Tuesday, March 28, the Supreme Court was visited by experts from the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the US. The visit took place in the framework of cooperation project between governments of the US and Latvia in order to strengthen the judicial system of Latvia in relation to financial crime investigation.

Legal experts from the United States met with the Chair of the Department of Criminal Cases Peteris Dzalbe and the scientific advisor to the Department Janis Baumanis. During the meeting, the issues were discussed in relation to examination of financial crimes before court. The goal was to understand what in the opinion of judges is necessary to ensure successful financial investigations and issue appropriate convictions. Janis Baumanis as one of the key challenges mentioned examination of cases within a reasonable time period. Peteris Dzalbe noted that more often these are district court judges who deal with financial crime cases, the Supreme Court receives such cases less frequently. Experts stressed that mutual cooperation of judges has important role in addressing issues.

Already in 2016, the US delegation, led by Robin R. Taylor, the Advisor to US Department of Justice, met with representatives of the Ministry of Justice to discuss cooperation between US and Latvia with purpose to strengthen the judicial system regarding financial crime investigation. Taking into account the topicality of fight against money-laundering in Latvia, in May of this year the Ministry of Justice is planning to expand a discussion on fight against money laundering in Latvia, by also involving US experts. The discussion will be organized in the framework of the ESF funded project "Justice for development".

 

 

Information prepared by

International cooperation specialist of the Supreme Court, Iveta Jaudzema

E-mail: iveta.jaudzema@at.gov.lv; telephone: +371 67020396