Money laundering can pose a serious threat to the stability of a country’s financial system, and safeguarding the economy is crucial to tackling other major crimes (e.g. customs and commercial fraud, drug trafficking and smuggling, human trafficking) and contributing to Ukraine's sustainable development, recovery and rule of law.
The Ukrainian National AML/CFT Risk Assessment (2022) highlights the critical risks posed by the loss of revenue and economic damage caused by trade-based money laundering. Furthermore, the fight against money laundering is an international effort due to its infiltration into cross-border trade, multinational companies and globalized trade routes.
In order to strengthen the effectiveness of the national financial system to combat money laundering, UNODC launched a project to ‘Support to the National Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine and Ukrainian authorities to increase capacity to detect, investigating and prosecuting money laundering offences’, funded by the Government of Germany.
As part of this project, a series of three workshops were organized by UNODC in Ukraine through its Global Programme against Money Laundering (GPML). Between October and December 2023, UNODC experts guided and empowered four national training teams to significantly enhance the national training curriculum on financial crime. Participants included representatives of the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SFMS), the Academy of Financial Monitoring, the Ministry of Finance, the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Police of Ukraine, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine, the Institute of Management State Guard of Ukraine of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the National Academy of Internal Affairs, the Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, the State Tax University.
The training materials produced include lesson plans, presentations, scenarios, exercises, and trainer solutions to train and build the capacity of FIU, law enforcement and prosecution authorities to combat financial crimes. The draft training packages are in Ukrainian and include theoretical knowledge as well as advanced techniques and practical tools on the following topics:
1. Understanding and using beneficial ownership information;
2. Trade-based money laundering (TBML);
3. Using open-source intelligence;
4. Financial investigation and multi-agency cooperation.
The establishment of a sustainable system for the professional development for anti-money laundering professionals is an essential first step to any training programmne. It will enable the competent national authorities in Ukraine not only to detect, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing cases, including illicit trade and other predicate offences related to anti-money laundering, but also to ensure the integrity and resilience of the national financial system and to cope with the implementation of priorities in the field of rule of law and anti-corruption mechanism for a future accession to the European Union.
At the final workshop national partners focused on the results achieved in 2023 and how to use these for future activities and implementation in 2024.
UNODC
UNODC through its Global Programme against Money Laundering (GPML) implements between 1 September 2023 and 30 June 2024 the Project: 'Support for the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SFMS) and Ukrainian authorities in increasing the capacity to detect, investigate and prosecute money laundering offences'. Funded by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the overall objective of the project is to enhance the effectiveness of national competent authorities in conducting money laundering investigations.
1st Drafting workshop (16 to 20 October 2023). The first session focused on format and structure of AML training materials to enhance the professionalcapacities of key institutions of the anti-money laundering system of Ukraine and develop its organisational and technical infrastructure. The international experts and advisors including from the Council of Europe, Basel Institute on Governance, the EU Global Facility on AML/CFT and UNODC shared available materials on the respective topics that could be incorporated into national lesson plans.
2nd Drafting workshop (13 to 16 November 2023). This workshop provided an opportunity for national team of trainers to share their initial lesson plan drafts, seeking feedback from both international experts as well as fellow participants. The lesson plans reflected on materials previously shared by international advisors and conformed to the GPML guidance on course format and structure.
3rd Training of Trainer Coaching (4 to 7 December 2023). The national teams harmonized the courses, introduced necessary enhancements and incorporated the feedback received, leading to the practice delivery of developed courses during this workshop.
Subsequently, the Academy of Financial Monitoring approved the courses to be incorporated into Academy’s curriculum, with a plan to deliver each course in 2024. UNODC will support the practical implementation of the developed training programs.
Ukraine
The main statute setting out the AML regime in Ukraine is the Law of Ukraine on Prevention and Counteraction of Laundering of Proceeds of Crime, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (AML Law).
