A series of practical seminars for investigators of the State Police regional administrations in the field of economic crime investigation has started - "Investigation of cases of money laundering and the possibilities of recovery of criminally acquired funds in practice". The seminar was organized by the officials of the State Police Economic Crime Combatting Department within the framework of the European Economic area grant 2014-2021 programme “International Police Cooperation and Combating Crime” project No.EEZ/VP/2020/1 “Support to the State Police for increasing effectiveness and quality of economic crime investigation in Latvia””. The first of the five planned seminars has already been held in Jelgava on 12 and 13 October, the following seminars will take place in Valmiera, Daugavpils, Liepaja and Riga.
In order to improve the skills of the investigators of the regional departments of the State Police, to transfer the experience of best practices, as well as to strengthen the theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the investigation of money laundering (ML), last week the first of the five seminars planned in total took place on the investigation of money laundering and the possibilities of recovering these funds.
The content of the seminar is provided by experienced investigators and analysts from the Economic Crimes Combatting Department of the State Police, as well as prosecutors from the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Latvia, who will share their experience and opinions on various circumstances related to ML investigations, including by drawing attention to the very basics regarding the composition of ML and the importance of developing investigative strategies. Various proving techniques and models of action in relation to working with Financial Intelligence Service reports and opinions will also be discussed, as well as the databases, analysis methods and other tools and techniques available to investigators will be presented, how to conduct financial analyzes and investigations in the most effective way in cases of various complexities.
Seminars will take place until 1 December of this year in regional departments throughout Latvia. The first of the planned seminars was already held in the State Police Zemgale Region Department in Jelgava, last week on 12 and 13 October. The participants of the seminar had already provided positive assessment on the seminar held and concluded that the topics and current events discussed in the seminar provide in-depth understanding in the field of investigation of ML and the obtained information will be useful for further work.
Next seminars for the officials of the State Police will be held in another four towns:
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26 - 27.10.2023 State Police Vidzeme Regional Department in Valmiera;
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9 - 10.11.2023 State Police Latgale Region Department in Daugavpils;
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23 - 24.11.2023 State Police Kurzeme Region Department in Liepaja;
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30.11 - 01.12.2023 State Police Riga Regional Department in Riga
Svens Kristjansons, the Head of the State Police Economic Crime Combatting Department 1st Division, draws attention to the topicality of the investigation of ML: "EUROPOL calculations show that organized crime earns approximately 150 billion euros only in Europe every year, where only a small part is recovered. That is criminally acquired money, feeding and strengthening organized crime both in the international level as well as affecting also Latvia. While being aware of these dimensions, the law enforcement forces must be constantly strengthened, with a special emphasis on common practice of investigating such cases, understanding and effective use of available tools. SP ECCD, in cooperation with the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Latvia, has joined forces in this series of seminars to share current information, practice and experience directly with colleagues of the State Police in the regions."
Seminar takes place in the framework of the European Economic Area financial instrument 2014-2021 period programme “International Police Cooperation and Combating Crime” project No.EEZ/VP/2020/1 “Support to the State Police for increasing effectiveness