recovery systems.
This activity was organised by the Action on “Promoting Transparency and Action against Economic Crime”, in the framework of the Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023, which is a joint initiative co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe. The Action is aimed at strengthening capacities to fight and prevent economic crime in five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan).