On February 6, in order to draw attention to and provide an understanding of latest tendencies, methods and challenges in preventing and combating money laundering, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Latvia, in cooperation with the Embassy of the United States of America, organized a training that brought together criminal justice practitioners and field experts from the United States.

The training focused on the understanding of money laundering in the USA from a normative and legal viewpoint, as well as in practice. Methods for confiscating assets, the standard of proof and the process of proof in this category of cases were tackled. Furthermore, legal and practical situations that are similar and different in the USA and Latvia were considered and discussed in a comparative manner. Moreover, circumstances related to the conditions for establishing predicate offenses were considered.

When looking at the methods and progression of money laundering in the USA, the representatives drew attention to the importance of involvement of experts in the investigation and examination of cases of this category, in order to allow the persons involved in the proceedings to clearly perceive the essence of the case. Illustrative examples of various money laundering schemes encountered in practice, including the use of shell companies and various methods of a transfer of funds were provided. When looking at suspicious activities that point towards money laundering, attention was paid to methods of planning of these offenses, the involvement of several persons and also the importance of the intention of the persons. By providing specific examples, attention was drawn, among other things, to the use of classic cash transactions via checks for the purpose of money laundering, to the separation of criminal activities from economically justified activities, as well as to the specifics of investigation of these activities.

At the conclusion of the training, the United States perspective in international cooperation in the investigation of money laundering cases, as well as regarding the use of cryptocurrencies in money laundering was considered. Laundering of proceeds of crime often takes place internationally, therefore, the cooperation of national law enforcement authorities is often essential. Moreover, attention was drawn to the necessity of using various instruments of legal cooperation and to the importance of these instruments for successful establishment of the essence of a case and the achievement of a fair settlement of a case. Cryptocurrency plays an increasingly important role in the circulation of funds; it is also used to legalize proceeds of crime. This part of the training was focused on the specifics of investigating cases where cryptocurrency is used for legalization of proceeds of crime.

 

Information prepared by

Rasma Zvejniece, the Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 286522