FIU’s Role in the Fight Against Money Laundering of Corruption Proceeds (Within the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic)
The COVID-19 pandemic had a substantial global impact. Criminals exploited the crisis to increase their power and influence over communities, public bodies, and the economy when Governments enacted emergency COVID-19 response plans or were unable to put adequate responses in place.
The project on “Financial Intelligence Units’ (FIUs) Role in the Fight Against Money Laundering of Corruption Proceeds (Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic),” co-led by FIU Italy and FIU Armenia, incorporates input from 39 Egmont Group (EG) member FIUs. FIUs’ detailed information included detected corruption-related risks and associated mitigating measures, relevant case examples, lessons learned, emerging best practices, and future challenges.
As with most crimes, corruption is motivated by profit and greed; financial intelligence can play a vital role in detecting and disrupting such activities. The importance of financial intelligence and the ability to identify and securely share information through the EG network positions FIUs in the driver’s seat to tackle corruption.
The project builds upon previous knowledge of corruption-related indicators by identifying new and emerging risks, threats, and vulnerabilities. The project also builds FIUs’ understanding of best practices their peers have utilized throughout the pandemic to tackle corruption-related crimes. The project team also identified other possible avenues or mechanisms available to reporting entities to support their efforts in identifying suspicious financial activity potentially linked to corruption.
The report includes various information to present a concise and pragmatic analysis of information submitted by member FIUs including organizational and operational responses put in place in jurisdictions worldwide. This allows jurisdictions, specifically FIUs and public entities tasked with AML/CFT compliance, to ensure readiness and preparation for similar future emergencies/crises. This report is a public document to share valuable information with relevant public authorities and the private sector.
