Members of Slovak intelligence, Law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities gathered together in a training course on financial investigations organised by the Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division. The event was held on 23 and 24 May 2023 in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, as part of the ongoing efforts to assist Slovak authorities with enhancing the effectiveness of the national anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.
Indeed, the development of dedicated national capacity for conducting financial investigations has become a widely acknowledged condition of effectiveness of the fight against economic crime. Well-conducted financial investigations can help identify organised criminality, determine the structure of organised crime groups, locate assets, identify ownership and use of properties, evidence offenders’ lifestyles, track movements of people and money and link them to criminality, among many advantages. But specialised capacity and skills are required in order to conduct proper financial investigations, and to use their results effectively for prosecuting criminals and recovering proceeds from crime.
The training course therefore aimed at enhancing the capacities of Slovak intelligence and Law Enforcement agents to pro-actively conduct and coordinate parallel financial investigations in all proceeds-generating cases, pursuing the “follow the money principle”, both at operational and pre-trial stages. The topics covered included financial investigation planning, techniques and procedures, sources of evidence of proceeds coming from criminal activities, financial analysis processes, related asset recovery, as well as national and international cooperation in the context of financial investigations. The content of the training was supported by concrete case studies and hands-on exercises, in an interactive training format, in order to for participants to put in practice the knowledge acquired. The trainers shared first-hand experience and good (or bad) practices on financial investigations, while fostering exchanges between the participants from the represented authorities. The training package design took into account the particular context of the Slovak Republic, including specific examples of real past cases.
Participants comprised 30 representatives of Slovak authorities including the General Prosecutor’s Office, the National Crime Agency, the National Central Office of Special Crimes and the Financial Intelligence Unit within the Police Force Presidium. They engaged actively in practical exercises and discussions on cases, and expressly confirmed the high value of the training content and format for their current and future professional work.
The training programme was also designed to provide participants with trainer-friendly training materials, including trainers’ notes. This will allow the Slovak practitioners who attended the course to reuse these materials to train their peers internally, thus promoting further capacity-building towards better specialisation of Slovak Law enforcement in financial investigations – which is a key component of an effective AML/CFT system, and a priority highlighted by the FATF and MONEYVAL.
This training course is part of a series of capacity-building activities on financial investigations and asset recovery within the same Project. It will be followed by a training session dedicated to asset recovery and confiscation scheduled in June 2023, and another specialised training course on the use of open-sources intelligence in October 2023.
These activities are held within the framework of the joint TSI Project on “Enhancing the effectiveness of the AML Framework in Slovakia” funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.
