Tools and Techniques for Investigators and Prosecutors (June 2012)

Money Laundering and Corruption Crimes Best Practices Manual for Ukraine

A team from the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) was mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide technical assistance in the Ukraine in the form of a six (6) day training programme on Money Laundering and Asset Tracing, held during the period 21 – 26 November 2011.

Thereafter, experts from the ICAR were tasked to compile a manual, “Money Laundering and Corruption Crimes Best Practices Manual for Ukraine: Practical Tools and Techniques for Investigators and Prosecutors”, during March 2012. Recent amendments to the Ukrainian Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) which were passed by Parliament during May 2012, will probably only come into effect in November 2012. For this reason, emphasis was placed on best practice throughout the manual. The new CPC which replaces the Soviet-era CPC gives practical effect to requests made by European bodies for improvements in the way criminal proceedings are handled in Ukraine.

Three (3) workshops (two (2) days each) were held during the period 11 – 19 June 2012 in Kyiv, Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk respectively. The purpose of the workshops was to enable the ICAR experts in conjunction with the IMF to present the contents of the manual to select end users, i.e. representatives of the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine (SFMS) and investigators and prosecutors of money laundering and corruption offences, and to receive their comment and feedback.

As the primary purpose of any criminal investigation is to obtain evidence to bring charges against the perpetrator, secure a conviction if the evidence supports the charges and ensure the perpetrator is adequately sentenced for his or her crime, an understanding of the elements of a money laundering or corruption offence remains crucial. The criminal investigation also aims at confiscating the proceeds of crime where relevant. During the course of discussions on “Elements of the Crime”, which was dealt with extensively in the manual, time was spent focusing on the definition of money laundering within the Ukrainian context. The basic format of each workshop included presentations by both external and internal experts, and allowed time for questions and feedback. Presentations were provided on the focus of the manual, an overview of international standards, elements of the crime, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery. Participants were also introduced to the use of circumstantial or indirect evidence to prove unknown or illegal income in a corruption or money laundering investigation, the so-called Source and Application of Funds analysis, and New Payment Methods.