International co-operation to the fore
in financial investigation
Close international co-operation is recognised worldwide as one of the keys to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. With this in mind, 21 overseas officers attended the Narcotics Bureau (NB) Financial Investigation Course from October 4 to 8.
The participants came from the Mainland, Macau, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Australia, USA and the Netherlands. The other 27 course members came from the Force, Customs and Excise Department, ICAC, Inland Revenue Department and local regulators.
The focus of the course was an international research based on the anti-money laundering (AML) typologies research project, "Money laundering Associated with Fraud", which is being spearheaded by the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit (JFIU) in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering. In this respect, JFIU Superintendent Ma Ping-yiu pointed out that understanding the AML environment and future threats was critical to ensure that the Force's resources would be effectively deployed to combat the threats with coordinated enforcement action.
During the weeklong course, course members including the Anti-money Laundering Monitoring Centre of China (the Mainland Financial Intelligence Unit), the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia delivered various presentations on emerging new payment methods and their vulnerability to money laundering in the Region.
Financial Investigation Narcotics Bureau is widely recognised within the Region as a leader in training and the earlier creation of a dedicated training and outreach team was designed to meet increased demands in this key area of law enforcement.
One of the course members was Australian Federal Police Financial Investigator Martin Fryer. Having recently completed an Anti-money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing risk assessment in the region, Mr Fryer delivered a presentation on some of the operations undertaken with regional partners and the best practices observed from the operations. Commenting on the value of the course, he said: "It's a great opportunity to network and share experience. Understanding current and future regional threats is essential and courses like this assist that process."
Speaking at the close of the training course, Assistant Commissioner (Crime) Ng Ka-sing pointed out that the significant contributions made by NB's training initiatives over the years had resulted in more money laundering convictions in Hong Kong. Giving an example, Mr Ng said only 66 persons were convicted in 2006, but in 2009 the figure rose to 251. He added that according to the trends in the first nine months of this year, convictions in 2010 would likely exceed 300.
All course members saw the figures cited by Mr Ng as a strong evidence of Hong Kong's resolution to protect the integrity of its financial sector.
More information and photographs of the course are available on the JFIU website. Besides organising two international courses and four courses for regional officers each year, NB is also developing a Financial Crime e-learning package in partnership with the Police College. The package is expected to be rolled out next year.
Overseas
course members are impressed by the Force's resolution to protect the
integrity of Hong Kong's financial sector