Combating Financial Crime

"To be able to think like a criminal is onerous; if not impossible." - Anonymous

Preempting and disrupting financial crime has assumed greatest significance in the wake of upsurge in fraudulent activities exacerbated by the global pandemic. As the line demarcating technology and finance gets increasingly blurred, there has never been a more opportune time for professionals across the spectrum - law enforcement and finance in particular - to acquire professional training towards combating financial crime.

The ransom hack perpetrated by an obscure group pushing the Colonial 'to make peace' by paying (69.6) and eventually recovering (63.7) Bitcoin aided by the FBI - never mind the 'difference' and 'profit' - is a poignant reminder of the impunity with which criminals are able to breach secured systems laying bare the vulnerabilities within the cyber-financial infrastructure. Another incident that attracted less media glare - but nevertheless equally abhorrent - related to infiltration of a public hospital in Italy by a lesser-known Mafia known as 'Ndrangheta. With an easy access to highly sensitive medical records, the group was known to have admonished grieving relatives of the dead (at the height of the pandemic) against soliciting services of any 'unrelated' funeral company - all of which was achieved through coercive tactics.

Financial crime is a malaise that cannot be eliminated in entirety. But with enhanced vigilance, surveillance and intelligence aided by professional training, the concerted efforts might well work as an effective 'antidote' in combating the 'virulence' of the financial crime.