2. Daniel Thelesklaf
Former Chair (MONEYVAL)
and outgoing co-chair of
the FATF Risks Trends and
Methods Working Group
Moderator
Chris Collett
Deputy CEO Intelligence
AUSTRAC (Australia)
Panellists
Elisa de Anda
Madroza
Director-General
Ministry of Finance and
Public Credit (Mexico)
Ian Pemberton
Criminal Intelligence
Officer
Financial Crimes Unit
Interpol
Gilbert Berk
Head of Unit
Expertise and Stakeholder
Management
EFECC, Europol
3. OTHER/DON'T KNOW
ORGANISED CRIME ACTIVITIES
(E.G. EXTORTION OR…
SELLING FAKE OR STOLEN
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE…
MISUSE OF GOVERNMENT
STIMULUS FUNDS
CYBERCRIME
ONLINE FRAUD
Which COVID-19 related crime do you think has been the most
prevalent in your jurisdiction?
4. • The FATF published a paper on COVID-19 in
May 2020 and is continuing to monitor the
situation
• The criminal economy has been impacted by
COVID-19 and criminal behaviour is changing
• Changes in business operations, including
associated legitimate financial activity, can
help to obscure suspicious money movement
but also reveal previously hidden illicit
conduct
• The risk situation is continuing to evolve
5. Case study
Advanced payment fraud involving a number of European countries – March 2020
• German company received a down payment
amounting to EUR 15m from the federal state
• German company contacted a ‘legitimate’ Spanish
company’ but the company website had been cloned
and recommended an Irish agent.
• The agent made arrangements for the delivery with an
alleged manufacturer from The Netherlands
• The masks were supposed to be handed over on 27
March 2020 in Amsterdam, but did not take place
• The race to follow the illicit financial flows began
1. EUR 1.5m
2. EUR 880k
3. 550k
destined for
Nigeria
Hinweis der Redaktion
Now it happened in Europe. This is in March, after the big wave moved into European side.
In middle of March, as a number of countries were going into lockdown due to the COVID outbreak, German health authorities contracted two sales companies in Zurich and Hamburg to procure 15 million Euro worth of face masks.
Victim companies got a down payment money from the German federal state, and due to the lack of medical supplies, the buyers tried to get reach out to manufacturers and did most efforts also with following the agent or dealer in Ireland in the hopes of securing the masks.
Finally, they found the seller in the Netherland and made an appointment to send those stocks to Germany at the appointed time.
In the meantime, the buyer sent deposit 1.5 million euro to Irish account, and on the shipping date, by the urgent request from the seller, also sent almost 1 million euro to the Netherland account under the pretext of securing mask.
More than 50 trucks and the police patrols were ready to escort this mass transportation at that time, but in the end nobody showed up but disconnected from the world.
