GOVERNMENT must take urgent steps to beef up the capacity of key agencies involved in the prosecution and investigation of financial crimes, Irish Financial Expert, Dr. Sam Sittlington told a news conference yesterday.He had spent several weeks at the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) observing the work of the agency and has prepared a series of recommendations for the unit’s effective functioning. Sittlington said the chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), police prosecutors and members of the judiciary ought to be trained in financial intelligence, evidence-gathering, asset-tracing, freezing and appropriate laws.
The financial investigation expert said SOCU investigators were tackling a subject that had seen many challenges in other countries, including the United Kingdom. He pointed to mistakes in case files in decision-making, lack of evidence and incomplete documentation, all of which have had an impact on the rate of successful prosecutions and forfeitures here; notwithstanding that there might be other factors contributing to the successful prosecution rates.
“The Judiciary and Magistrates have made determinations to dismiss, in cases where the evidence was in place or where they did have power to make forfeiture orders. Such cases have gone to appeal.
“I believe a training structure should follow operational needs. Formal selection of staff should be followed by formal instruction in the three primary disciplines: financial intelligence, evidence-gathering and asset-tracing/freezing. “Further, training should be given on money-laundering investigation, enhanced financial intelligence and criminal confiscation. Where possible, the training should be aligned with training for line managers and specialist prosecutors. Moreover, the judiciary should be trained on appropriate laws and how to properly adjudicate on financial investigation matters, he stated.
Dr. Sittlington said he had met with the acting Chief Justice and staff of the DPP who have all agreed that training across the board for prosecutors, DPP, Judiciary and Magistrates in the AML/CTF legislation, Confiscation and Forfeiture was required.
Additionally, the expert called for the creation of working groups at two levels, strategic and practitioner. He said the strategic level speaks to the heads of key stakeholders – SOCU, the DPP, legal officer, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU), State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), crime police and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
“The role of this group is to discuss strategic issues in terms of legislation weaknesses, MOU’s, resources, future training needs, joint enterprises etc. This group should be chaired by a person who can take their ideas and views to a higher level,” said Dr. Sittlington. That group should meet every three months, he opined.
Meanwhile, the practitioners working group should include investigators from the main investigative branches and their discussions should be based on logistical and practical dimensions of investigation and the challenges encountered.
Dr. Sittlington, who has also conducted numerous training programmes here, recommended that members of the practitioners working group ought to be trained. This group would also meet every three months.
Dr. Sittlington urged that the supply of information to SOCU by the FIU should not be used as a fishing expedition, but to provide the beginning of an investigation which could be built upon through the use of production orders and financial investigations.
The role of the FIU, the expert stressed, is to administer and analyse intelligence reports from banks and other financial and reporting institutions and disseminate that intelligence to law enforcement. On the other hand, it is SOCU’s responsibility to transfer that intelligence into evidence. “Not all reports to FIU will be meaningful investigations, due to defensive reporting by banks and/or legitimate transactions that appeared at first suspicious. In most cases only 2% of reports are/or become financial investigations.”
It is his belief that the process of sharing information between the two entities could be improved as they work hand in hand to combat money laundering. “Therefore, the exchange of information to assist current investigations should be swift and timely.”
He said a number of recommendations had been made on how to improve the working relationship in the two entities pointing to the “imbedding of an FIU officer in SOCU with a database link up to FIU; a point of contact at FIU to deal specifically with SOCU requests; access by SOCU to the FIU database by one SPOC with a controlled access point, either one of these would alleviate undue pressure.”
With respect to the GRA, Dr. Sittlington said tax evasion was a serious offence under the AML/CFT legislation and noted that GRA could conduct its own tax investigations and prosecutions. “Only SOCU can conduct money-laundering investigations. Although some tax information is being supplied upon request by SOCU for those investigations, this again is a very tedious process.” GRA, he said, appears reluctant to supply information due to their secrecy provisions, even though Part V111 Section 111 of the AML/CTF Act overrides secrecy obligations.” As a result, the expert suggests a review of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to expedite requests relating to SOCU and timeframes for responses to be put in place.
“Cash dogs”
Additionally, Dr. Sittlington recommended that there be specially trained “cash dogs” used for searching at the airport and other search operations. “In the same manner that specially trained dogs can sniff out drugs and explosives, so such dogs can also be trained to sniff out currency. I have been present at search operations over the past few weeks and the opportunity to lessen the time to search large warehouses and grounds could have been reduced.”
He believes that with the number of currency couriers operating through the airports, the same procedures could be applied. “In terms of finding cash, or deterring the cash courier from transporting foreign currency, this can have an immense impact.
‘Cash dogs’ as they are labelled in the UK have been extremely successful,” he added. Dr. Sittlington strongly recommends that there be a review of SOCU’s operations in the next six to eight months.