Image via WikipediaThis article from the Mail on Sunday suggests that the organisational consequences of SOCA's imminent demise might last many years. I suspect that the paper has a point.
Showing posts with label Serious Organised Crime Agency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Serious Organised Crime Agency. Show all posts
Monday, 27 June 2011
A farewell to SOCA?
Image via WikipediaThis article from the Mail on Sunday suggests that the organisational consequences of SOCA's imminent demise might last many years. I suspect that the paper has a point.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Met Police Human Trafficking unit under threat
The unit appears to be the victim of the old problem that specialisation costs.
A decision is expected within the next few weeks. You can find a link to a Press Association article here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jGCErLyU7Jbqj0EoNb2j9D7bzZEA
Why have I picked this story out? Because in July 2009, SOCA published it's 2009/10 UK Organised Crime threat Assessment. The report identifies five general areas of concern of which Human Trafficking falls under Organised immigration crime is a key area of concern. FYI the map is of the US Human Trafficking picture. In theory, the UK then aligns its response to such criminal activity sector by sector.
If the Met go ahead with this decision, my concerns would be as follows:
1 The Labour Government of the UK will talk about harm reduction strategies, but will not fund them properly. Here Labour have form with their inadequate funding of the war in Afghanistan.
2 The message to human traffickers will be sent out that the risk of being caught and prosecuted in the UK has reduced. Thus making the UK a more attractive target on a risk assessed basis.
Since human trafficking is thought to be the third most profitable activity in the organised crime world (after illegal drugs and arms trafficking) one would expect professional money launderer to get busier!
Do you agree?
Let me know your thoughts.
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Monday, 5 October 2009
Does the Italian Tax Amnesty create problems for UK MLROs? Part II
The AML Watchman’s view: I think that, in this hypothetical question, you would have to make an SAR to the UK’s SOCA and possibly even a consent request. My thought process is outlined below. But I’d love to hear what you would do and why? That is what the comment box below is for.
Why? Well unless the client came to you to regularise their entire tax affairs under the limited legal professional privilege (LPP), when you and your firm might be able to take advantage of legal professional privilege, you may want to consider whether or not you and your firm were being used to maintain possible criminal activity by not reporting the balance of the clients fund or activity.
How would you know whether the rest of the funds were legitimately obtained? The overseas reporting exception might not work. In this case although the Italian Government appears to have addresses the false book-keeping crime how could you know what other criminal infractions may have been committed in order to get the funds to your firm originally? So unless you are willing to expend a possibly huge amount in Enhanced Due Diligence and legal opinion the only way to be sure to manage your personal legal liability under PoCA, would be to disclose to SOCA.
Why might consent be required? The mention of organised criminals taking advantage of the Tax Amnesty should put you on warning that this possibility, no matter how slight, that a connection between a criminal gang and your client might exist. The only people who should know this should be SOCA and their law enforcement contacts. Giving them the opportunity to disrupt such a payment should, hypothetically address your liabilities under PoCA. If, however, a client were to ask your firm to organise or to effect a transfer toward the end of the amnesty period but the consent request then takes longer to process than the closing date of the Amnesty, then it’s a yippee skip round the Christmas Tree event for the lawyers.
Just a thought.
Anyway, over to you.
Why? Well unless the client came to you to regularise their entire tax affairs under the limited legal professional privilege (LPP), when you and your firm might be able to take advantage of legal professional privilege, you may want to consider whether or not you and your firm were being used to maintain possible criminal activity by not reporting the balance of the clients fund or activity.
How would you know whether the rest of the funds were legitimately obtained? The overseas reporting exception might not work. In this case although the Italian Government appears to have addresses the false book-keeping crime how could you know what other criminal infractions may have been committed in order to get the funds to your firm originally? So unless you are willing to expend a possibly huge amount in Enhanced Due Diligence and legal opinion the only way to be sure to manage your personal legal liability under PoCA, would be to disclose to SOCA.
Why might consent be required? The mention of organised criminals taking advantage of the Tax Amnesty should put you on warning that this possibility, no matter how slight, that a connection between a criminal gang and your client might exist. The only people who should know this should be SOCA and their law enforcement contacts. Giving them the opportunity to disrupt such a payment should, hypothetically address your liabilities under PoCA. If, however, a client were to ask your firm to organise or to effect a transfer toward the end of the amnesty period but the consent request then takes longer to process than the closing date of the Amnesty, then it’s a yippee skip round the Christmas Tree event for the lawyers.
Just a thought.
Anyway, over to you.
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Thursday, 10 September 2009
SOCA Belfast Payback Conference: 22nd Sept 2009
Well the next one is going to be held in Belfast on the 22nd September 2009 and if they still have places and you can make the time then my advice is simple.
GO!
Here is the link to the SOCA website. http://www.soca.gov.uk/assessPublications/downloads/BelfastNIConference.pdf
I attended one earlier this year and I have to say that it was very well done. Not only was it an excellent opportunity to network but it also gave an overview of what has been going on, best practice and it gave people a great chance to ask questions!
So what are you waiting for?
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