The Council of Europe’s MONEYVAL Committee has issued a report aimed at helping the global community to counter new criminal activities which are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic, including the sale of counterfeit medicines and cybercrime.
The Committee, which specialises in measures to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing, focuses in its new report on threats, vulnerabilities and best practices. The aim is to assist policymakers, practitioners and the private sector in applying a more targeted and effective response to the money laundering and terrorist financing risks in Europe.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Global community involved in anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), including MONEYVAL, has taken measures to identify challenges, good practices and policy responses to new threats and trends arising from this crisis. It goes without saying that criminals are exploiting the upheaval generated by the crisis and adapting their new modus operandi. Various fraud and scam schemes and other crimes have been reported by some countries, while law enforcement authorities (LEAs) and supervisors struggle to promptly respond to emerging risks,” the report read.
The MONEYVAL Secretariat undertook an information gathering exercise, which included emerging money laundering cases, practical challenges and trends surfacing during the COVID-19 crisis.
According to the survey, it appears that during the COVID-19 restrictions, the overall level of criminality remained stable or slightly decreased. “This was a result of restrictions in physical movement and cross-border travelling. However, in case of a limited number of crimes, a rise was reported. While some trends have been noted, it is still pre-mature to devise any typologies, as the COVID-19 crisis is novel, and authorities do not yet have sufficient information on their hands “
“There was no reported increase in crimes related to drug trafficking, terrorist financing, abuse of NPOs and insider trading. On the other hand, several jurisdictions highlighted instances where medicrime, cybercrime and corruption grew. All jurisdictions noted a significant and rapid growth in the number of frauds related to COVID-19 and the adaptation of well-known fraud to the new (confined and more remote) lifestyle of individuals and businesses”
The report found that the urgent need to acquire specialised medical equipment and supplies created vulnerabilities for fraud, corruption and subsequent money laundering. Authorities in charge of supervising money laundering and terrorist financing threats have had to find innovative ways to carry out their tasks by using secure electronic means, MONEYVAL said. “Nevertheless, international cooperation against money laundering and terrorist financing does not appear to have been negatively impacted by the emergency measures taken to combat COVID-19.”
In terms of cybercrime, the report lists a number of potential ways criminals are operating.
One such example: “Perpetrators may offer vaccines, protective masks, medicinal products by pretending to be government websites, which are used to steal personal data by sending an e-mail or SMS with false information - a link or a file which, when clicked, causes the loss of personal data and infects electronic devices and installations of malicious tracking software.”
Link