On 26 May and 29 May, 2023 a practical two days workshop “On the Imitation of the Criminally Acquired Property Proceedings: from the FIU Report to Court Proceedings Imitation” took place in the State Police. It was organized with the aim to enable acquisition of theoretical knowledge and practical skills in relation to the cases of laundering of criminally acquired funds (ML), latest investigation methods, approaches and trends. The workshop was organized within the framework of the European Economic Area financial instrument program for the period of 2014 – 2021 “International Police Cooperation and Combating Crime” project No. EEZ/VP/2020/1 “Support to the State Police for Acceleration and Quality Improvement of Investigation of Economic Crimes in Latvia”.
The workshop in person was attended by 104 participants from various law enforcement institutions – the State Police, Financial Intelligence Unit, State Revenue Service, Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau, Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Latvia, Court of Economic Affairs, Internal Security Bureau, Military Police and Senate of the Republic of Latvia. Simultaneous online broadcast was ensured, which was watched by 156 participants.
At the opening of the workshop the Deputy Chief of the State Police, Chief of the Central Administrative Department Normunds Grūbis emphasized already achieved results: “Combating of laundering of the criminally acquired funds is one the priorities both for the State Police and other law enforcement institutions. When assessing the last year’s statistics it can be seen that both the number of initiated criminal proceedings and the number of received analyzed reports from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has increased. Work results of the State Police acknowledge that the total value of the attached property exceeds EUR 475 million. While the value of confiscated criminally acquired funds – EUR 134 million.
The Chief of the State Police Central Criminal Police Department Economic Crime Combatting Department 1st Division (combating of criminally acquired funds and crimes in the financial system) Svens Kristjansons pointed out: “This two days’ workshop unites practitioners frim various structural units and different institutions which is one of the largest pluses of the workshop as in particular individual and unique experience of each of us is what motivates comprehensive discussions. The fight against the laundering of criminally acquired funds will never become irrelevant – no-one fosters a hope that once we will live in the world without crimes, among other without a large number and variety of crimes which is the predicative of this laundering. It should be taken into account that while we are enhancing our skills and knowledge, the individuals and groups on the opposite side are doing the same.”
The workshop was a great opportunity for the employees to develop their practical skills so that when encountering the ML cases on a daily basis, they would already have the basic knowledge about the current tools and combating methods. During the workshop several case studies were presented about such topics as assessment of a FIU report, financial investigation, application of international cooperation tools, summary of acquired data, drawing up a decision on the criminally acquired property and analysis of court decisions. During the workshop an imitation of court proceedings in relation to the criminally acquired property pursuant to the procedure provided for by Section 59 of the Criminal Procedure Law took place which allowed to gain a valuable view in the legal proceedings and enabled strengthening of the mutual cooperation and exchange of experience.
Seminar was organized within the framework of the European Economic area grant 2014-2021 programme “International Police Cooperation and Combating Crime” project No.EEZ/VP/2020/1 “Support to the State Police for increasing effectiveness and quality of economic crime investigation in Latvia”
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