II PANEL DISCUSSIONS

A. Opening (20 April 2005)
Chair (spoke in French) : Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a pleasure for me to welcome you to the fifth meeting of thesecond committee, and we’re going to start with Workshop 5 this afternoon, “Measures to Combat Economic
Crime, including Money-Laundering”.
Before we start I’d like to make a few general comments on the workshops. The General Assembly, in
resolution December 2001, No. 56/119, decided that the workshops, and I quote, “should be held maintaining afree dialogue amongst participants and with avoiding the reading of prepared texts”. The General Assembly also
underscored in resolution 58/138 dated 22 December 2003, and then reiterated in 59/151, 20 December 2004,
that workshops should focus on topics chosen and should yield tangible results leading to ideas and projects andtechnical cooperation documents focusing on the enhancement of bilateral activities and multilateral activities andon technical assistance in order to prevent crime and to promote criminal justice.
The four preparatory regional meetings examined the topics of the workshops and made recommendations
focusing on action, which should be a foundation for debate and for discussion in the various workshops.
I would like once again to appeal to the Committee to develop concrete ideas which can lead to informal
inspiration for the Bangkok Declaration. Having made these general remarks I would now like to move on toWorkshop 5, “Measures to Combat Economic Crime, including Money-Laundering”.
This workshop was organized with the help of the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for thePrevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and by the Swedish government, and I would like to thankthe Swedish government and the Institute for their preparatory work.
We will have two round-tables this afternoon. The first will be called “Trends on economic crime andcountermeasures”, followed by an empirical debate on economic crime and a debate involving participants. And
we will also have two round-tables tomorrow morning which will focus on money-laundering. The first of them iscalled, “Measures against money-laundering”, followed by an empirical debate on money-laundering and a
debate involving participants.
The round-tables will be led by Mr. Hans Nilsson, who is head of the Judicial Cooperation Department of theCouncil of the European Union, and conclusions will be drawn at the end of sessions by the Scientific Rapporteurof the workshop, Ms. Toni Makkai, who is Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology.
And the Committee has the following documents before it. Firstly, an information document on Workshop 5
which is called “Measures to Combat Economic Crime, including Money-Laundering”, and this document is called
A/CONF.203/13. There is also a discussion guide which has the following number, A/CONF.203/PM.1. And
finally, the reports of the regional preparatory meetings for the Congress with the following numbers,
CONF.203/RPM.1/1 and RPM.2/1, RPM.3/1 and RPM.4/1.1
It is now my pleasure to hand the floor to Mr. Sakai, who is the Director of UNAFEI. You have the floor, Sir.
Mr. Sakai: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, distinguished Delegates, and Ladies and Gentlemen. As
the director of UNAFEI, the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and theTreatment of Offenders, it is my great honour and privilege to be here as a coordinator of the workshop relating toeconomic crime, including money-laundering.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the Kingdom of Thailand for their excellent
organization of the Congress and hospitality extended to the participants of the Congress. And through the
preparation of this workshop, I have learned how little we know about economic crime. We don’t even have aclear definition of economic crime, and consequently, its countermeasures are far behind the proliferation andsophistication of national and transnational economic crime.
The objective of this workshop is to enhance our knowledge of economic crime and its countermeasures andto explore effective ways of meeting the challenge of the crime. And this workshop is designed to discuss various
1 These documents are available at http://www.unodc.org/unodc/crime_congress_11/documents.html.

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MEASURES TO COMBAT ECONOMIC CRIME, INCLUDING MONEY-LAUNDERING

issues relating to economic crime in a practical and professional way by using, in part, a hypothetical case.
And I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the eminent Speakers andPanellists for their participation in the workshop and to the Swedish National Economic Crimes Bureau forsharing the challenging work of this coordinating workshop.
And lastly, since we’ll discuss many issues and be interacting with the audience, and we have only limited
time, so I respectfully ask for your kind cooperation. Thank you very much.
Chair (spoke in French): Thank you very much, Mr. Sakai. I now have the pleasure of introducing our main
speaker, Keynote Speaker, Madam Gudrun Antemar, Director-General of the Swedish National Economic Crimes
Bureau. You have the floor, Madam.

Keynote Speech
Ms. Antemar: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is an honour and a privilege to be allowed to open thesubstantive part of this important Workshop on Measures to Combat Economic Crime, including MoneyLaundering. It has been a pleasure for me, and my colleagues, to elaborate the workshop together with theUnited Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI),
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and our Thai hosts. I am looking forward to an active
discussion with a fruitful exchange of views, knowledge and experience in the following sessions. To give food forthought I will address the issue of economic crime from a general perspective, focusing on issues of concern andpossible solutions, with the aim to facilitate our joint struggle against economic crime.
Transnational economic activities are increasing all over the world. The rapid developments incommunications technology and transportation have promoted globalisation of the world economy anddiversification of activities in the economic field. The quantity of economic transactions has increased
tremendously. The concept of economic crimes has been globalized and the modus operandi of such crimes has
become more advanced and their scale has increased considerably. This has led to difficulties in their detection,
investigation and prosecution.
Economic crimes include a range of illegal activities from conventional types such as fraud, embezzlement,
breach of trust and corruption to newly recognized types such as insider trading, money-laundering, financing ofterrorism and violation of intellectual property rights. Economic crimes also cover many activities instrumental tothe mentioned offences such as forgery of documents and payment cards, identity theft and computer related
crimes, especially the misuse of the Internet. Furthermore, economic crimes encompass corporate crimes, tax
fraud, tax evasion, consumer fraud and investment fraud.
Though it is important to be able to detect, investigate and prosecute economic crimes, it is perhaps evenmore important to be able to apply focused and effective preventive measures. The advantages to society areenormous if economic crimes could be prevented. Crime preventive measures must be based on knowledge.
Thus it is important to allocate the necessary resources to research and development. The public sector, thebusiness community and the civil society have a shared responsibility. It is important to establish and implement
a legal and administrative system of good governance including integrity, transparency, openness, equity andaccountability. Targeted awareness raising actions must be carried out. Information on economic crimes and theirserious effects on and consequences for the society as a whole must be widely disseminated. The fight against
economic crimes can only be successful if it is supported by the public. The establishment of shared values toreject economic crimes is of utmost importance. The crime preventive work must have its base in the local
communities. A continuous dialogue with business organisations, trade unions and other bodies is an effective
tool in the combat of economic crimes.
The national legislation in general – not only criminal law but also corporate law and taxation law – must be
easy to comply with and counteract economic crimes. The legislation itself must prevent violations and facilitate
supervision and control of its enforcement. A balance has to be struck between the need of the society to control
the implementation and the integrity of the individual. The risk of detection has to be increased, especially in
relation to tax crimes.
The United Nations has granted priority to tackling economic crime as well as transnational crime, organized– 34 –

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crime, money-laundering and financing of terrorism. The International Convention for the Suppression of the
Financing of Terrorism certainly is a necessary tool for States all over the world to be able to fight terrorism. Also
the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols on
trafficking in firearms, trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants is a milestone in the fight against
transnational organized crime. It is important that the Convention is rapidly and thoroughly implemented in allstates. Another important instrument is the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Corruption has a great
impact on the economy. It is a catalyst that promotes other types of economic crimes and prevents the detection
and investigation of them. The global fight against corruption should continue under the auspices of the United
Nations.
To be able to combat economic crimes it is necessary to elaborate a well thought-out and comprehensive
multidisciplinary national strategy and action plan against economic crimes. Risk assessment and exchange of
information should be integrated parts in this process. The different actions must interact and complement eachother with a view to reinforcing their impact. Such a programme should address legislative issues, supervisionand control, organisation of public authorities, including continuous and long-term inter-agency cooperation on alllevels of the administration, investigation and prosecution as well as international co-operation and crime
preventive measures. The Swedish government and parliament have long since recognised the importance ofsuch national strategies and action plans against economic crimes. This is an area in which increased
international co-operation can be fruitful. Dissemination of knowledge and exchange of views and experience canbe further promoted with the United Nations as an important interlocutor. I hope that this workshop can be thestarting point for such a process.
This workshop will try to address new trends and features of economic crimes. As examples of such trends
and features the quick proliferation of computers, the rapid increase in the number of customers for Internet
services and the expansion of a credit-card society can be mentioned. The criminals fully exploit the Internet andelectronic commerce to commit economic crimes transnationally. The transnational nature of economic crimes
hampers their detection and makes the investigation more difficult. Also the tracing and return of the proceeds ofcrime has become more complicated. International co-operation has to be enhanced in order to launch effective
countermeasures. Especially the occurrence of shell corporations and offshore financial centres as safe havens
for illicit funds must be addressed. The involvement of professionals such as lawyers and accountants acting as
advisers and facilitators is also of great concern. Access to transaction records of banks and other financial
institutions is also an important issue.
The co-operation and exchange of information amongst law enforcement agencies and other organisations
involved in the combat of economic crimes are indispensable tools in the effective investigation of economic
crimes. Such co-operation and information exchange should be conducted both at the national and international
level. Mutual legal assistance as well as police co-operation must be promoted to facilitate transnational crime
investigations. Reciprocity or bilateral agreements should not be conditions for affording mutual legal assistance.
Mutual recognition of decisions is another way to improve international cooperation. All countries should strive toprovide the widest co-operation in all cases. Apart from an enhanced international co-operation it is also
important to consider harmonization of countermeasures in order to avoid lacunas in the legal framework and theenforcement.
Corporate crime is an economic crime committed in a well-organized and complex manner on a large scalecausing damage with substantive effect on the economy. Criminals participate in the management of companies
and in their capacity as representatives of the companies disguise proceeds of crime under what seem to belegal business activities or commit other crimes within the framework of the company. The prevention, detection
and investigation of such crimes is difficult. One way to address the problem is the establishment of a system of a
trading prohibition on natural persons. A person who is subject to a trading prohibition should neither be allowed
to be a majority owner of a legal person nor exercise any function in a legal person. Another way to address the
problem is to develop sanctions - criminal as well as administrative and civil - for legal persons.
It is also vital that proceeds of crime can be eliminated. Economic crimes are committed in order to gain profit.
It is most effective and critical to deprive criminals of the proceeds of crime. By doing so the criminals are
deprived of their incentive to commit crime. It is in this context appropriate to consider means that would facilitatesuch elimination. One way is to encourage an enlarged forfeiture with a lower level of proof or a reversed burdenof proof in certain situations.

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MEASURES TO COMBAT ECONOMIC CRIME, INCLUDING MONEY-LAUNDERING

Apart from these basic preconditions an effective working method has to be developed. One way to tackle
severe and complicated forms of economic crimes that has proven successful in Sweden is the application of amultidisciplinary approach. My authority, the Swedish National Economic Crimes Bureau, has for many years
applied such a working method with a good result. The investigative work is carried out in teams consisting ofexperts with different knowledge and experience. Prosecutors work together with police officers as well as
financial investigators and other experts such as computer technology specialists. It is a daily interactive process
where the experience and knowledge of each participant is made use of to the fullest extent. A step on the path
to apply a multidisciplinary approach can be to invite experts to participate in specific investigations or special
investigative units.
It is important that the procedures for preliminary investigation and court proceedings are carefully consideredwith the aim to make them as effective as possible. The substantive provisions as well as the procedural rules
must be elaborated with this in mind. The procedural rules must in general be simplified and provide flexibility toallow the necessary concentration of the preliminary investigation. Another way to facilitate crime investigations is
to consider co-operation with law enforcement agencies as a mitigating circumstance when deciding on the
penalty. It should also be stressed that the effective protection of whistle-blowers and witnesses is essential to a
successful collection of information and evidence. Economic crimes put special demands on investigativetechniques. Therefore, new types of investigative techniques such as interception of communication, electronic
surveillance and modern forensic science, as well as traditional techniques must - when possible - be fully usedin the fight against economic crimes.
To conclude my presentation I would like to emphasize once more the necessity to combat economic crimes.
This criminality affects not only individual natural and legal persons but also the society as a whole withrepercussions on the national and global economy. To secure sustainable development and improved welfare forall, the available resources must be used for these purposes and not end up in the hands of criminals. We have ajoint responsibility to continue and reinforce the fight against economic crime. In a global context this work should
preferably be carried out under the auspices of the United Nations. I look forward to participating in this importantworkshop, with its many distinguished panelists, and hope for an interactive dialogue with the esteemed
participants. I am convinced that we will have a fruitful discussion and that we will stand better prepared to face
the challenges in our joint struggle against economic crimes at the conclusion of the workshop.
Thank you for your attention.
Chair (spoke in French): Thank you, Madam Antemar, for that presentation which will provide an underpinning for
our work for this afternoon.
I will now invite Mr. Hans Nilsson to assist me in moderating the panels, and I would like him to introduce thePanellists. You have the floor, Sir.

Moderator’s Comments on Technical AssistanceModerator: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would first like to welcome you, all of us, on my behalf, and I
would like in particular to associate myself with Director Sakai’s welcoming remarks, and especially the remarks
he made to our host country, the Thai government and to the Swedish National Economic Crimes Bureau.
Now I will be brief in my first intervention here because we have already started late. We had 180 minutes andquite a long time has already gone. There will be several occasions for the participants here to intervene, but I
would already now like to ask those that want to intervene to, if possible, give me your name and the title of yourintervention, or to the Secretariat, so that we can plan the workshop a little bit better.
I should also say that there will be a publication that will come out of this workshop, like five years ago when
UNAFEI organized a workshop in Vienna concerning computer crime. So we will, for instance, have thepossibility of reading the very interesting keynote speech that we just heard in that publication by UNAFEI.
So we have three Panellists today. They are all well-known experts. I will introduce them to you in a moment.
But I would like to address one issue specifically before asking the experts to take the floor, and that is the issueof technical assistance, which I think is not dealt specifically in the interventions during this workshop. And in that
context I want to draw the attention to one of the background papers that the President mentioned, namely,– 36 –

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A/CONF.203/13, Chapter IV of that document, on page 10, deals specifically with the issue of technicalassistance.2
Now I would like to recommend all of you to read this Chapter. It’s just a few pages, but I think that we have tocongratulate the author of that Chapter because it summarizes in an excellent way how I believe the technicalassistance should be looked at both now and in the future. And I would suggest even that this Chapter has anoutreaching position in that it can serve as a basis not only for this workshop and in this particular theme, but for
many other themes as well. So I would, if I can already now try to draw one conclusion of this workshop, suggestthat we should all look at this Chapter and draw the consequences of what has been said concerning technicalassistance in the Chapter.
I want to highlight just a few questions which have been dealt with in this background paper on technicalassistance. First of all, it’s been said that the Congress in itself is an opportunity to deliver practical assistance inthe form of direct contributions of experts. We have the opportunity to share information and to share experience.
And I think that this goes right into the heart of what we are trying to do here today. We want to contribute to thisgoal, to share our experience and to give the possibility to look at some of the issues. We want to be practical, wewant to contribute to our common knowledge, and we will also want to bring in some new ideas, such as thequestion of identity theft, that we will hear discussions about. We also want to look at some possible gaps inlegislation and in cooperation.
Now there are many forms of technical assistance we can see from the paper. And one form we have actuallypresent here in the Congress. We have the displays that you have on various floors inside the house. I would, forinstance, suggest that you could go and look at the booth of UNAFEI. There are a number of manuals and books
and papers that have been drafted within the context of many meetings in Tokyo, and they have been extremely
useful for developing specific themes.
One other item that I’ve noticed in preparation for this workshop is that when it comes to money-laundering,
we have quite a lot, in fact, concerning technical assistance. We have a lot of manuals and model laws and CDROMs and Internet tools and so on, but when it comes to economic crime, it is much less, if at all, we havesomething existing.
And there I want to draw the second conclusion, if I may, already at this preliminary stage, and that is that weshould perhaps think about in the future to develop much more our tools for technical assistance in economic
crime. I realize that there is a problem of definition of economic crime, and we will discuss that, but I think that
one can look into a functional approach and take it theme by theme.

Moderator’s Comments on the Role of the Private Sector
Another particular feature with the question of economic crime in general and technical assistance is that I
think that it is important that we involve the private sector. They have a crucial role to play in the development of
the criminal policy in general. The private sector are victims but they are also partners in law enforcement; they
can serve as gatekeepers, for instance. Now this is something which is a very sensitive issue for the private
sector.
I remember when I attended a seminar in Montreal in Canada in 1989, and the papers of that seminar had aheading that said that there are some types of money that the Canadian banks don’t want, and there was a dollar
bill inside a syringe, which I think shows perfectly well that one can reconcile money-laundering and the role ofbanks and the fight against money-laundering.
The private sector, we need their cooperation and the assistance of them, and therefore we have also to
involve the private sector and give feedback to them so that they understand the essence of the law enforcement.
I would also highlight that there is a role of the non-governmental organizations in this area of economic
crime. I think that they can make a useful contribution, both as regards certain types of economic crime, and as a
useful reminder to governments when perhaps they sometimes want to go too far and that the human rights
aspects are not looked into sufficiently carefully.

2 See Part I, A of this report.

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