The conference on a financial system without dirty money "Preventing and Combating Money Laundering", organized within 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” by the State Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Latvia, brought together more than 350 criminal justice practitioners and experts from Latvia and other countries to better understand new directions, trends, methodologies, approaches and challenges in the prevention and combating of money laundering. In addition to the above-mentioned issues, this year the experts focused in greater depth on strengthening cooperation between the private and public sectors in order to facilitate the efforts of allies and partners to be proactive in the fight against money laundering.
The conference was opened by the Head of Economic Crime Enforcement Department of State Police of Latvia Pauls Krūmiņš, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Evika Siliņa, Advisor to the Minister of Finance Kaspars Čerņeckis, Minister of the Interior Kristaps Eklons, Attorney General Juris Stukāns, and representatives of the Embassy of the United States of America.
The conference programme included a range of lectures, exchanges and round-table discussions. Theoretical and practical aspects of combating and preventing money laundering were discussed. Participants had the opportunity to engage in discussions on non-conviction based asset forfeiture, stand-alone Money Laundering (hereinafter - ML) investigations and increasing the effectiveness of international sanctions. With a particular focus on institutional cooperation mechanisms and international experience in detecting ML, the conference brought together a number of foreign experts and leaders in the field who presented practical approaches to ML investigations. In addition to presentations by experts in the field, one panel was dedicated to exploring the experiences of investigative journalists, presenting invited investigative journalists' research on corruption and money laundering reported in the European and global media.
The annual international conference for law enforcement professionals took place on 5 and 6 October, bringing together more than 120 experts from various law enforcement agencies - the State Police, Military Police, Financial Intelligence Unit, State Security Service, Public Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Latvia, Internal Security Service, Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau and State Revenue Service. The United States Department of Justice, the United States Treasury, the Icelandic Metropolitan Police, the Dutch Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service, the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency and others were also represented. At the same time, the conference was streamed remotely online, with almost 230 additional participants.
Conference 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” and ESF project “Justice for Growth” (Nr.3.4.1.0/16/I/001).
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