EJTN Criminal Justice Seminar Economic Crimes: Asset Recovery & Confiscation in the EU London, 24 November 2016

Burkhard Mühl Senior Specialist, Europol Criminal Assets Bureau

EUROPOL’S HQ – THE HAGUE, NL

EUROPOL’S MISSION STATEMENT

MISSION Vision

As the EU law enforcement agency, Europol supports its Member States in preventing and combating all forms of international serious crime and terrorism.

To contribute to a safer Europe by providing the best possible support to law enforcement authorities in the Member States.

KEY CAPABILITIES- INFORMATION SHARING

INFORMATION EXCHANGE

Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA): Communication tool

• Europol National Units (ENU) in Member States & non-EU states • MS/TP Liaison Bureaux at Europol • Only means to exchange personal data

EIS (Europol Information System) :

• Automatic “Hits” and “linking” • Direct access and data entry by member states

Analytical Work Files / Focal Points Data protection and data security

Operation Cedar

Logo : Mr Jean Jullien

Operation “Vendredi 13”

6 EU instruments aim at ensuring a common approach to seizure and confiscation:

Framework Decisions

• 2001/500/JHA on money laundering, asset freezing and confiscation;

• 2003/577/JHA on the mutual recognition of freezing orders;

• 2005/212/JHA on extended confiscation

• 2006/783/JHA on the mutual recognition of confiscation orders

Council Decisions

• 2007/845/JHA on Asset Recovery Offices

Directive

•OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the freezing and confiscation of proceeds of crime in the European Union – (2014/42/EU)

Asset Recovery - EU legislative framework

ASSET RECOVERY IN THE EU / TRANSLATING POLICY INTO ACTION

Current Initiatives

• Directive 2014/42/EU on freezing and confiscation of the proceeds

of crime – continued discussion on NCBC • Exchange of best practices between the EU Asset Recovery Offices

in the ARO Platform – ARO peer review • Asset management and the reuse of confiscated assets • Freezing and management of virtual currencies

• Enhanced global co-operation to recover criminal assets via

regional CARIN styled Asset Recovery Networks

Europol Criminal Assets Bureau - ECAB

Europol Criminal Assets Bureau

• Established in 2007

• To increase the efficiency of asset recovery in the EU with a view to fight international serious and organised crime

• To provide support to all mandated crime areas in order to identify and seize/freeze criminal assets

• To assist Member States’ investigators in tracing criminal assets located outside their jurisdictions

13

Products and services

• FP Asset Recovery supports competent authorities (AROs et.al.)in tracing and identification of criminal proceeds linked to all mandated crime areas of Europol.

• CARIN Network Secretariat Europol provides a specialist for the CARIN Secretariat.

• Knowledge of variations in systems and approaches in jurisdictions to freeze &

seize assets.

• Support in freezing of bank accounts & virtual currencies.

• Ability to trace assets on a global level.

• Access to appropriate channels SIENA.

14

Europol’s Operational Analysis

• Core objective – supporting MS investigations with intelligence analysis

• Who are the key persons and associates?

• What are their criminal activities?

• Why are they doing it in this way?

• Where are the activities located?

• How are those activities carried out?

15

FP Asset Recovery

•Data suitable for analysis (financial investigations):

• Persons

• Communications

• Bank accounts

• Id documents

• Locations

• Organisations

•As for any investigation…

•…but with focus on money flows and economic/financial aspects

CROSS - CHECKING

17

Ukraine Crisis (sanitized data)

Asset tracing via AROs using SIENA

ARO to ARO Siena asset tracing requests

152

539

2191

3197

3703

46 173

660

928 1012

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Messages exchanged per year

New cases initiated per year

France

Russia

New Zealand

Papua-New Guinea

Australia

Philippines

Japan

Brunei

South Korea

North Korea

Malaysia

Vietnam

Chinese Taipei

Cambodia

LaosMyanmar

Sri Lanka

Madagascar

India

Mongolia

China

Mozambique

South Africa

Malawi

Pakistan

Zimbabwe

Botswana

Kirgistan

Tadschikistan

Somalia

Afghanistan

Tanzania

Namibia

Zambia

Kenya

Djibouti

Qatar

Yemen

Uganda

Ethiopia

Usbekistan

Angola

Turkmenistan

Eritrea

Iran

DRC

Saudi-Arabia

Iraq

Kazakhstan

Azerbaijan

Congo

Argentina

Jordan

Central Africa

Chile

Gabon

Israel

Syria

Lebanon

Georgia

Cameroon

Chad

Egypt

Cyprus

Nigeria

Turkey

Benin

Togo

Ghana

Libya

Greece

Niger

Bulgaria

Ivory Coast

Burkina Faso

Liberia

Ukraine

Romania

Sierra Leone

Belarus

Mali

Guinea

Brazil

Hungaria

Algeria

Lithuania

Italy

Guinea-Bissau

Estonia

Latvia

SenegalGambia

Poland

Mauretania

Finnland

Bolivia

West Sahara

Germany

Marocco

Denmark

Netherlands

Portugal

Peru

Norway

French-Guayana

United Kingdom

Guyana

Ireland

Columbia

Ecuador

Venezuela

Trinidad

Panama

Puerto Rico

Costa Rica

Dominican RepublicHaiti

Nicaragua

Jamaica

Honduras

El Salvador

Iceland

Belize

Cuba

Mexico

USA

Greenland

Canada

NepalBhutan

Bangladesh

Thailand

Uruguay

Guatemala

Kuwait

Oman

United Arab Emirates

Lesotho

Swaziland

Burundi

Rwanda

Croatia Bosnia-Herzegovina

Austria

Luxemburg

Moldawia

Albania

Macedonia

Montenegro

Slovenia

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Armenia

Paraguay

Surinam

Sweden

MaltaTunesia

Monaco

Belgium

Switzerland

Spain

Gibraltar

Guernsey

CARIN

ARIN-AP

ARIN-EA

ARIN-SA

ARIN-WA

RRAG

Tentative member

Sudan

South Sudan

Mauritius

Timor-Leste

Cape Verde

Serbia

Kosovo

Isle of Man

Jersey

Availability of data

25 out of 28 EU MS replied

21 out of 22 AROs

15 out of 22 AROs

Seizures and Freezing Data

Confiscation Data

• 2.2% of estimated proceeds of crime at EU level

Conclusions

• Round 50 % at EU level per year

Seizure/Freezing - € 2.4 billion p.a.

Confiscation € 1.2 billion p.a. • 1.1% of estimated proceeds of crime at EU level

From seizure/freezing to confiscation

Project OCP’s estimates - illicit markets generate about

€109 billion at EU level, (Savona & Riccardi, 2015).

Crime stilly pays in the European Union

Thank you very much for your kind attention!

Burkhard Mühl, MA Project Manager Europol Criminal Assets Bureau burkhard.muehl@europol.europa.eu