Egmont Group getting more important
The Egmont Group (EG) of Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) was formed in 1995 with the purpose of forging international co-operation, especially in the areas of financial intelligence exchange, training and sharing of expertise. The Joint Financial Intelligence Unit (JFIU) of the Force has been a core member of EG since 1996, the membership of which has recently been increased to 120 jurisdictions.
In his capacity as Head of JFIU, Superintendent (SP) Ma Ping-yiu recently attended the 2010 Egmont Group Plenary held in Cartengena, Colombia, between June 28 and July 1. Over 200 representatives from FIUs in member jurisdictions attended the five-day meeting, during which the participants shared updated modus operandi, intelligence and best practices.
The Plenary highlighted the importance of effective co-operation and timely sharing of intelligence to combat money laundering and transnational crime. At the request of the EG secretariat, SP Ma gave a presentation on the best practices of intelligence sharing employed by JFIU, citing cases involving both Financial Investigations Narcotics Bureau (FI NB) and a frontline Police District which resulted in both restraint of substantial crime proceeds and criminal prosecutions.
Chief Inspector (CIP) Stewart McGlynn of JFIU, who oversees all requests made through the EG secure web, said the importance of this resource could not be understated and as a result of the increase in both quality and quantity of requests, a dedicated section comprising four officers has been established as part of the recent restructure of FI and JFIU NB. Requests are made and received on a daily basis and often acted upon in a matter of hours should the urgency of a request demand.
However, CIP McGlynn felt that this resource was still not being sufficiently leveraged. He noted: "Although requests by numbers are rising, very few units make use of the EG secure web, besides FI NB and Commercial Crime Bureau. For example, where persons, companies or accounts are under investigation and there exists the possibility that these entities are active overseas, we can use the EG network to share this information and at the same time ascertain whether an entity is of interest to an overseas FIU. In short, the EG network can and does prove a tremendous source of financial intelligence to an investigator."
Enquiries regarding EG requests and how they might assist investigations may be directed to Senior Inspector JFIU 2B Phillip Tsang on 2860-5152.
SP
Ma with Director of the Financial Investigation Agency of British
Virgin Islands, Mr Errol Geroge, at the Egmont Plenary