The joint projects of the European Union and Council of Europe iPROCEEDS-2 and CyberEast organised a Regional Workshop on Co-operation and Information Sharing between Financial Investigations and Cybercrime, in Antalya, Türkiye, on 10-12 October.
Over 60 participants from South East Europe, Türkiye and the Eastern Partnership region attended the event. Representatives of criminal justice authorities, Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), Central Banks and Banking Associations, participated in extensive discussions related to Moneyval and FATF (Financial Action Task Force) recommendations. Topics analysed included money laundering and the role of co-operation between banks and FIU, public-private co-operation, along with seizure of virtual currencies (VC) as evidence or as proceeds of a crime. The findings of two reports developed by the CyberEast project in 2022 were also examined:
- The Guidelines on the prevention and control of online fraud and criminal money flows ; and
- The Regional Study on legislation concerning online crime proceeds.
Project counterparts shared their expertise regarding models of interagency co-operation between financial and cybercrime expert communities, which are currently being applied in their countries. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board of Türkiye (MASAK), who was a partner in the event, presented very recent cases of money laundering typologies, as well as phishing and fraud campaigns.
Based on these fruitful exchanges, agreed principles for public-private co-operation were developed, including but not limited to:
- Improving understanding of money laundering /terrorist financing risks;
- Improving the quality of the suspicious transaction reports /suspicious activity reports submitted by the banking sector;
- Building trust among public authorities and the banking sector; and
- Developing a more targeted intelligence approach.
Guidelines on the prevention and control of online fraud and criminal money flows
Regional Study on legislation concerning online crime proceeds