UK Collaboration Aims To Tackle Terrorist-Linked Fraud

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

14 October 2009

KYC360, the Online Anti-Money Laundering Community, has announced that it has partnered with the Metropolitan Police and LexisNexis to provide an online forum for the Metropolitan Police Service’s Counter Terrorist Command’s training unit.

Following a successful pilot program held in June, LexisNexis will, through a new public private partnership with the Metropolitan Police, provide intensive, interactive training designed to help combat the terrorist financing threat. The program has been structured to help UK businesses understand how terrorist financing works, its potential impact on their operations, and how to prevent fraud linked to terrorist financing.

The partnership will see specialist forums being hosted by KYC360 in order to provide interested parties with access to a broad knowledgebase of anti-money laundering information, and discussions on regulation, fraud and financial crime.

Stephen Leece, Director, Government & Regulatory Markets, at LexisNexis, said: "This program is a significant step-up in our efforts to share the latest intelligence and appropriate countermeasures relating to terrorist financing. It focuses on the ‘Know How’ essential for countering this threat and is aimed at leading practitioners responsible for fraud prevention. The training sessions teach a practical approach to dealing with this threat and offers a unique opportunity to learn best practice from experts in the financial and legal sectors, together with serving officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Fraud, National Terrorist Financing and Money Laundering Investigation Teams."

Commander Shaun Sawyer, from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, added: "This program has been designed in collaboration with industry to develop and deliver information to the private sector to help them identify risks to their businesses, as well as improve their ability to identify terrorist financing activities. It is vital that organizations understand the risks posed by terrorist financing and learn how to mitigate them."

Karl Anderson, Managing Director of KYC360, said: "Through our online forums, trainees will be able to communicate with their peers to discuss practical terrorist financing issues, ask questions of police trainers and access other specialist information. KYC360 is committed to being a source for high quality anti-money laundering and financial crime information and discussion, and I am delighted that we are continuing in this respect by partnering with leading organizations such as LexisNexis and the Metropolitan Police."

Developed specifically for Money Laundering Reporting Officers and AML professionals in UK companies, the program combines law enforcement with financial intelligence examples gleaned from police interviews with terrorist suspects, and terrorist financing typologies and trends. Sessions begin from November 5.

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