The meeting was organized by the State Police of Latvia, with the participation of EJN Contact Points from Latvian Ministry of Justice and Prosecutor’s General Office, representatives from the Economic Police Department and Organized Crime Department of Central Criminal Police Department of State Police of Latvia.
The topic of the meeting was “Establishing mutual recognition within the context of financial matters in MLA”
The aim of the meeting was to hold the discussion in practically-professional dimension, increasing in such a way networking among law enforcement organizations, with the focus on possible cooperation with the third partners.
The main objective of the meeting was to provide mutual information exchange about current legislative and institutional matters in the EU in order to highlight the existing problems and to find possible solutions.
The meeting has covered the following issues:
- money laundering (focusing on the threats reported by Moneyval);
- EIO Directive and Council Framework Decision 2003/577/JHA of 22 July 2003 on the execution in the EU of orders freezing property or evidence;
- actions with criminally acquired property (best practices);
- legal remedies – restitution;
- money mule and parcel mule scams.
In the course of the presentations being delivered by the participants of the meeting and further discussions, the following conclusions have been drawn:
- threats resulting from the money laundering are basically common for the EU countries and their third partners. The EU member states have to focus on active cooperation with foreign counterparts (also with third countries) in order to be more effective in providing and seeking mutual legal assistance, more actively engaging in JIT’s and coordination meetings;
- EJN Contact Points of the participating States has concluded that the problem to identify whether money mules and parcel mule scams are victims of offenders is one of the most difficult issues for the investigation of money laundering cases;
- due to different national legislation there is a problem of common understanding of the EIO Directive as to freezing and confiscation issues ( the problem of bona fide).