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More than 600 cases were brought to Eurojust, the EU’s judicial agency, in 2021, representing more than double those registered in 2016.
Almost 3,000 cross-border money laundering cases have been registered at Eurojust during the past six years, and since 2016, the number of cases brought to the agency has been steadily rising, according to its inaugural report on money laundering.
Eurojust is an agency of the EU that is mandated to deal with judicial cooperation in criminal matters among national agencies of the member states. Set up in 2002, it is situated in The Hague, Netherlands.
Eurojust’s case statistics show that money laundering cases accounted for almost 15 percent of all cases registered at the agency between 2016 and 2021.
A key challenge in many money laundering cases is identifying the beneficial owner of criminal assets. This is often very difficult because of the use of "shell" companies, or because suspects do not act under their own name to hide the financial trail that would show the money’s illicit origins.
Crypto-assets, increasingly misused by criminals to launder their illegal profits, present another challenge for money laundering cases. This, as Eurojust points out, makes it difficult to keep track of the assets held by those under investigation.
However, despite Eurojust’s finding and concerns over crypto-assets, the European policing network, Europol, noted earlier this year that the role of crypto-assets in money laundering is overstated.
To deal with crypto-assets, Eurojust suggested a best practice is deploying highly skilled digital evidence experts during house searches to make copies of relevant electronic evidence and access crypto wallets belonging to suspects.
Other common issues identified in the report related to determining who is considered a victim in a given country, and how to ensure proportionate compensation for all victims when the amount frozen is not enough.
In such cases, the agency recommended clarifying via Eurojust the valid legal basis to freeze funds for restitution to victims.
All EU member states were involved in international money laundering cases brought to Eurojust during the last six years, according to the report, with Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands dealing with the largest number of cases.
Over 60 third countries were also concerned, with Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and Ukraine representing the non-EU states most involved.
Meanwhile, Eurojust organised 600 coordination meetings between concerned national authorities and established 116 joint investigation teams dedicated to money laundering cases, accounting for one quarter of all joint investigation teams facilitated by the agency.
AML has become an increasingly significant topic in the EU’s political discourse, with the European Commission having proposed a wide ranging set of reforms in 2021, including the establishment of an Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA).
Currently the home of the new AMLA is being fought for by various EU member states. The German city of Frankfurt has been keen to host the new agency, even getting former Chancellor Angela Merkel to appear at a rally last month.
In addition, The Hague, already home to many EU and international judicial bodies, is thought to be in the running.
