The Egmont Group is pleased to announce the winner of this year’s Best Egmont Group Case (BECA) – UPK, Brunei Darussalam.
The Egmont Group has held the BECA competition since 2011 and this year marks its 10th year. Despite the COVID-19 impacts and lockdown policies in many jurisdictions, the competition was active with 24 cases received from 19 FIUs. Instead of voting at the in-person Plenary, the Egmont Group members selected the case of UPK, the FIU from Brunei Darussalam, as the best Egmont Group Case in 2020 through a virtual vote.
The UPK’s case involved USD11M in embezzled funds and represents the FIU’s valuable contributions to tracking illegal financial flows, keeping the financial investigation moving, engaging in extensive cooperation with domestic and international partners that resulted in convictions secured, asset confiscation and increased prison sentences for corruption charges imposed on suspects.
The Egmont Group also congratulates IVE, the FIU from Guatemala, on being a finalist in this year’s competition.
The 2020 BECA Competition showcased a diversity of ML/TF typologies. Topics featured included: drug trafficking, cybercrime, terrorist financing through human trafficking, Business Email Compromise scams, illegal trade in fauna and flora, and ML involving cryptocurrency and virtual assets.
The Egmont Group and the Technical Assistance and Training Working Group sincerely thank all those involved for their dedication, coordination and participation in this year’s BECA – your contributions helped ensure the success of the BECA.
The 2020 BECA competition was conducted in tandem with the World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR). The Egmont Group congratulates the PPATK, the FIU of Indonesia, for winning the 2020 StAR recognition from the World Bank.
For more information about the World Bank’s StAR initiative, please visit: https://star.worldbank.org/
