The work of the European Commission's unit to combat fraud, UCLAF, is taking full advantage of information technology in its efforts to improve the collection, collation and…
Abstract
The work of the European Commission's unit to combat fraud, UCLAF, is taking full advantage of information technology in its efforts to improve the collection, collation and detection of fraud and irregular activities in the Member States. This is the first of two papers dealing with the work of UCLAF, and concentrates upon bringing the nature of the problem and the institutional and technological background to the attention of readers. The second paper will concentrate upon an interview with Per Knudsen, Director of UCLAF, in which the impact of the new technology and future developments in detection and prosecution will be the focus.
This paper argues that illegal businesses associated with the Republican Movement in Northern Ireland are extremely profitable. It raises the question of what happens to the…
Abstract
This paper argues that illegal businesses associated with the Republican Movement in Northern Ireland are extremely profitable. It raises the question of what happens to the profits concerned. Is there a single major laundering operation to be discovered, is the operation decentralised to individual areas or units, or does the money vanish in bogus cost‐accounting somewhere inside the Movement?
Fraud against the Community budget requires a supranational response because it is an area in which organised crime groups work on a cross‐border basis. The paper considers some…
Abstract
Fraud against the Community budget requires a supranational response because it is an area in which organised crime groups work on a cross‐border basis. The paper considers some of the difficulties confronting the mounting of such a supra‐national response: the inbuilt character of fraud on the Community budget, given the nature of the organisation; difficulties with information technology; the scale of the problem; the lack of prioritisation of the issue by Member States; corruption within the political establishments of Member States; and legal problems. The paper concludes with an examination of the available models for operational cooperation in the fight against fraud: the K4 Commission set up under the Maastricht Treaty, the SIRENE bureaux, Interpol, Europol and UCLAF, the Commission's own anti‐fraud unit. National police investigators have anyway set up their own cross‐border networks to combat the changing modes of cross‐border crime; but all this raises questions about national sovereignty and accountability.
This paper discusses the politicisation of fraud within the European Union and continues the author's scries on fraud, supranational investigative arrangements and cross‐border…
Abstract
This paper discusses the politicisation of fraud within the European Union and continues the author's scries on fraud, supranational investigative arrangements and cross‐border crime. During 1999, the fight against European Community budget fraud became a controversy of central importance within the European Union. This was not because such fraud is wide‐spread, but because as a criminal offence of an all‐European nature it was the point of least resistance from which to construct a European criminal code and a European FBI. During 1998 the corpus juris was proposed as the proto‐criminal code and the next stage in the fight against fraud. This situated the anti‐fraud strategies debate into the conflict between member states and the Commission's alleged agenda for a European superstate. Moreover, with European parliamentary elections approaching, nationalists and Eurosceptics had an interest in exaggerating the problem of fraud in order to depict central European institutions as wasteful and corrupt as well as a threat to the nation‐state. Although since the introduction of the doctrine of subsidiarity, national sovereignty is a fraud in the European context, fraud is also a sovereign issue.
The purpose of this paper is to present ten myths of terrorist financing policy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present ten myths of terrorist financing policy.
Design/methodology/approach
It is argued that post 9/11 literature on terrorism misunderstands the relationship between the component parts of a political movement with an armed wing and thus misrepresents the nature of terrorist financing applies the literature on crime as a business to policy on terrorist financing and concludes that there are loosely‐organised networks that engage in the fund‐raising processes of the political movement as a whole as well as its armed wing.
Findings
Financing methods vary with type of group and over time. That terrorist/paramilitary funding increasingly parallels the business of organised crime and that what is claimed to be known about terrorist funding is mostly erroneous. That funds seized have not been primarily for terrorist financing and that the seizure has done more harm than good.
Practical implications
Thought needs to be given to the impact of funding seizures more that simply in terms of newspaper headlines.
Originality/value
More effective impact can be made upon terrorist financing if a more complex approach is taken, rather than perpetuating the existing myths, which alienate more communities than they deter terrorists.
The purpose of this paper is to argue that small‐scale, low‐value but high‐volume fraud should be pursued as seriously as high‐value, organised crime‐related fraud.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that small‐scale, low‐value but high‐volume fraud should be pursued as seriously as high‐value, organised crime‐related fraud.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper discusses the consequences of profiling offenders and offences involving fraud against the European Community budget. It also looks at ten years of the body tasked with investigating such fraud and suggests that it has become bogged down with too many responsibilities and too few resources. It ends by describing the requirements for a successful investigative environment.
Findings
The political nature of the fight against fraud means that measures based solely on economic criteria are a mistake; measures against political and social harm need to be developed to assist in prioritization.
Practical implications
Public education is required to change the image of those who commit fraud against the Community budget. A different institutional set‐up is also advisable.
Originality/value
The paper applies the lessons learned from targeting frequent offenders in the UK who are being ignored because each individual offence is not worth pursuing but, once the offences in total are recognised, much harm could be prevented.
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Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to assess what an overview of theoretical literature and case study material can tell us about the different ways crime has been organised in the past…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess what an overview of theoretical literature and case study material can tell us about the different ways crime has been organised in the past in different cultures and whether this has any impact on the ways in which crime may be organised in the present and the future.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on an examination of Mcintyre’s work on how crime is organised and later political, economic and civil society views of criminality. Brief discussion of case studies involving the UK, The Netherlands, the Arab world, Ethiopia and Russia is used to see how crime was organised there in the past.
Findings
There is a greater variety of variables in the way crime was organised historically than McIntyre suggests, and an examination of civil society might pay greater dividends than even looking at politics or economic aspects of organised crime.
Research limitations/implications
The study is preliminary. More historical case study material needs to be accessed.
Originality/value
There are many research case studies, particularly at PhD level and in subjects other than criminology, such as history, language studies and cultural studies generally, which have not been brought together to present an overall picture. This paper is a first step in that direction.
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Keywords
This paper seeks to examine the prevalence of fraud in the EU, the weaknesses of the current system in combating it, and to suggest recommendations for a more effective effort in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine the prevalence of fraud in the EU, the weaknesses of the current system in combating it, and to suggest recommendations for a more effective effort in this respect.
Design/methodology/approach
The recent (post‐won) history of European fraud is chronicled and the observations of authors in this issue (JFC, Vol. 17 No. 1) are noted.
Findings
EU fraud has so far received low priority in the law enforcement's hierarchy of prosecutable offences. However, it is possible, even of this late juncture, to co‐ordinate efforts effectively to pursue, detect, try, convict and punish offenders.
Originality/value
The paper, at last, makes concrete suggestions for combating EU fraud – a move long‐awaited and sorely needed.
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Keywords
Emmanuel Senanu Mekpor, Anthony Aboagye and Jonathan Welbeck
This paper aims to compute a measure for anti-money laundering/counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance and investigate its determinants.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to compute a measure for anti-money laundering/counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance and investigate its determinants.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and assigning weights to them, the study computes a measure for AML compliance. Further, the determinants of AML compliance were investigated using ordinary least squares (OLS) data of 155 countries between 2004 and 2016.
Findings
The findings suggest that AML compliance have slightly improved over the years. Further, the OLS regression results show that technology, regulatory quality, bank concentration, trade openness and financial intelligence center significantly determined and improved AML compliance.
Practical implications
From the findings, it is evident that countries that wish to improve the AML compliance should focus more on technology, regulatory quality, structure of the banking sector, size of the economy and institution of financial intelligence center so as to enhance AML compliance.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper reveals a first AML/CFT compliance index that measures the cross-country level of AML/CFT compliance from the year 2004 to 2016. Subsequently, this paper adopted an OLS econometric model to identify the key determinants of AML/CFT compliance among member states of FATF.
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Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to study the various theories related to low cost terrorist attacks and factors which act as the key determinants to the costing decision. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the various theories related to low cost terrorist attacks and factors which act as the key determinants to the costing decision. This research is an endeavour to bring about the factors influencing costing decisions of low cost and high cost terror attacks.
Design/methodology/approach
Methodology adopted is a descriptive one which conducts a content analysis on existing theories, based on materials derived from primary as well secondary source data.
Findings
This paper argues that the terminology of “low cost terrorism” is ambiguous. This paper states that the nature of attack and the type of attack play an important part in determining the funding levels of terror operations. The decision to taper or increase the cost is more of a “choice” in larger groups but a matter of “compulsion” in smaller groups.
Practical implications
In the process, it attempts to enlighten the counter terrorism community on the need to target the criminal fund raising mechanisms of homegrown groups which act as the main funding resource for low cost terror attacks. It also attempts to enlighten the concerned institutions, to increase physical security measures instead of attempting to sever the funding for this low cost terror attacks which is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.
Originality/value
The key findings of this research lies in its originality of presentation of facts in a systematic fashion.