Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) and the Consulate General of the United States Hong Kong & Macau (USCG) jointly hosted a three-day conference, "Transnational Organized Crime & Information-led Policing", at Police Headquarters from May 11 to 13.  Designed to tap expertise from both the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific Region and share knowledge and intelligence in a global context, the conference was the outcome of the close liaison between CCB and the USCG in combating transnational organised crimes and major transnational money laundering cases, especially those bearing a deception element. 

 

Assistant Commissioner (Crime) John Ribeiro and the Deputy Consul General, Mr Thomas Cooney, officiated at the opening of the conference.  There were 66 participants, representing over 20 different law enforcement agencies and legal professions from Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.

 

At the conference, speakers from Hong Kong and overseas police forces and other legal professionals highlighted in a series of workshops the problems and challenges brought by the criminal activities preying on the Chinese communities worldwide and the subsequent laundering of the proceeds of many of such frauds.

 

The main themes of that linked up all presentations were the essential and continual collaboration among law enforcement agencies and legal professionals, targeting at new trends, sharing intelligence, and the need for a more global centric view of legislative issues and problems.

 

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Mr Ribeiro said the impact of local street level crimes had grown with a transnational dimension, and the conference provided a platform for law enforcement agencies from different jurisdictions to work together as a team to address the problem.  

 

Mr Cooney also stressed that only with the "right combination" of professional skills and legal authorities that the criminals could be defeated.

 

One of the speakers, founding member of the international "Blessing Scam Work Group", Mr Jason Collom, pointed out that as a result of sharing intelligence with CCB, the U.S. and its partners were able to identify and target over 500 syndicate members of the "Blessing Scam".  The efforts of the CCB, combined with that of the work group, reduced the number of reported cases in the U.S. by 96 per cent and provided 100 per cent identification of all suspects in 2014.

 

The sharing of knowledge and best practices at the conference enabled the participants to get better prepared for the challenges posed by increasing, complex transnational organised crimes.