Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in cooperation and the support of the European Commission, held an international workshop on “The procedure for conducting economic expertise on issue of money laundering”.
The purpose of the event was to obtain knowledge and experience from the member countries of the European Union in terms of the appointment and conduct of forensic economic examinations in the investigation of the legalization of criminal proceeds, taking into account the peculiarities of accounting in European countries.
The participants were representatives of the Laboratory of Economic Research and experts-economists from the regional branches of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise. Foreign speakers were delegates from Sweden, Italy and Latvia.
Oleksandr Ruvin, Director of Kyiv Scientific Research Institute for Forensic Expertise in a welcoming speech noted that the cooperation of Ukrainian and foreign colleagues facilitated the exchange of experience and information, understanding of the general and different aspects of conducting certain types of expertise and improving the process of conducting it.
“Today, Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise has mastered more than 94 areas of expertise and expert research. Only last year our specialists conducted more than 50 thousand examinations. We do not stop at what has been accomplished and always strive for better results, and in our work – to be on a level with the leading expert institutions of the world”, Oleksandr Ruvin said during his speech.
In addition, Director of Kyiv Scientific Research institute of Forensic Expertise noted that in the field of countering money laundering schemes, the Institute actively cooperates with the National Police of Ukraine, prosecutors, the Security Service of Ukraine, tax authorities, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and other state bodies that have the right to conduct a pre-trial investigation. The experience of foreign colleagues will make it possible to draw attention to the problematic aspects, which until today have been little studied.
At the same time, representatives of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union noted that the purpose of such international events is to provide expert advice to Ukrainian colleagues on topical issues th rough study visits and workshops. Such international cooperation is also supported by the European Commission in order to develop institutional capacity, approximation of national legislation to the legislation of the European Union, its implementation and further effective use.
“The European Commission has been supporting such projects for over 20 years to improve the exchange of information and establish technical cooperation between different countries of the world, Ukraine is the beneficiary of the program in which many workshops (seminars) took place,” said the workshop moderator, Director Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ministry Justice of Sweden Nils Hanninger.
During two days, the speakers presented their profile papers to the participants of the workshop and together they conducted practical exercises to identify issues of conducting economic expertise on the issues of money laundering and ways to solve them.
“We have experts from several countries presenting their anti-money laundering systems. Each country has its own system. Such meetings and workshops are very useful, because we are learning from each other, inspired by successful stories and examples in these countries, and we learn from our experience explaining our methods of dealing with the problem of money laundering. I hope that we will hear the experience of Ukrainian experts. I am not here to evaluate the Ukrainian system, but to explain, to tell how our system works. I hope that, having listened to the experience of other foreign experts, how they solved the problem of money laundering, you will be able to decide for yourself in which direction to move in different areas. The goal is not to find gaps in the Ukrainian system, but to show our system, our experience. Accordingly, in order for you to adopt some of this, you yourself understood that your system is wrong, and made it better”, said Anders Fällgren, senior adviser to the Ministry of Justice of Sweden.
According to the expert from Italy, Ukraine has chosen the right path by joining the anti-money laundering system.
“My goal is to show how in Italy the various authorities, law enforcement agencies work in the system to combat money laundering. I think that it is necessary to show another experience. For example, we have a financial police that is responsible for such investigations (cases of money laundering) to assess their risks, as well as trying to propose and introduce other standards in the system to combat money laundering. Regarding what I heard from the Ukrainian experts, I was amazed. Also during their speeches and presentations, I noticed that the Ukrainian and Italian systems have a lot in common in the list of key disciplines. I think that Ukraine has chosen the right path by joining the anti-money laundering system”, said David Cardia, commander of economic-financial police unit of Finance police.
Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise will continue to develop active international cooperation in order to introduce the best world achievements into the practice of forensic institutions of the Ministry of Ukraine.
