The Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Georgia, organised this two-day training on “Special Investigative Techniques and Intelligence Gathering”, with the online contribution of the Council of Europe international experts, and the on-site participation of members of the Prosecutor’s Office, the State Security Service, as well as the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance, and the Financial Monitoring Service of Georgia.
Through discussions on relevant standards, combined with a practical approach, Georgian investigators and prosecutors were exposed to the special investigation techniques such as controlled delivery, physical and electronic surveillance, undercover operations and the use of informants.
In applying a chronological sequence, subsequent sessions were devoted to the gathering of financial intelligence, its analysis by the Financial Intelligence Unit, and the use of the evidence collected by law enforcement agencies for the efficient investigation and prosecution of economic crime cases.
Participants also discussed the case studies that were presented to them with a focus on trade-based money laundering cases. The 5th Round Mutual Evaluation Report by MONEYVAL called on Georgian authorities to continue improving their understanding of money laundering and terrorist financing risks by conducting further analysis and assessment of the main proceeds-generating predicate offences, and to broaden their focus to include money laundering threats associated with trade-based money laundering. This training will contribute to delivering on that request as it helped participants in realizing the shortcomings and advantages of the Georgian AML/CTF framework, and the importance of international and inter-agency cooperation and coordination.
After the training sessions, Georgian law enforcement agencies are better equipped to use commensurately the special investigative techniques while ensuring full respect to rule of law and human rights.
This event is a part of series of activities designed to support the national authorities in improving their frameworks and operational capacities for the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing and other economic crime cases.
The activity was organised in the framework of the project “Enhancing the systems of prevention and combating corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing in Georgia”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II.
