POLICING CORRUPTION AND ECONOMIC CRIME — HOW CAN WE DO IT BETTER?

Abstract

While history records that economically motivated crime and misconduct in its various forms has existed since the earliest civilizations and has always raised issues of fairness and integrity, in recent years additional concerns have come to the fore. Economic stability particularly in an interdependent world, has thrown up issues related to stability and security. The tools that have been developed to address certain manifestations of economic misconduct and in particular the development of financial intelligence are now used across a much broader spectrum than merely the control of fraud and corruption. We use, for example, the regimes that have been designed to identify suspect wealth for a variety of purposes including the raising of revenue which have less relevance to the direct interdiction of financial crime. This paper considers from a practical rather than conceptual standpoint how best to address the risks and issues thrown up by economically motivated crime and also the mechanisms that have been adopted to address it. In particular it seeks to examine various ways in which economically motivated crime may be better discouraged and its impact mitigated. It does not pretend to be a deeply conceptual analysis of the relevant law given its aspiration to have a wider significance and purchase than one jurisdiction. What it does do, however, is to seek to build upon practical experience and apply it to the fashioning of enhanced weapons in the fight against economic crime.