Europol, US agency to step up coop. against money laundering

BRUSSELS, Feb 21 (KUNA) -- The chief of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of Treasury visited the Europol headquarters at the Hague Thursday and discussed how Europol and FinCEN can better work together to safeguard the international financial system from illicit use.
Kenneth Blanco, Director of FinCEN, and Wil van Gemert, Deputy Executive Director of Europol, agreed to deploy a FinCEN Liaison Officer to the Europol headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands, said an Europol press release.
Wil van Gemert said "we embrace the idea of collective intelligence, in the sense of a large group of individuals that gather and share their knowledge, strategic views and skills for the purpose of preventing and combating all forms of serious international and organised crime, cybercrime and terrorism".
On his part, Blanco said "this agreement strengthens the already excellent partnership between FinCEN and Europol and will help facilitate the exchange of vital financial information in a more effective and efficient way in order to better protect our financial system and citizens from harm." The scale of money laundering is difficult to assess, but it is considered to be significant. Europol's Financial Intelligence Unit has a broad mandate in the area of combating money laundering, terrorism financing and asset recovery, said the Europol press release.
The main objective of money laundering, terrorism financing and asset recovery investigations is to identify the criminals involved, disrupt their associates, and recover and confiscate the proceeds of their crimes, it noted.
FinCEN is a bureau of the US Department of the Treasury and carries out its mission by receiving and maintaining financial transactions data, regulating banks and other financial institutions concerning the detection, reporting and prevention of money laundering and countering terrorism financing.
Europol is the European Union's law enforcement agency. Headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands, Europol supports the 28 EU Member States in their fight against terrorism, cybercrime and other serious and organised forms of crime.
With over 1100 staff members, Europol uses state-of-the-art tools to support some 40,000 international investigations each year, serving as a centre for law enforcement cooperation, analytical expertise and criminal intelligence. (end) nk.mt