Artificial intelligence may help crack down on money crime
BVI Financial Investigation Agency Director Errol George and BVI Finance CEO Elise Donovan address a recent webinar hosted by BVI Finance.
The BVI Financial Investigation Agency may soon use artificial intelligence to crack down on child sexual exploitation, human smuggling and other illicit activity as it intensifies its efforts following recent criticism of the territory’s ability to fight money crime, according to FIA Director Errol George.
Currently, the agency is channelling more resources into dealing with problems raised in the scathing Mutual Evaluation Report released in February by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, Mr. George said during a recent BVI Finance webinar.
Part of that effort, he said, involves responding to a significant rise in suspicious activity reports relating to virtual assets, which are classed as any digital representation of value that can be digitally traded, transferred or used for payment.
“We have a number of these reports related to child sexual exploitation,” he told the Sept. 6 webinar. “We have a lot of the reports that involve what we call dark-web-related activities — engaging in illegal gambling, buying and selling firearms and even drugs — using virtual assets. This is something that we are looking at closely.”
Artificial intelligence
To tackle the issue, Mr. George said, the FIA is intensifying its monitoring and analysis of virtual-asset-related transactions.
But he acknowledged that the agency needs help in this area.
Mr. George said:
We don’t have the resources at the moment.
“At the moment, we have two analysts on board that are solely dedicated to analysing the virtual assets. We have gotten to the point where we need to incorporate additional technology. We are looking at how best we can incorporate artificial intelligence into our analysis.”
Such technology, he added, will likely be a key weapon in fighting financial crime being flagged by suspicious activity reports, which he described as a crucial tool for his agency.
“If they are engaging in a transaction and those transactions are done in cash … and are deemed to be suspicious for whatever reason, they are required by law to report these matters to the FIA by a suspicious transaction report,” he said.
As part of efforts to expand into artificial intelligence, the FIA is in talks with a United Kingdom firm about obtaining new technology, according to the director.
Mr. George also said the FIA plans more enhanced assessments and onsite visits for entities seen as being at a high risk for criminal activity.
Human smuggling
The director also told the webinar about an ongoing FIA project analysing human smuggling.
“Every so often, we hear about the apprehension of some illegal migrants coming into the territory — being dropped off in many islands in the BVI,” he said. “So we thought that would be a good project in the BVI to look at, having seen some connections, some financial flows, between the BVI and the US Virgin Islands.”
Report on the way
Mr. George said this work — which he described as important for government policymakers — will result in a report that he hopes will be produced by Monday.
Additionally, the organisation is widening its net to better ensure that a range of entities — including realtors, lawyers, jewellers, car dealers, yacht brokers and non-profit organisations — comply with laws designed to deter financial crime.
Mr. George said:
These entities are often at risk of being exploited for money-laundering or terrorist-financing purposes given the nature of their services.
Supervisory remit
To better address such issues, the FIA is expanding its supervisory remit in line with demands from the CFATF, said Mr. George, who has led the FIA since 2009.
“We are enhancing our supervision,” he said. “It is a result of the recommendations of the Mutual Evaluation Report.”
Artificial intelligence may help crack down on money crime, source.
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