In June, we held a regional training for francophone countries on ‘Virtual Assets – Analysis, Investigation, Tracing and Confiscation of Cryptocurrencies’.
For the training, we invited financial intelligence unit (FIU) analysts, law enforcement agency investigators and compliance officers, as they are required to have adequate knowledge and skills to effectively apply cryptocurrency related international and national AML/CFT standards. They are also expected to carry out cryptocurrency tracing and seizure.
The growing nexus between terrorism and transnational organised crime and the use of emerging technologies have complicated global efforts to curb organised crime.
While new technologies have brought new opportunities, they have also presented challenges to the financial industry.
The emerging and fast growing virtual or crypto currencies or virtual assets have become widely accepted. Criminals and terrorists have found innovative ways to use cryptocurrencies to launder their proceeds of crime, move funds and finance criminal operations easily.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has outlined a set of measures that countries should implement to manage and mitigate the risks emerging from virtual assets ensuring compliance with the relevant standards and recommendations, including detection, identification and investigation of suspicious transactions and activities.
Thanks to the support from the European Commission and CIVIPOL , this was our inspiration to organise this workshop: to help public officers understand the meaning and functions of cryptocurrencies and the methods of transactions and storage in order for them to effectively prevent and counter the risks of money laundering.
Our team leader Frédéric BAYARD and our senior technical advisor Tuemay Aregawi Desta led the training.
(We organised a similar training for English speaking partner countries in July)
