Tracking and attacking the assets of economic crime and terrorism is the subject of this year?s ICC-Commercial Crime Services (CCS) annual lecture.
Tracking and attacking the assets of economic crime and terrorism is the subject of this year?s ICC-Commercial Crime Services (CCS) annual lecture in London on June 20. The lecture by by Prof Barry Rider, Director of the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, and Professor of Law at Jesus College, Cambridge, is part of a half-day workshop by CCS. Other topics include frauds in trade and shipping; banking and high yield investment scams; and what?s new in counterfeiting. The workshop chair is Rosalind Wright , who heads the UK Serious Fraud Office, who gave last year?s CCS lecture. Prof Rider argues that the war against organised crime and terror cannot be won by the current strategy of attacking the proceeds of crime alone. Knee-jerk legislation could prove counter-productive, he fears. Difficulties in tracking terrorist funds are compounded, Prof Rider adds, by a general lack of understanding by legislators of what money laundering actually involves. Hence current anti-money laundering legislation is difficult to apply and virtually worthless in the fight against terrorism. Instead, it burdens banking and financial services in terms of compliance – at a cost of an estimated ล600m a year in Britain alone. Of particular concern he, he says, are laws relating to constructive trust, which leave intermediaries and professional advisers in a dilemma. For more details of the event at Skinners? Hall, Dowgate Hill, London EC4R, visit www.icc-ccs.org.
