The Regional meeting to improve international co-operation and information sharing, which took place on 24-25 May 2023 in Chisinau, Moldova, brought together cybercrime and financial investigators, prosecutors and representatives of financial intelligence units (FIUs) from the project countries. The discussions, led by Council of Europe international consultants, focused on parallel financial investigations and intelligence, online crime proceeds, financial fraud and money laundering offences in the Eastern Partnership countries. Participants showcased national practices and legislation on virtual currencies and Darknet investigations in the context of the “follow the money” concept.
The project stakeholders also examined challenges and best practices in selecting the most effective legal instruments for financial investigations. The Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism (Warsaw Convention) for tracing crime proceeds, global UN instruments as well as regional instruments and bilateral agreements were considered, with regards to the substance of the requested co-operation.
Based on these interactive discussions, the representatives of financial and cybercrime expert communities present agreed on a set of practical approaches that can be used to strengthen international financial investigations in the online environment.
