It is estimated that globally money laundering amounts to 5% of the global GDP or $800 billion to $3 trillion annually. It is proved that there is a distinct connect between transnational organized crime and illicit proceeds.
To address the issue of illicit financial flows, from 10-12 October 2018, UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia in close cooperation with the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Uzbekistan conducted a three-day training on operational analysis of anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) cases and financial investigation for the Department on Combating Economic Crimes under the Office of the Prosecutor General.
"We highly appreciate the support provided by UNODC to Uzbekistan on the implementation of the National Action Strategy of Uzbekistan 2017-2021 in the field of strengthening law enforcement reform, criminal justice, anti-money laundering, and anti-corruption measures."- said Mr. Dilshod Rakhimov, Acting Head of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes, in his opening remarks.
"Addressing money laundering and corruption is prominently reflected in the National Action Strategy of Uzbekistan. Furthermore, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan adopted the Resolution N3947 "On the establishing the Interdepartmental Commission on Counteracting the Legalization of Proceeds from Crime, Financing of Terrorism and Financing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction" in September 2018. This makes it extremely important to recognize the work that the Department on Combating Economic Crimes can do to support Uzbekistan in its transformative processes." - noted Ms. Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia.
During the training, the participants discussed the issues of operational analysis in the process of combatting money laundering and financing terrorism. The training agenda aimed at building capacity of the officers of the Department in the field of analysis of information on suspicious transactions received from accountable organizations, as well as from available information resources.
According to the trainers - Mr Oleksiy Feshchenko, UNODC AML/CFT Adviser (Cybercrime and Money Laundering Section), and Ms Elena Scherschneva, international expert (Austria), countering illegal financial flows requires several key elements: a) alignment of national legislation with new international standards; b) interagency coordination c) skilled investigators who are trained for identifying illegal financial transactions d) access to financial information and IT tools to analyze it . The Government of Uzbekistan has established the Interdepartmental Commission on Counteracting the Legalization of Proceeds from Crime, Financing of Terrorism and Financing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction. UNODC, on the other hand, designed the training to benefit the national strategy on countering illicit financial flows through providing the specialists with international best practices and the newest software and technologies.
The training is organized within the framework of the Plan of Practical Measures ("Road map") on Further Development of Cooperation of the Republic of Uzbekistan with UNODC, 2017-2019, and funded by the U.S. State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). The training is a part of the UNODC Programme for Central Asia 2015-2019.
As a part of the Programme, another seminar on strategic analysis of financial data to identify the risks of money laundering and financing terrorism, trends and models of illegal financial flows for employees of ministries and agencies involved in countering money laundering is envisaged by the Office of the Prosecutor General and UNODC, in December 2018.
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