Annual report 2012 Federal judicial police Economic and financial crime directorate
CONTACTS
Director Johan DENOLF ℡ +32 2 743 74 15 +32 2 743 74 16 djf.direction@skynet.be Deputy directors Bart DOMBRET – ℡ +32 2 743 74 37 Johan DE VOLDER – ℡ +32 2 743 76 87 B&S/P&S Jan BUYS ℡ +32 2 743 76 39 –
CDBC/OCRC Michel SACOTTE ℡ +32 2 743 74 48 –
+32 2 743 74 08
djf.ocrc-cdbc@skynet.be
CDGEFID/OCDEFO Veerle DE WOLF ℡ +32 2 743 72 02 –
+32 2 743 72 04
djf.defo-gefid@skynet.be
+32 2 743 75 73
P&O Anke SALEN ℡ +32 2 743 74 40 – +32 2 743 76 69 djf.po@skynet.be C&L/C&D Danièle GOFFINET ℡ +32 2 743 73 87 – +32 2 743 72 33 djf.fuse@skynet.be
FCCU Luc BEIRENS ℡ +32 2 743 74 74 –
+32 2 743 74 19
CDBV/OCRF Alain BOUCAR ℡ +32 2 743 73 03 –
+32 2 743 72 90
ocrfd@skynet.be
Please note that within the scope of operational police cooperation, foreign police authorities are to use the prescribed channels (Europol, Interpol and liaison officers). The Economic and Financial Crime Directorate shall be referred to as the DJF Directorate throughout the document. For ease of reading, the names of the units have been translated in English. However for reference purposes the French/Dutch abbreviations have been added. We have included at the end of the report a list with the official acronyms and abbreviations in French and Dutch with an English translation.
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SIGNIFICANT RESULTS
Training GES and FEEDIS 72 A total of 72 hours were given in training GES and FEEDIS to the services and the K-User of the Federal police.
Ageing staff 38.5% On 31/12/2012, 38.5% of the staff members of DJF was older than 50, while only 4% was younger than 30.
Strategic analyses 7 The Policy & Strategy unit (P&S/B&S) carried out 7 strategic analyses, which is one less than the previous year.
Parliamentary queries 55 In 2012, MP’s forwarded 55 questions to the Directorate, which amounts to 8 more compared to 2011. Seventy-three per cent of these questions related to the core business of the Federal Computer Crime Unit. The Commissioner general has instructed that from 2013 onwards the Federal police would measure the processing time of parliamentary queries.
Calculation illegal gains in one money laundering case 76,000,000 Calculating the tax basis in one tax fraud investigation, it was found to amount to nearly €144,000,000. The illegal gains were roughly estimated at €76,000,000, of which amount our services had a few million seized in 2012.
Computer crime 20,356 The number of registered facts of computer crime in Belgium continues to rise throughout the years and peaked in 2012 following the ransom ware virus. In 2012, 20 356 cases of computer crime were registered in the police database, which is an increase of 37.5% comparing to 2011.
VAT prejudice 18.5 The VAT prejudice for 2012 is estimated at €18.5 million (figures up to November). Under the first strategic objective ‘reach the budgetary goals regarding the approach of fiscal fraud’ in the policy program ‘fiscal fraud’ (National Security Plan 2012-2015) the operational goal ‘make sure that the annual damage to the Belgian Treasury remains under 40 million euros’ was achieved as regards 2012.
Money laundering & Recovery day 120,553,697 The total amount regarding urgent reports (named REDSOP) reached approximately €12.5 million, which is the concrete execution of the sixth goal set out within the first strategic objective ‘detect and seize illegally gained income’ in the policy program ‘money laundering and recovery’.
Arrests by FAST 306 In 2012 a total of 306 arrests were made in cases attributed to FAST, in particular 117 in Belgium, 169 in other EU MS and 20 outside of EU. Of the 117 arrests in Belgium, 56 were made by FAST (consisting of 10 officers). The 61 remaining arrests were made by all other Belgian police officers combined. This is a clear indication of the surplus value of our FAST unit.
C&L/C&D Bank warrants 1,935 DJF is competent for all bank warrants (to all institutions) on behalf of the entire integrated police, amounting in 2012 to 1,935 bank warrants. This support has increased in comparison with the 1,648 bank warrants in 2011.
FCCU - ‘Google’ in police investigation 384 384 persons attended the second edition of this colloquium. The colloquia organised on 27 April 2011 and 7 February 2012 were attended by 741 persons.
New cases at the Organised Economic & Financial Crime Unit 57 In 2012 a total of 57 new cases were opened at the Organised Economic & Financial Crime Unit; 18 for money laundering/patrimony, 12 for social fraud, 13 for VAT fraud and 2 at the Financial analysis cell.
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EFFECTIVE FIGHT AGAINST FRAUD AND RESULTS… ‘A LOT ON OUR PLATE’… I am proud to present the eleventh annual report of the Directorate of Economic and Financial Crime (hereafter named DJF) of the Belgian Federal judicial police. Communicating our results of the past year answers the need for ‘open management’ and is intended to be a source for discussion, adjustment and enrichment of our policy through external input. As such, the annual report fits the brief of the policy cycle for continuous adjustment in striving to excellent policing. Last but not least an annual report is the most direct and sincere interpretation of our readiness for transparency and accountability. The year 2012 was in many ways a turbulent year: some headlines regarding the future of our Directorate disturbed many collaborators. The first headlines in September 2012 announcing that the operational research capacity of our Directorate would be taken away caused quite some commotion. At times, emotions ran high and through proper communication we tried to bring some calm, although that was never really restored. Insecurity is hard to bear for collaborators. Early 2013, the ink had barely dried and several versions found their way to the Internet, one version being more ominous than the next. This constant insecurity is a continuous stress factor. 2012 was definitely a year of change: the new National Security Plan (NSP 2012-2015) was approved; the first female Commissioner-general – Mrs De Bolle – was appointed and she set out a vision and mission letter that clearly put in some new accents; the Director-general of the Federal judicial police was changed and, as the cherry on the cake, the plans to optimize the Federal police were traced out… End 2012 it dawned on the police that the financial means were being restricted, be it that the security services suffer less from budgetary costs than other departments. Nevertheless, budgetary cuts and the continuous departure of collaborators (and with them of expertise and experience) are surely felt both in the district Federal Judicial police units and in the central directorates, including DJF. No matter how well a vision is supported or how well plans are integrated, capacity can only be deployed once, be it on district, provincial or national level. This inevitably means that choices will have to be made. In a world in which state economy, financial institutions and family economy are and remain central points, not investing in the fight against economic or financial crime is not an option. We have our work cut out for us… Was 2012 a year of doom and gloom? Most certainly not! Due to the crisis it has been a thorn in the side of many people to have to tighten the belt, while the media report on illegal gains issued from fraud committed both by individuals and criminal organisations. The loot-oriented approach to criminality and the attention awarded to the laundering of illegal capital gains are transversal priorities in the new NSP and the expression of the commitment not to disappoint the public. An intent clearly shared by the government as the policy document pinpoints the approach of fiscal and social fraud and the fight against the damage they cause. However, such an approach can only be successful if everyone takes up his responsibility and if walls between departments are torn down. Increasingly databases are being linked (the Federal police closed a deal with Customs & Excise about information exchange, the police have been given access to the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (CBE), etc.) Working together is no longer a slogan, it has become a must. The government’s cyber strategy 2012 ‘securing cyberspace’ benefited from the expertise and practical knowledge of the Federal Computer Crime Unit. The Organised Economic and Financial
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Crime unit works with the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CFI/CTIF), the Central Organ for Seizure and Confiscation (COIV/OCSC), the Special Tax Inspectorate (BBI/ISI), Customs & Excise, the Federal Department of Economy and the other police units combating money laundering and cash smuggling. The Anti-corruption unit (CDBC/OCRC) continuously seeks to tighten links with partners in the fight against corruption. Finally the Forgery and Counterfeit unit (CDBV/OCRF) joins the quest for enhanced cooperation. Change and ‘change management’ nearly always goes hand in hand with insecurity, worry, etc. but change also opens the door for opportunities! Our phenomena are indisputably ‘booming business’ whether there is or is no Economic and Financial Crime Directorate on Central level and they will remain ‘booming business’ in the years to come. The districts will not fall short of work. There will be ‘food and drink’ for everyone. And on central level there is also a lot on out plate. In 2013 preparations will need to be made for the evaluation of Belgium in 2014 by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Group of States against corruption (GRECO), but in particular by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). We must not let time go to waste as the evaluation by the FATF could have extensive repercussions for our country. Bad marks could decrease the rating of Belgium, which would mean difficulties for our country on the credit market, consumption would reduce, our economy would slow down and we could end up in a fast downwards spiral of recession or worse depression. Food and drink galore, at least that seems to be an abiding feature, which we need and have: our annual report, our annual study day, our operational missions, the continuous input of new cases, the results obtained; but also the knowledge and knowhow, competence, insight, expertise, intellectual perception, labour, availability, commitment, loyalty and spirit of cooperation are all trade marks of DJF; the permanent commitment not only of the management but of everyone to all walk in the same direction,… I am well aware that I have been a privileged coach for over eleven years! Thank you ladies and gentlemen of DJF! Measuring up the metaphor to reality: the collaborators of DJF are all highly specialised and work in the field of combating criminal niches that are growing in importance: economic and financial crime, corruption, ICT-crime, false documents and false money, etc. This is why I am convinced that there is a future for the financial/economic investigators and collaborators with the police force. Our effectiveness and efficiency have been proven year after year and 2012 was no exception, once again the results are outstanding. This annual report marks the strong brand of DJF within the police organisation, which gives me hope for the future. I wish you an instructive read of this annual report! Brussels, 27 June 2013
Johan Denolf Director of the Economic and Financial Crime Directorate Detective Chief Superintendent, Federal judicial police
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Part I - Directorate DJF 1. The Directorate’s mission statement The Belgian integrated police are comprised of the Federal police and 195 local police forces (in charge of community policing). The integrated police were established in 2001 and are structured on two levels, functioning in an integrated way. The Federal police employ approximately 12,700 members of staff, divided over the General commissariat, the General Directorate of Administrative police (including traffic police, air police, etc.), the General Directorate of Judicial police and the General Directorate of Support. The Economic and Financial Crime Directorate (DJF) is part of the Belgian Federal Judicial police that manages seven central Directorates and twenty-seven territorial Directorates (one per judicial district).
MISSION OF DJF The DJF Directorate is dedicated to preventing and fighting phenomena destabilising societies, in particular as regards economic, financial and fiscal organised crime, serious and organised fraud, bribery (both public and private), computer crime, forgery (false documents and counterfeiting), organised fraud (with or without Internet). It does so by developing and offering: conceptual, operational and technical support; information, expertise and coordination; highly specialised investigative capacity.
The Federal and the local police both strive toward reinforcing the country’s security and guaranteeing democracy in a constitutional state by carrying out police missions in an integral and integrated way and providing minimum and equivalent service on the whole territory. The DJF Directorate carries out specialised and supra-local judicial police missions in accordance with the principles of specialisation and subsidiarity, and offers support to the police authorities and (local) police services. With professionalism, determination and the will to solve problems the DJF Directorate contributes, with other partners, to better overcome or even reduce security problems by: privileging a dynamic management of specialised data (collecting, processing, circulating and exploiting); contributing to the development of a national police image; developing conceptual models for the way in which phenomena pertaining to economic, financial, fiscal, social, corruption and computer crimes, forgeries and organised frauds present themselves and harmonising the police approach according to the integral and integrated principle; focussing on research and development of techniques and tactics specific to the phenomena, for that purpose working out and setting up training and courses; contributing to a general training program based on core competencies; launching and conducting intricate and large-scale investigations relating to economic, financial, fiscal and social crimes, bribery, subsidy frauds and offences committed within the scope of tenders and procurement contracts; providing – on request – operational support and coordination pertaining to investigations conducted by the decentralised judicial directorates in the judicial districts (PJF/FGP); providing operational and technical support within the scope of computer fraud, enquiries conducted in an automated environment, forgeries and investigations aiming to locate and trace both loot and fugitives; cooperating with national and international partners; establishing cooperation links with partners both in the private and public sector.
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The individual rights and liberties as well as every person’s dignity are of paramount importance to the DJF Directorate when executing its missions. Its interventions are distinguished by integrity and impartiality, a sense of responsibility and respect for legal standards. The Directorate is loyal towards the democratic institutions and in its capacity of Directorate it offers a quality service to its clients and partners. In a spirit of mutual respect and esteem all collaborators contribute to a feeling of well-being on the job. The DJF Directorate is slightly under-staffed, employing presently slightly over ten per cent short of the amount of staff who should be placed on the books. Most are police officers, but there are also administrative employees (named CALog) and members detached from other Federal government departments (mainly the Federal Department of Finance, but also from social inspection services). Jointly they put in 523,842 hours of work, the major part of which (36.46%) concerned reactive missions of judicial police. Besides its task of Central Directorate (conceptual work, support, coordination and management control) DJF also has an operational mission mainly carried out by the units OCDEFO/CDGEFID and OCRC/CDBC. Counting the members of personnel seconded from other departments and the personnel on the DJF books, approximately 300 people work on behalf of the DJF Directorate in various capacities.
Challenges: The Directorate shall have to face some daunting challenges in the future, one of which is a rapidly ageing staff. One hundred and two members of staff are over 50 years old and shall retire within the next decade, creating a huge loss of experience and know-how for the organisation, a problem mainly affecting the Anticorruption unit (OCRC/CDBC). The FCCU on the contrary has a young team and is thus better off pensionwise. It has to be noted that the members of staff younger than 35 only amount to 13 or 5% of the total staff. This inevitably means that efforts will have to be made to train more officers in this specialised line of work.
Another challenge is the current budgetary tightness. There will be some serious financial cutbacks to consider. While personnel costs take up eighty per cent of the total expenditure of â‚Ź19,536,217, the next big cost appears to be rent for office accommodation. A big move is planned for 2014, meaning that DJF shall leave the premises at the Notelaarsstraat (near EU-district) to be grouped with other police services in one big building in the centre of Brussels (near the Central Station) with hopefully less maintenance and energy costs.
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DJF expenditure
Category Personnel
Breakdown Salaries Overtime etc. Training
Office accommodation
Communication
11,091
9,986
12,633,306 2,109,658 499,000
14,279,506 2,131,523 421,631
14,932,419 2,153,614 505,000
15,798,378 2,289,171 482,000
87,744
93,494
93,316
114,393
2,696,402 21,984 12,281
2,646,648 60,000 12,526
2,751,930 100,000 12,785
2,885,564 0 12,241
55,912
56,114
64,764
65,689
Subtotal fleet Purchases (investment) Purchases (consumable) Photocopiers (purchase & maintenance)
90,177 49,841 62,000
128,640 46,206 69,030
177,549 43,688 43,268
77,930 46,872 60,000
10,776
3,718
5,906
1,891
Computers (investment)
182,902
46,887
36,796
49,761
Subtotal equipment Phone & Fax (landlines)
305,519 47,695
165,841 36,980
129,658 48,124
158,524 50,073
7,338
6,741
7,326
8,100
55,033 19,204
43,721 56,131
55,450 62,824
58,173 44,437
1,200
1,350
1,350
1,200
20,404 813,891
57,481 531,000
64 174 410,805
45,637 431,869
94,380
94,380
94,380
94,380
33,706
39,194
39,162
35,822
941,977
664,574
544,347
562,071
16,742,818
17,986,411
18,655,527
19,536,217
Subtotal personnel Rent Atrium-building Maintenance Subtotal office accommodation Investment Maintenance
Internet Miscellaneous
Subtotal communication Travel expenses Representation CG PR
On behalf of PJF/FGP
Subtotal miscellaneous Investment ICT, RCCU & FCCU Access database (Euro DB, Cofaces) EcoFin library Subtotal on behalf of PJF/FGP
Total
2012 15,386,611 401,781
27,869
Fuel Equipment
2010 2011 13,865,453 14,508,828 386,184 412,500
10,500
Energy (electricity) Fleet of vehicles
2009 12,261,869 360,937
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2. The Directorate’s units DJF Directorate’s organisation chart The directorate has seven units organised as a matrix, three horizontal supporting units (Policy & Strategy, Coordination of Investigations & Information Flow Management, Personnel & Organisation) and four operational units handling a specific phenomenon (Federal Computer Crime Unit, Organised Economic and Financial Crime unit, Forgery and Counterfeit unit, Anti-corruption unit).
Director Johan DENOLF
Deputy director
Deputy director
Johan DE VOLDER
Bart DOMBRET
Federal Prosecutor ’s Office Supervisory Magistrate Anti -corruption Unit Jean -Pascal THOREAU
Operational units DIR secretariat
Policy & Strategy
Support units
Jan BUYS
Coordination of Investigations & Information Flow Management
Federal Computer Crime Unit
Luc BEIRENS
Organised Economic and Financial Crime Unit
Veerle DE WOLF
Forgery and Counterfeit Unit
Alain BOUCAR
Anticorruption Unit
Michel SACOTTE
Dani è le GOFFINET
Personnel & Organisation Anke SALEN
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Four operational units
Anti-corruption unit (OCRC/CDBC) The Anti-corruption unit combats briberies by/of public servants, extortion and conflict of interests. In addition, it also detects fraud with tenders, subsidy fraud and private bribery.
This unit also has a section dedicated to fighting footballrelated fraud (bribery in sports) and is the workplace for police officers attached to the ‘Gaming Commission’1.
While the members working in this unit drew up 4,701 police reports in 2011, they only drew up 3,192 police reports in 2012 and complied with 812 briefs (instructions given by the judicial authorities named ‘apostille’ in French). This is reflected in the following chart.
DJF/OCRC – Briefs & police reports 2009
2010
2011
2012
1,452
1,335
1,057
812
32%
- 8%
- 21%
- 23%
Number of police reports
4,538
5,317
4,701
3,192
(evolution in comparison to year x-1)
+ 52%
+ 17%
- 12%
- 32%
Number of briefs received (evolution in comparison to year x-1)
Although this seems to be a significant decrease, there are a number of explanations. First, this unit has been particularly affected by a shortage of staff, five members have retired since last year. Secondly, the cases taken on by this unit are very complex and take more time to investigate. Finally, the briefs depend on the willingness of the magistrates to issue them.
1
The gaming commission was instituted by the Act of 07 May 1999. This body is responsible for: · giving advice to the government and parliament; · making decisions in respect of the licences granted to casinos (licence A), gaming arcades (licence B), drinking establishments (licence C), the personnel working in casinos and gaming arcades (licence D), the suppliers and repairers of games of chance (licence E); · controlling the games of chance; · controlling the holders of licences (and can inflict penalties on them); · ensuring the protection of players and betters.
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Forgery and Counterfeit unit (OCRF/CDBV) Although the Forgery and Money Counterfeit unit (OCRF/CDBV) mainly works for the judicial authorities, it is a key pillar of the administrative authorities.
The section ‘false documents’ is in charge of checking and authenticating documents used to identify persons (identity documents, passports, driving licences, etc.). The chart below reflects that while in 2011 technical support was offered regarding 14,949 documents, this support significantly decreased to 13,080 documents in 2012.
OCRF/CDBV Technical support in the fight against false documents 14949 15000 14358 Number of documents
14500
14162
14000
13669
13500 13080 13000 12500 12000 2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Besides qualitative expertise and technical support regarding false documents, the unit also has a section handling the counterfeiting of money that also watches over the official currency of the Eurozone, the euro. The number of subsequent police reports has remained more or less stable and is consistent with the amount of money seized. We do notice an increase in new police reports, which can be explained by the ‘reporting function’ of the OCRF/CDBV unit regarding the judicial authorities as regards ‘dangerous counterfeiting’ and by the false currencies that end up with the unit through the banking and financial channel. The chart below shows the evolution in police reports.
Police reports 2500
2000 553
245
1500
886 115
131 1000
1714 1480 1184
1155
935
500
0 2008
2009
2010
Subsequent report
2011
2012
Initial report
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Organised Economic and Financial Crime unit (OCDEFO/CDGEFID) The Organised Economic and Financial Crime unit (OCDEFO/CDGEFID) is beyond doubt the most complex unit of DJF. It is comprised of a number of sections: -
-
-
The section Money-laundering/criminal assets is in charge of removing proceeds of crime (through seizure with a view to forfeiture) and combating money laundering. Its close partner is the Financial Intelligence Unit (the Belgian FIU), which is the authority on preventing the use of the financial system to launder money. The section Serious & Organised VAT-fraud can rely on a support team consisting of police officers and tax experts. The section Serious & Organised Fiscal fraud deals with a/o income tax fraud. Considering that not only fiscal fraud but also social fraud can cause considerable prejudice to the Belgian Treasury, a section Serious and Organised Social fraud was created in 2011. A specially created team, in which four social inspection services are represented, supports it. The odd one out is the Fugitives Asset and Search Team (FAST) that traces fugitives trying to evade the course of justice. As soon as the legal frame is adapted, these police officers shall also target the removal of criminal assets during the execution of penalty.
All sections can call upon the fiscal officials who have been put at their disposal (and who have the competence of ‘officer of judicial police’) as well as upon a section called AFA that analyses financial caserelated data. Very unique is the presence in this unit of two mixed support cells: -
-
Mixed support cell VAT-fraud (OCS BTW) that can detect fraud schemes by means of data mining and data matching of the VAT declarations; as they detect at an early stage the prejudice for the government can be significantly reduced. Once the fraud detected, the investigation is either conducted by the Federal Department of Finance (nearly two thirds of the cases) or referred to the prosecuting office for further police investigation (about one third of the cases); Mixed support cell Serious and organised social fraud (OCS GSF) consisting of inspectors of four social inspection services, in particular ‘Social inspection’ of the Federal Department of Social Security, the ‘Supervision on social laws’ of the Federal Public Service of Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, the ‘Inspection’ of the National Social Security Office and the ‘Direction enforcement policy’ of the National Employment Office.
Moreover particular attention is given to networking. Liaison officers of the CDFEFID/OCDEFO are put at the disposal of the Centraal Orgaan voor de Inbeslagneming en de Verbeurdverklaring (COIV, the Belgian Asset Recovery Office) and the Cel voor Financiële Informatieverwerking (CFI, the Belgian Financial Intelligence Unit). They work for the entire police force.
CDFEFID/OCDEFO consists of 82 members of staff and drew up 2,902 police reports in 2012. Some of these police reports relate to the swift intervention of the police and prosecuting authorities, named the REDSOP-procedure (results through fast action = the urgent seizure of funds that are considered suspicious by the Financial Intelligence Unit). DJF OCDEFO/CDGEFID – Briefs & police reports Number of briefs received (evolution in comparison to year x-1)
2009 385 - 17%
2010 571 + 48%
2011 963 + 68%
2012 1,060 +10%
Number of police reports drawn up (evolution in comparison to year x-1)
2,182 + 35%
1,898 - 13%
2,842 + 49%
2,902 +2%
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New means of payment and technologies open new possibilities for criminals to launder money derived from their criminal activities. To combat these, a form of collaboration was worked out between the CDGEFID/OCDEFO and FCCU named the ‘New Tech’ team. In 2008 the case codenamed ‘Tuborg’ was opened following the hacking of bank accounts of approximately twenty victims in Denmark, in which the stolen money was firstly transferred to bank accounts of Belgian money mules (persons putting their bank accounts at the disposal of criminals). The latter withdrew the money in cash from their account to then send it via ‘money transfer’ (Western Union) to a second line of money mules mainly situated in Russia, the Ukraine and Poland. CDGEFID/OCDEFO and FCCU investigated the hacked computers of the victims and analysed the way in which the Belgian money mules were recruited. In doing so they aimed to track down the organisers of this scheme. They also tried to trace where the money was eventually headed. As the money seemed to systematically find its way to Russia, the Ukraine or Poland, collaborations were set up with the Russian judicial police (MVD). The Belgian liaison officers on the spot made huge contributions to establishing the necessary contacts and work towards positive results. The investigation is still running but some major achievements were reached in 2012. EUROJUST has acknowledged the approach of the ‘New Tech’ team, combining technical ICT-aspects (FCCU) and financial/money laundering aspects (CDGEFID) as best practice.
As regards FAST, in 2012 there were 499 new cases, 187 (37.47%) of which have already been closed. Looking at all 3,960 cases that have been assigned to FAST over the years, it appears that 2 707 have already been closed, which corresponds to 68.36%. It has to be noted that in some cases the case cannot be closed with an arrest but must be dropped due to the extinguishment of the sentence by limitation (i.e. release from liability to a penalty for a criminal offence because the applicable limitation period has run without the sentence having been enforced) or due to the death of the offender. The vast majority of the arrests occurred outside of Belgium upon locating the fugitive. Most fugitives could be located in Europe, which sustains the importance of the European Network for FAST-teams (ENFAST). Furthermore, 64 arrests were made in Belgium, 46 of which by the section itself.
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Federal Computer Crime unit (FCCU) As the Organised Economic and Financial Crime unit mainly deals with intricate company structures and complex international money flows, the Federal Computer Crime unit (FCCU) moves in the virtual world, the world of computers, tablets, smartphones, bits and bytes. The FCCU fights computer crime on federal level, whereas the Regional Computer Crime units (RCCU) fight computer crime locally. Both conduct forensic searches on, for instance Personal Computers. The FCCU gives specialised support to central investigation units such as CDBC/OCRC, CDGEFID/OCDEFO, General Inspection or RCCU within the scope of investigations regarding ICT-systems related to traditional crimes (mainly forensic analyses of ICT-systems). FCCU also gives support to RCCU’s for computer crime cases or telecommunications fraud. But the FCCU also conducts cases within the scope of attacks on critical infrastructures (Col9/2009 Board of General prosecutors). As such the FCCU opened 64 cases in 2012; they copied and analysed 291 data carriers for a total of 74.4 terabytes. To deal with the increasing workflow the program ‘Forensic Robust Investigation Toolkit’ (Frit) was developed within the FCCU to enable a simultaneous and automated consultation adapted to the needs of the investigators. Thanks to this program, precious time is saved, both for the FCCU staff and the crime investigators who can carry out their searches in a shorter lapse of time and with a better overview on all the data in their file. Sadly, the increase in storage capacity with private persons and companies has not triggered an increase of staff. Therefore the unit was forced to not only develop new programs, such as Frit, but also to reorganise the unit in two sections and two teams. Accurate information exchange is of paramount importance in the fight against computer crime and frauds, which is what the Internet Information and Investigation System (I3S) aims at. On-going investigations require a vast amount of identifications of Internet users, which led in 2012 to 2,050 requests for identification (including users of email addresses, IP-addresses and pseudonyms). Microsoft remains the leader for the amount of requested ID, closely followed by Facebook and Google. A slight increase of approximately 3% is noticed in comparison with the previous year as is reflected in the following chart. FCCU Evolution of identifications
Number of identification request
2500 1988
1917
2050
1740
2000
1596
1500 1000 500 0 2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
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ECOPS As computers are increasingly used as tools to commit more traditional crimes using to that end the Internet, the FCCU manages, in collaboration with the Federal Department of Economy, the Belgian online reporting service eCops (www.ecops.be) where Internet users can report offences related to Belgium, committed on or through the Internet.
All too often Internet users mistakenly believe this to be an online service where they can lodge a complaint for an offence they have been the victim of. As an increasing number of people use this contact point as such, it has become hard to effectively manage the workload because victims who lodge complaints on eCops must each time be referred to the local police station.
For these reasons, the FCCU has decided to reform this national contact point and the new platform eCops should shortly be put online. It seems more indicated to publish some kind of index cards offering an answer to possible situations people may encounter on the net. Moreover the victim will find on these cards all the information needed about the procedure to follow in order to lodge a complaint and about the evidence that needs to be submitted.
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Three support units
Policy & Strategy (P&S/B&S)
The Policy & Strategy (P&S) unit was created following an internal reorganisation of the DJF Directorate mainly to better guide the policy cycle and carry out the required crime analyses within the concept of intelligence led policing. In 2012, the unit carried out seven analyses (including money laundering, bribery, computer crime, VAT fraud, social fraud – Brazil connection, bank warrants and the influence of on-line clandestine markets in Belgium). This unit also developed four policy programs, on the specialised topics of computer crime, money laundering and asset recovery, fiscal fraud and social fraud. A CD was published with all the analyses and policy programs. With the collaboration of the Directorate’s secretariat this unit is also in charge of compiling an information booklet in which collaborators are kept informed about the latest – national and international – developments in the field of DJF-issues. This booklet normally appears four times a year under the name ‘Atrium News’.
Personnel & Organisation (P&O)
End 2012 the P&O unit consisted of a head, two operational and 14 administrative staff members, divided over two sections: Human resources and Logistics. This unit sees to the good functioning of the entire DJF Directorate, handles the administrative tasks for the staff members and provides support where and when needed.
Coordination of Investigations & Information Flow Management (C&D/C&L) The Coordination of Investigations & Information Flow Management unit (C&D/C&L) is in the main a newly created unit, although some parts of the former and now shut down unit FUSE have been integrated. The unit sees to the coordination of large-scaled investigations (exceeding 3,000 hours), the improved information exchange, the special methods of investigation, and it is the contact point for international police cooperation (for matters concerning DJF).
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The best way to fight fraud is to hit the fraudsters where it hurts them most – their wallet. Therefore the DJF Directorate has developed a service to query financial institutions (with a view to obtain information within the scope of an investigation or to have an account blocked). Since 2011 there is a legal framework for a central contact point at the National Bank of Belgium, which shall also be available for queries regarding the administrative fiscal cooperation. The government would like to grant access to this database to the police. The number of queries – 1,935 in 2012 including 118 blocked accounts – shall probably increase in the future thanks to international cooperation.
C&D/C&L Evolution bank queries and freezing/seizing 1935
2000 1690
1800
1648
Number of queries
1600 1400
1459 1214
1200 1000 800 600 400 200
118
162
102
72
118
0 2008
2009
bank queries
2010
2011
2012
freezing/seizing
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3. The Directorate’s vision to meet policy requirements: Policy cycle and the National Security Plan 2012-2015 Making sure that our society is a safe and just place to live in, is a complex matter involving many actors: the federal authorities, the regional and local authorities, the private sector and last but not least the citizens. The approach of crime, traffic safety and environmental pollution often requires various initiatives that are most successful when carried out in an integral (across several areas of policy) and integrated way (working in tandem with each other). The Federal police operate following a four-year policy cycle. The National Security Plan (NSP) 2012-2015 “working together to a safe society fit to live in” consists of two parts. First the Ministers of the Interior and Justice coordinate the general policy for the integrated police. In doing so they guarantee a global and integrated approach of the (objective and subjective) insecurity and assure the cohesion of the actions by the integrated police. In the part ‘crime, in general and priority crime phenomena, in particular’ we read that a/o the following phenomena are on the priority list: • Computer crime • Social fraud, including serious and organised social fraud pursuant to the definition in article 2 of the Protocol Serious and Organised Social Fraud (signed by a/o the Federal police, the ministers of the Interior, Justice, Employment, Social Affaires, Self-employed and the State Secretary for the Coordination of the fight against fraud) • Fiscal fraud, including organised VAT-fraud (as provided for in articles 73 and 73bis of the VAT-code) and organised income tax fraud Special attention is awarded to illegal asset recovery as the NSP stipulates: ‘when dealing with priority crime phenomena, special attention shall be given to the detection of (laundering) illegally gained assets and the maximal seizure with a view to confiscation.’ As regards fraud, the NSP also accentuates the prominent role of the other partners. As they stated in the government agreement of 1 December 2011, attacking fiscal and social fraud is very important to our authorities. In part II on socio-economic topics, we read that in order to reach the multiannual budgetary goals three lines of conduct will need to be pursued: • structural and increasing efforts, both regarding expenditure and income, with a fair division between high and low incomes and between generations • active policy steered to creating jobs and increasing the activity levels • enhanced fight against fiscal and social fraud To put the NSP 2012-2015 into practice, CDGEFID/OCDEFO (for social fraud, fiscal fraud and money laundering/asset recovery) and FCCU developed four policy programs in consultation with the partners: • social fraud • fiscal fraud • illegal criminal asset recovery and money laundering • computer crime and detection techniques for the use of ICT by criminals As the Commissioner-general particularly values the collaboration with partners, especially in early stages, these policy programs were developed by representatives of the central directorate DJF (B&S/P&S, CDGEFID/OCDEFO and FCCU each for its field of expertise), the Federal judicial police, a directorcoordinator (money laundering and computer crime), the prosecuting office and other partners. These policy programs were approved in December 2012 and shall be carried out in the coming years by the integrated police (DJF, other services of the Federal police including the General Directorate of Administrative police for the approach of cash watch, the district directorates of the judicial pillar), the local
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police and the partners. It has to be noted that in 2012 a cooperation protocol was signed between the Federal police and the General Administration of Customs & Excise. The further implementation requires however the adaptation of article 44 of the Law on the police function in order to proceed to the much needed information exchange between the Federal police and Customs & Excise. Besides the aforementioned policy initiatives, several work groups were asked to optimise the Federal police in 2012 a/o to prepare the forthcoming reform of the Justice system (e.g. reduce 27 districts to 13), and to act on the report of the Federal police council on ’10 years after the police reform’. Although the DJF Directorate was not directly implicated in these policy initiatives, it goes without saying that it can be affected by upcoming changes, making 2013 a very important year.
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4. The Directorate’s international activities
Within the scope of the Belgian Presidency of the EU a conference was held on 9 and 10 September 2010 favouring the creation of a European Network of Fugitive Active Search Teams (ENFAST). In its draft ‘Council Resolution on ENFAST’ (No. 15382/10 ENFOPOL 300 COPEN 233 CRIMORG 187) the Council encouraged the creation of such a network “convinced that the informal network will constitute an ideal forum for the exchange throughout the European Union of non-operational information and experiences and that it will facilitate the establishment and active maintenance of contacts between its members” and “recalling that during the fourth round of mutual evaluation on the European Arrest Warrant the experts stressed the usefulness of the Belgian Fugitive Active Search Team (FAST) as a model of good practice”. The Network was further consolidated with a conference in Warsaw and Budapest in 2011 and a grant of nearly €200 000 has been awarded to the project, 90% of which will be carried by the European Commission and 10% by the Belgian Federal police. The further exchange of information and good practices will lead to increasingly more efficient executions of European Arrest Warrants that will grow in importance in the police cooperation. It is a strong indication of the way in which the European police units can collaborate to achieve a safer Europe for its citizens.
Belgium, France, Spain and the Czech Republic are part of the Steering Group at the basis of the Anti-Money Laundering Operational Network. Its main goal is to create an informal network of national law enforcement anti-money laundering experts to exchange experiences and expertise. The preparatory activities that occurred throughout 2011 led to the official creation in Prague on 27 January 2012. In the mean time a grant was awarded and Belgium will hold Presidency until 2014.
DJF Directorate will pursue its bilateral cooperation with the French and Dutch neighbours and will contribute to the activities of FATF (Financial Action Task Force – an inter-governmental body created to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system) and Europol as regards the fight against money laundering.
The Standing Committee on Internal Security (COSI) of the European Council has validated a number of Operational Action plans to tackle strategic objectives for the period 2012-2013. ‘Stepping up the fight against cybercrime and the criminal misuse of the Internet by organised crime groups’ is one of the eight priorities of the policy cycle for 20112013, in which Belgium has played an active part as President of the EUCTF (European Union Cyber Task Force). In addition, within the scope of the EUCTF, Belgium joined efforts with Romania to establish a ‘good practices’ document aimed at supporting States to create an efficient cybercrime unit. As president of EUCTF, Belgium collaborated to the board program for the creation of EC3, the European CyberCrime Center at Europol, which was officially launched in January 2013. The creation of this centre followed the decision of the European Union to put cybercrime on its priority list. The centre focuses on cybercrime committed by organised criminal groups, in
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particular those obtaining huge profits by committing crimes such as online fraud, and also targets cybercrime that causes particular prejudice to victims, such as the online sexual exploitation of children. The EC3 will contribute to better identify the threat of the most serious forms of cybercrime; follow the main groups of cybercriminals as regards the EU and support the investigations on cybercrime in the Member States.
Through the approbation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption resolution 58/4 of 30 October 2003, the Member States consented in submitting themselves to a review mechanism. Belgium and Lithuania were assigned to evaluate Spain. The evaluation committee had two members of the DJF- OCRC/CDBC on board. The activities led to an extensive audit report.
The Anti-Corruption unit takes part in several international projects. In October 2012, the Commissioner-general Catherine De Bolle and the Director of the Republic of Serbia signed a common action plan of the Belgian and Serbian police following the ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, concluded between Belgium and Serbia in 2009. This plan provides among others a training to be given by the Belgian Anti-Corruption unit in 2013. Another training that was scheduled for the Anti-Corruption unit to give to the Bulgarian and Romanian police (project ENPAID – Enhancing Police Internal Affairs Departments in EU Member States) in 2012 had to be postponed for budgetary reasons but was eventually given in the beginning of 2013. The Belgian Anti-Corruption unit was also approached by the Anti-corruption unit of Taiwan and the Congolese CNRF (Cellule nationale de renseignement financier – National cell for financial information). Both services sent a delegation in October 2012 to learn from this unit’s expertise, which shows that Belgium is still considered abroad to be a country with a rich experience in this field. Sadly the international activities of the Belgian Anti-Corruption unit are on the decrease as the staff is continuously being reduced and there is no sufficient time left for networking or passing on their expertise.
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Part II - DJF Achievements In 2011 the DJF Directorate put forward a number of projects to be achieved in the course of 2012. The annual report gives an account of the goals that were reached and those that were not, in which case it highlights the reasons for failure.
1.
1. In 2011 a first study day was organised on Internet research. As the demand largely exceeded the offer, the goal was set to offer police personnel who had not been able to attend the first study day the opportunity to attend another in 2012. The topics discussed are aimed at gaining insight in crime and security issues in a world of digitalization and globalization and offering tools to combat such crime. Obviously the organisation of such a day requires quite some manpower, which is scarce within the police force. Therefore an external partner was approached (Politeia vzw) to take charge of logistics (invitations, registrations, catering, welcoming, etc.). This enabled the police to concentrate all efforts to the contents of the study day ‘Google in police investigations’. Once again the study day was a great success with 384 people attending.
2. P&O was created in 2008 and strives towards more efficiency by assembling the most frequently asked questions in so-called FAQ’s. These cards – 83 in total – are meant to be accessible to the entire staff of DJF but could sadly not be put online for everyone to read due to server problems.
3. Criminal asset recovery is very important when approaching the priority phenomena of the NSP 2012-2015. CDGEFID/OCDEFO wanted to create a structural network with a view to a safe society where it is good to live. As the Federal judicial police are lately confronted with a significant departure of many experienced investigators, the creation of such a network could lead to greater expertise. Meetings were organised in Brussels (one in French, attended by 91 persons and one in Dutch, attended by 103) to discuss the supranational nature of criminal asset recovery, including lectures by the French and Dutch counterpart of the Central Office for Seizure and Confiscation, exchange of experience with the Federal judicial police of Brussels and Dendermonde, a lecture on the new money laundering guideline and one on the international cooperation in penal matters by the Federal Department of Justice.
4. On 1 March 2012 the competent Ministers of the Interior and Justice approved the National Security Plan. The General directorate of judicial police developed programs pursuant to article 95 of the Law on the Integrated police structured on two levels. DJF had to write four policy programs on the specialised topics of computer crime, money laundering and asset recovery, fiscal fraud and social fraud. These were presented to the 27 Federal Judicial police forces (FGP/PJF) on 21 January 2013, which could then decide whether or not to collaborate to achieve the goals through project development. The strategic goals of the policy program on computer crime will be taken on by four FGP/PJF, seven FGP/PJF will support the policy program on fiscal fraud and six the one on social fraud. The lateral priority (criminal asset recovery) shall be carried out in eleven FGP/PJF. Obviously many other services of the Federal police are involved in the approach of the aforementioned priority phenomena of the NSP 2012-2015.
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5. Within the scope of their investigations, police can enquire on company data. As crime does not stop at the border, police officers need access to international databases containing details of companies. The Minister of the Interior has put some funds at the disposal of the police to gain access to such databases and DJF has been asked to provide the required technical expertise to issue a public tender, which is currently running.
6. In order to put the Belgian fiscal law in line with the evolution in jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights the Una Via principle is now enforced. This means that a fiscal violation can either be handled by the Tax authorities (increase in taxes and/or administrative fine) or by the Law enforcement authorities (penal sanctions as fine, confiscation or prison sentence). The Law introducing the Una Via principle was enforced on 1 November 2012. The Board of Prosecutors general also circulated a brief (Col 11/2012) to smooth the path for the implementation. It is yet too soon for results and we will have to wait until 2013 to assess the real impact of this Law. First an inventory must be made to decide which cases require which approach.
7. The DJF directorate forwards general bank queries to approximately 200 banks and insurance companies requesting whether a suspect of crimes holds an account with that institution. As the procedure stands, every institution has to provide a reply even when the suspect does not hold an account with them. This causes an increased workload for the institutions but also for the police who have to process all the replies. As more parties get involved, the presumption of innocence could be jeopardised. The Tax authorities have a contact point at the National Bank of Belgium (within the scope of the lifted fiscal bank secrecy, in other words the lift of the total ban for the Tax authorities to collect information about a tax payer directly from a bank) to find out who has an account at which institution. The bank query based on article 46quater of the Belgian Code on Penal proceedings can consequently be forwarded to the institution where the suspect holds an account. There is a proposal to include similar access to the police. Up to 31 December 2012 the police did not yet have access to a central contact point at the National Bank of Belgium.
8. Match fixing during the UEFA EURO 2012 and the Olympics 2012: the goal was to avoid the fixing of games to obtain illegal criminal gains by the Gambling industry. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 22 May 2012 between the Gaming commission and the Federal Police. Evaluation revealed however no abnormal situations regarding both sports events. 9. Training projects for foreign Anti-corruption units. The ENPAID (Enhancing Police Internal Affairs Departments in EU Member States) project first planned a training session for the Bulgarian anti-corruption unit in 2012, but this was postponed to January 2013. The bilateral treaty with Bulgaria of 24 June 1998, ratified by Belgium on 7 October 2002, came into force on 1 December 2012. In execution of the Memorandum of Understanding signed with Serbia on 15 June 2009 the action plan 2012-2013, signed by the Belgian Commissioner General on 16 October, scheduled training in corruption but as the training of the Bulgarian officers, the training of the Serbian officers was moved to 2013.
10.
The last project concerned better cooperation between the partners to combat identity fraud. The idea was to create some kind of knowledge centre under the auspices of the Department for Administrative Simplification (DVA) assembling the various administrative services in charge of producing, validating, and issuing government documents (or their electronic version, such as electronic ID, electronic driving licence, etc.) This centre would also have room for the expertise of the False document unit. This would make it possible to avoid that authentic documents are issued on the basis of false evidence (so-called intellectual forgery).
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Part III - DJF’s crime areas within its competence Money laundering Criminal asset recovery is a key element to the success in fighting money laundering. The police can tackle this on two levels: - either a money laundering investigation (inductive investigations) where the starting point is a suspected financial transaction, the aim being to trace the underlying crime; - or an asset investigation, where the starting point is a crime and the aim is to trace the illegally obtained financial gains (deductive investigations). As mentioned above, in 2012 a new National Security Plan was developed covering 2012-2015. It put money laundering and criminal asset recovery on the priority list as transversal topics. This means that whenever a priority criminal phenomenon is attacked, attention must be given to the assets of the suspects and consequently to the fight against the laundering of money derived from criminal activities. To this end, DJF drew up the policy program ‘criminal asset recovery and money laundering’ including a number of operational goals regarding money laundering. Some of the goals set out in the policy program have already been achieved in 2012, not only on strategic and conceptual level (analysing the phenomenon, processing statistical data, drawing up information cards, organising study days, pursuing structured collaborations with other departments, etc.) but also on operational level (tracing increased suspicious capitals, maintaining the so-called REDSOP procedures –> fast action by police and justice). On a yearly basis the Belgian police handle approximately 700 initial police reports, most of which concern investigations on financial transactions that took place in big urban areas (mainly Antwerp and Brussels). Considering that many cases have international aspects, international police cooperation is a big asset in the fight against money laundering. Ergo the creation of the Anti-Money Laundering Operational Network (AMON). Equally important besides the international aspect is a sound intelligence structure. Part of the information still comes from the preventive line of reports, i.e. suspicious transactions are reported – mainly by bank institutions – to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to be then transmitted through the prosecuting office to the police. In addition, the police also target the cash transports of money as offenders could attempt to conceal the money flow by transporting it in cash. To this end, a reinforced collaboration with the Customs & Excise Administration is essential as according to the transposed EU-regulation they are the ones competent for carrying out checks on the transport of cash money.
Organised VAT-fraud The Belgian authorities describe organised VAT-fraud as the obtaining of illegal assets by a (criminal) organisation consisting of natural and/or legal persons who mutually agree to not pay the value added tax due to the State and/or to recover an illegally construed VAT-credit, for which purpose they use forgeries and/or fail to comply with prescriptions regarding that tax, all of the aforesaid within the scope of the international trade of goods and/or services (insofar as the fraud is not based on documents only). The prejudice steadily increased until 2001 when it amounted to 1,100 million euros, but then decreased to just under 18.5 million euros in 2012.
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Organised VAT-fraud prejudice (source: OCS VAT) (in million Euro) 1200
1099 1100
1000 800 578 600 432 400 220 200
129
144
181 27.8
44.2
29.8
79 14.6 29
27.9 18.5
0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 VAT prejudice Treasury
Fraud emission rights
Cases are either handled by the Tax authorities or the police when investigations of that nature come within the competence of OCDEFO/CDGEFID or the PJF/FGP.
Bribery Bribery comprises the offences ‘public bribery’, ‘misappropriation of public funds’, ‘conflict of interests’ and ‘embezzlement committed by a government official’. Whenever the facts exceed the street-level bribery, they are referred to the Anti-Corruption Unit. As the European Union estimated the prejudice of this offence for the Member States to reach up to 120 billion euros per year, we can presume that the investigated cases are just a tip of the iceberg. It is very hard, if not impossible, to give an exact figure of the damage caused by corruption-related crimes because it is a very complex matter. The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) defined the phenomenon very well: “There are as many different definitions of corruption as there are diverse forms of corruption.”
Fraud to the prejudice of the European Union This kind of fraud takes on many forms, depending on the various fields in which the European Union invests (regions, agriculture, etc.). The aim is to avoid fraud for each of these fields and to strengthen the administrations. Should errors or frauds nevertheless occur, OLAF shall proceed to conduct an administrative investigation, which in its turn could lead to a preliminary or criminal investigation conducted by the Anti-Corruption unit. Such investigations are often very intricate and technical and demand huge capacities. This topic is under discussion at the EU to draw up some guidelines.
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Bankcard fraud Bankcard fraud is an offence against property, in which data from a stolen or copied card (debit or credit) are actually or virtually used. It also concerns the abuse of other financial applications. The skimming offence of copying data of the magnetic strip of a card and obtaining the pin increased from 2008 to 2010. However as in skimming only the data of the magnetic strip are copied, fraudsters with false cards can only use them in countries where the chip is not required. Thanks to the new security measure of blocking the Maestro function on cards for non-European countries the problem of skimming was successfully contained. This problem has significantly decreased since 2011. Figures show that skimming is on the decrease, but then again they register a rise in shoulder surfing (1,289 findings in 2012 in comparison to 1,243 the previous year). In cases of shoulder surfing the offender waits and observes an unsuspecting victim entering his PIN and then steals his card. The offenders tend to target older people, figures show that 55% of the victims is older than 65. The registration of such offences in our police database was only started mid-2009. Therefore we only have figures from 2010 onwards. As you can see in the chart below, the high number of facts in 2011 continues to rise in 2012. We suspect that the real number is even higher.
Number offences with shoulder surfing MO 2010-2012 (source: Federal police, ANG/BNG, download ASA, 2 APR 2013)
1243
Number of offences
1400
1289
1200 1000 800
526
600 400 200 0 2010
2011
2012
Another offence on the rise stems from hacking. Data of credit cards are obtained through hacking databases that store such data. Perpetrators then use these credit card data to make purchases in places where luxury items can be bought and are usually paid for with credit cards (for instance airports, shopping malls, etc.). Lately investigators have noticed a new technique consisting of offenders renting payment terminals in the name of a company to carry out fraudulent transactions using hacked card data and in doing so empty the account of the victims whose card data were hacked.
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Computer crime Computer crime only concerns the attacks on the security of a system or the integrity of data stored in a computer system. It does not concern the use of computer science as means to commit other offences. The number of incidents has been steadily increasing since 2008 (although this includes bankcard fraud as the offences bear the same classification) as is reflected in the following chart. Number computer crime offences 2010-2012 (source: Federal police, ANG/BNG, download ASA, 2 APR 2013)
Number of offences
25000
20356
20000 14013
14801
15000 10000 5000 0 2010
2011
2012
Computer crime is a scourge on society and causes huge prejudices with an annual estimation of at least 1 billion euros. The motives of the perpetrators are divers, ranging from personal motives (opportunity hacking) to political or ideological motives (hacktivism), political or economic motives (espionage), aim to destabilise the critical infrastructure (sabotage), etc. The so-called ‘police ransom ware virus’ blocked thousands of Belgian PC’s in 2012. The victim suddenly saw a screen purportedly from the eCops FCCU or SABAM stating that an illegal activity had been detected and that €50 or €100 had to be paid to unblock the PC. The FCCU recorded in 2012 no less than 2900 reports of such messages; in about 11% of the cases the victims had made payments. In some case, swift action could prevent payment from going through but mostly the money disappeared. Belgium was not the only country targeted by such viruses, other cases were recorded in Germany, France, UK, Spain, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Portugal, US, Canada and many more. Companies can also become the victim of extortion. In 2012, a Belgian bank was the victim of cybercriminals. Unless the bank agreed to pay a high ransom, data would be hacked from thousands of their clients and put up for grabs on the Internet. Some time later, Belgian insurance companies and credit institutions received similar demands. 2012 was a particularly busy year for phishing mails in Belgium. Clients (and other) received mails from banks entitled ‘changes/update’ asking them to access a link to update their security settings. This link brought them to a false login page where they had to enter their data. Later the bank would call them to make some movements with their card reader, which enabled the criminals to gain full access to the account and withdraw huge amounts of money. Especially hacktivism is on the uprise due to among others Anonymous, a movement of civil protest against governments and large companies; for instance hackers breached the security system and plundered 670,000 user names (including passwords, addresses, birthdays, and other information to register accounts) of the Sony PlayStation Network in the USA.
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Income tax fraud The fight against income tax fraud is first and foremost conducted by the Tax Authorities. Nonetheless, in some serious cases the Tax Authorities do refer files to the judicial authorities and the police. On an annual basis this concerns less than 100 case files, although the police annually register approximately 150 initial police reports on income tax fraud (sometimes such facts are reported to the police or detected by police officers in the course of routine investigations). To conduct their investigations the police can call upon the expertise of fiscal experts put at the disposal of DJF; they can do so for investigations instigated by DJF-OCDEFO/CDGEFID and for those opened at the PJF/FGP. It is important for the future to realise that a choice shall have to be made between an administrative or criminal handling of the matter in accordance with the ‘Una Via’ principle. Up until now, it was possible to conduct two investigations in the same matter, one being administrative and the other criminal and award an administrative sanction as well as a criminal one.
Federal police - Income tax fraud Number of initial police reports (source: ANG, selection: DJF/P&S) 179 180 178 176 174 172
173 171 168
170 168 166 164 162 2009
2010
2011
2012
Fraud with or without Internet The offence of ‘fraud’ is provided for in article 496 of the Belgian penal code, which stipulates as follows: “… having goods/means handed over by the victim by using fraudulent means such as false identity, false function, making the victims believe something”. In approximately one third of the cases a contact is established between the offender and the victim through the Internet. This percentage has remained fairly stable since 2008. The fraudsters have no difficulties in thinking out of the box. An example of their creativity is the use of emails entitled ‘secret message’ sent to people through a contact person. In order to be able to read the message, the persons are asked to give their user name and password of the mailbox, upon which their mailbox is hacked. Besides the more inventive MO’s, there are also some recurrent ones such as: • Fraud in online trade; • Advanced fee fraud (fictitious lotteries, sweepstakes and inheritance); • Fraud preying on emotions (friendship, desperate requests for help, particularly after disasters); • Identity fraud (identity theft, but also phishing).
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The impact of this phenomenon is often underrated because perpetrators (deliberately) limit their profits to very small amounts in order to reduce the risks of being prosecuted - the more so as these cases are usually handled by the local police - concealing as such the bigger picture. Nonetheless, there are some cases where the loot reaches hundred thousands of euros at a stroke. It has to be noted that swindle is no longer a competence of the DJF Directorate.
Gaming The violations on the ‘Act on games of chance, gaming establishments and the protection of players’ of 7 May 1999 include violations to the regulations on legal and illegal games of chance, as well as the operating of illegal games of chance. As with Internet frauds, the impact of gaming is often underestimated. In addition to the obvious risk of getting a gambling addiction, the illegal games of chance are often operated in criminal circles and frequently go hand in hand with economic exploitation, ill-gotten gains, violence, etc. The illegal gains obtained by the organisers often end up in the parallel economy or worse are used to finance other criminal activities. Foremost illegal games of chance are an unfair competition to the legal gaming industry that does pay taxes on its activities.
Fraud with government tenders The Federal police only tackle fraud with government tenders in a repressive way. The Federal Judicial police (PJF/FGP) and the Anti-corruption unit (OCRC/CDBC) investigate many cases each year but presumably they only investigate the tip of the iceberg as the annual budget for procurement contracts in Belgium amounts to 8% of the GDP. There is a fair chance that many cases of fraud exist, for instance price-fixings between parties thus unduly raking in contracts, or manipulations of specifications or tenders. The additional charge for society and the State can run up to 65% over the normal price that would have been set and paid. Investigations are mainly hindered by the fact that there is no central database for tenders.
Counterfeiting of money Counterfeiting encompasses all activities related to the production of false notes and coins and their putting into circulation. In 2012, 27,001 false euronotes were discovered in Belgium, which is a 12% increase compared to 2011. The figures used come mainly from the CMS-database (Counterfeit Monitoring System) of the European Central Bank. For other counterfeit currency, data are computed based on the investigations conducted by the OCRF/CDBV.
The €50-note is the most counterfeited note in Belgium. Combined with the €20-note, these represent over 75% of all counterfeit notes. Often the quality of counterfeit notes is quite good thanks to the printing techniques.
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Notes
2009
%
2010
%
2011
%
2012
%
5
64
0.21%
56
0.12%
79
0.33%
33
0.12%
10
183
0.60%
190
0.42%
331
1.37%
349
1.29%
20
10,917
32.44%
13,644
30.04%
8,450
35.00%
6,793
25.16%
50
12,997
42.37%
24,962
54.97%
10,247
42.45%
14,758
54.66%
100
2,698
8.80%
4,813
10.60%
2,778
11.51%
2,173
8.05%
200
1,576
5.14%
902
1.99%
625
2.59%
545
2.02%
500
3,206
10.45%
846
1.86%
1,631
6.75%
2,350
8.70%
30,675
100%
45,413
100%
24,141
100 %
21,074
100%
TOTAL
In most cases the counterfeits are only noticed when already in circulation. The police managed however to intercept 4,568 notes before they could be put into circulation as is reflected in the following chart.
2009 Note 5 10 20 50 100 200 500 TOTAL
In circulati on 63 183 9,765 12,742 2,620 1,563 479 27,415
2010
Prior to circulatio n 1 0 186 255 78 13 2,727 3,260
In circulatio n 56 186 13,456 23,853 4,676 893 555 43,675
2011
Prior to circulatio n 0 4 188 1,109 137 9 291 1,738
In circulatio n 59 161 8,338 9,928 2,720 568 144 21,918
Prior to circulatio n 20 170 112 319 58 57 1,487 2,223
2012 In circulatio n 33 119 5,852 13,570 2,165 544 150 22,433
Prior to circulatio n 0 230 941 1,188 8 1 2,200 4,568
Not only notes are being counterfeited, so are euro-coins. In 2012 nine thousand three hundred and thirtysix false coins were discovered, which means a steady decrease since 2007 when the number of false coins rocketed, as is reflected in the chart below.
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
50 cent 1 144 367 1,130 1,469 1,365 1,401 1,992 1,650 1,789
1 Euro 43 963 1,113 1,424 1,851 2,247 1,441 1,297 2,179 1,216
2 Euro 14 1,196 5,959 14,414 18,738 10,915 7,675 6,461 5,805 6,331
Total 58 2,303 7,439 16,968 22,058 14,548 10,517 9,750 9,634 9,336
Besides false euro-notes and euro-coins, also other currencies circulate in Belgium, including false US dollars (11,013 x 100-dollar notes), Swiss francs (898 x 1000-Swiss franc notes) and British pounds (113 x 20pound notes).
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False documents Both the technical and the tactical approach are a confirmation of our findings of the past years: Technical approach of the documents The front line checkpoints (police, municipal administrations, consular posts, etc. but also the private sector) are experiencing more and more difficulties to determine the fraudulent nature (forgery or fake) of a document that is displayed. – This poses a problem with the most common documents, such as identity cards, residence documents, driving licences, etc., but is undoubtedly a stumbling block for the enclosures, such as foreign birth or other certificates, etc. The lack of samples makes any decision about the genuineness of the documents even more hazardous. – Although the number of intercepted false documents has stagnated, it must be said that the quality of those documents is steadily getting better. – If in order to determine whether a document is false or not the intervention of an expert is required, a system should be set up where experts can be called in whenever the front line checkpoints have the slightest doubt.
Tactical approach of the documents We notice a constant evolution of both the quality work of the forgers and the abuse of the procedures to get hold of an authentic document or right. What we have named ‘intellectual forgery’ is a priority crime area. Upon the issuance of a genuine document on the basis of a false document that was displayed, interception is only possible on the basis of external elements (suspicions, reports, other judicial findings) that can only be found when specifically tracing evidence proving that the document was unduly obtained.
–
– –
Frequently bearers of documents are intercepted who are not the rightful holders of said documents. This concerns the MO better known as ‘lookalike’, i.e. persons who show resemblance to the holder they are carrying the documents of, be it with or without the latter’s consent (loss, theft, etc.). Especially our municipal administrations have to deal with ‘lookalikes’ within the scope of passport applications. Cases of ‘intellectual forgery’ and ‘lookalike’ require specific expertise and means to conduct the right investigations. Another job for experts. The introduction of biometric measures and automated checks could offer a solution against the MO of ‘lookalikes’, but that would just ‘move’ our borders to our posts abroad as our civil servants there bear the responsibility to identify the applicant. As said previously, these civil servants do not have the required expertise to detect forgeries. There is consequently a risk that they shall register the fingerprints of the applicant under another identity. The illegal holder shall then have no problems to gain access to the European territory through an E-gate.
These findings put the Forgery and Counterfeit unit in the place of the front line checkpoint, both for judicial and administrative checks. A situation that cannot last, which is why the Forgery and Counterfeit unit (OCRF-D/CDBV-D) argues for a change in the way checking procedures are approached whereby all parties concerned would be used differently.
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Execution of sentence and FAST 1. 1.1.
Incoming and outgoing cases Year 2012
In 2012 FAST received 499 new cases. This is significantly lower compared with the figures for 2010 and 2011, when respectively 576 and 566 new cases were assigned to FAST. These were the highest numbers ever and constituted the highest workload for FAST since its creation. At first only a few prosecuting offices called upon FAST. As their reputation grew, more and more districts started to refer cases to FAST, sometimes even referring old cases. Consequently the investigations did not necessarily pertain to the year in which they were referred. In the mean time the prosecuting offices have been able to catch up their backlog, which means that they send fewer cases through and a decrease shall probably be noticeable in the coming years. 1.2.
Evolution since its creation
The chart below gives an overview of the cases since the creation of FAST. In 2012 there were 499 new cases, 187 (37.47%) of which have already been closed. Looking at all 3960 cases that have been assigned to FAST over the years, it appears that 2707 have already been closed, which corresponds to 68.36%. It has to be noted that sometimes the case cannot be closed with an arrest but must be dropped due to the extinguishment of the sentence by limitation (i.e. release from liability to a penalty for a criminal offence because the applicable limitation period has run without the sentence having been enforced) or due to the death of the offender.
Year No data 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 TOTAL
New cases
# Open cases 19
192 41 88 116 126 156 250 291 324 299 417 576 566 499 3 960
% Open # Closed cases cases 19 100.00 4 3 5 10 14 38 39 39 66 78 146 222 258 312 1 253
2.08 7.32 5.68 8.62 11.11 24.36 15.60 13.40 20.37 26.09 35.01 38.54 45.58 62.53 31.64
% Closed cases 0 0.00
188 38 83 106 112 118 211 252 258 221 271 354 308 187 2 707
97.92 92.68 94.32 91.38 88.89 75.64 84.40 86.60 79.63 73.91 64.99 61.46 54.42 37.47 68.36
The new cases are not the only workload of FAST as one has to take into consideration all the cases where the fugitive has not been located and arrested yet. There are still a total of 1253 open cases, which means that 1253 criminals are still evading the execution of their (prison) sentence.
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2.
Offences on which the cases are based
When examining the nature of the offences that led to the conviction (or charges) of the fugitives, it appears that in some cases the fugitive is being traced for several convictions. In those cases, it was decided to take the offence for which the magistrate called upon the FAST team to pursue investigations. One conviction can also relate to several offences (prosecuted and brought before court together), in which case the crime with the highest classification is introduced in the expert database. A distinction is made between three categories of offences: crimes against person, crimes against goods and economic and financial crimes. The following chart reflects the distribution for the cases of 2012.
Nature of the offence Crimes against persons Crimes against goods Economicand financial crimes TOTAL
# 2012 276 124 99 499
% 2012 55.31 24.45 19.84 100.00
We see that approximately 55% pertain to crimes against persons. This is no surprise as such crimes often lead to a heavy prison sentence. The crimes against goods represent 24%, whereas the financial crimes reach nearly 20% of all cases. Taking a closer look at the aforementioned categories of crimes, we see that within the category ‘crimes against persons’ the convictions for drug-related offences are most frequent (21.64%), followed by criminal organisation and association of criminals (7.21%), homicide and manslaughter (6.81%), and rape and other sexual offences (6.41% of the total). As regards the ‘crimes against goods’, thefts with violence or armed robberies rank highest with 9.42% of the total, followed by thefts with aggravating circumstances (8.62%). The ‘economic and financial crimes’ mostly concern convictions for swindle, abuse of confidence and forgery (of documents), amounting to a total of 13.63%. They are followed by computer crime (2.61%).
Nature of the crime – detailed overview Crimes against persons Drug offences Criminal organisation, gang forming Homicide and manslaughter Rape, serious sex offences Assault and battery Human trafficking and human smuggling Other crimes against persons Crimes against goods Theft with violence, armed robbery Theft with aggravating circumstances Simple thefts (no violence, aggravated circumstances) Arms trafficking Voluntary arson Other crimes against goods Economic and financial crimes Swindle, abuse of confidence, forgery Computer crime Serious and organised white-collar crime (VAT fraud, etc.) Money laundering Other white-collar crimes TOTAL
# 2012 276 108 36 34 32 25 11 30 124 47 43 21 3 2 8 99 68 13 5 3 10 499
% 2012 55.31 21.64 7.21 6.81 6.41 5.01 2.20 6.01 24.45 9.42 8.62 4.21 0.60 0.40 1.60 19.84 13.63 2.61 1.00 0.60 2.00 100.00
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The aforementioned chart clearly shows the top three of the most frequent crimes: drug offences (21.64%) on first place followed by the crimes: swindle, abuse of confidence, forgery (13.63%) on second place and thefts with violence and armed robbery (9.42%) on third.
3. 3.1.
Fugitives Gender
Mid-2010 a study was made of the gender of fugitive persons. This resulted in the finding that the percentage of female fugitives reached 6% of a sample of 2000 persons. It is presently not possible to extract the gender in the expert database as the extraction module that can distribute by years has not been activated yet. There are however no indications that this percentage has changed, quite the contrary. When we look at the age of the fugitive persons, we find in the aforementioned study of mid-2010 that 33.43% was born between 1970 and 1979 meaning that their age ranged from 30 to 40 at the time they were being traced. This category was followed by the category of persons born between 1960 and 1969 (from 40 to 50 years old). In the present expert database this extraction module (that can make a distribution by year) has not been activated yet. This will be addressed in the course of 2013. 3.2.
Nationality
Looking at the nationality of the persons to be traced (for cases in 2011 and 2012) Belgian nationals represent 26% to 30%. Twelve other nationalities make up approximately 45% (the most represented nationalities being: Dutch, Moroccan and French). The remaining 28% is composed of other nationalities. Nationality Belgian
# 2011
% 2011
# 2012
% 2012
146
25.80
150
30.06
Dutch (including Antilles)
51
9.01
55
11.02
Moroccan
49
8.66
32
6.41
French
29
5.12
29
5.81
Serbian
6
1.06
21
4.21
Italian
14
2.47
19
3.81
Romanian
23
4.06
17
3.41
Albanian
30
5.30
13
2.61
Polish
16
2.83
11
2.20
Congolese
2
0.35
9
1.80
Lithuanian
5
0.88
9
1.80
Turkish
6
1.06
9
1.80
Algerian
26
4.59
9
1.80
Other
163
28.80
141
28.26
Total
566
100
499
100
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4. 4.1.
Authorities from which the cases emanate General
The following chart reflects the origin of the cases. In a number of cases there are several convictions that need to be executed and for which the person is being traced. Usually the most severe sentence is put in the database. In a number of cases there are not sufficient data to decide where the most severe sentence can be located, which explains the category ‘miscellaneous’, including requests from abroad. The major part of the cases emanate from the Correctional courts, which is not surprising as most sentences are pronounced by those courts.
Origin case Correctional court Court of Appeal Court of Assizes Examining magistrate Federal prosecuting office Misc. (o/a abroad, no data) TOTAL 4.2.
2009 237 94 11 11 11 53
2010 291 182 9 23 11 60
2011 323 132 9 12 12 78
2012 284 134 8 7 12 54
417
576
566
499
Prosecuting authority at the Correctional courts
The following chart represents the percentages for the years 2011 and 2012, distributed by judicial district. District # 2011 % 2011 # 2012 % 2012 BRUSSELS 98 30.34 83 29.23 ANTWERPEN 87 26.93 67 23.59 DENDERMONDE 26 8.05 22 7.75 CHARLEROI 8 2.48 16 5.63 BRUGGE 23 7.12 12 4.23 GENT 5 1.55 11 3.87 MONS 6 1.86 10 3.52 LIEGE 9 2.79 9 3.17 TURNHOUT 2 0.62 7 2.46 LEUVEN 8 2.48 6 2.11 TOURNAI 11 3.41 6 2.11 HASSELT 4 1.24 4 1.41 HUY 4 1.24 4 1.41 NIVELLES 2 0.62 4 1.41 VERVIERS 2 0.62 4 1.41 IEPER 1 0.31 3 1.06 MECHELEN 0 0.00 3 1.06 VEURNE 5 1.55 3 1.06 ARLON 5 1.55 2 0.70 KORTRIJK 5 1.55 2 0.70 NAMUR 7 2.17 2 0.70 NEUFCHATEAU 0 0.00 2 0.70 MARCHE-EN-FAMENNE 2 0.62 1 0.35 TONGEREN 1 0.31 1 0.35 DINANT 1 0.31 0 0.00 EUPEN 1 0.31 0 0.00 OUDENAARDE 0 0.00 0.00 TOTAL 323 100 284 100
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Looking at the distribution by judicial district, the judicial district Brussels stands out occupying a part of nearly 30% for both years. The judicial district of Antwerp takes up second place both years with a part oscillating between 24% and 27%. In both 2011 and 2012 the judicial district of Dendermonde with a part of nearly 8% occupies the third place. 4.3.
Prosecuting authority at the Courts of Appeal
As regards the Courts of Appeal, the chart below shows an overview of the four past years. The prosecuting authorities at the Court of Appeal of Antwerp holds first place as the authority to warrant searches for fugitive criminals. Courts of Appeal Antwerp Mons Brussels Gent Liège Total
2009 41 3 25 7 18 94
2010 107 2 33 27 13 182
2011 58 7 20 16 31 132
2012 79 1 23 24 7 134
The figures in this chart show that the Court of Appeal of Antwerp lies at the basis of 52.58% of all cases over the past four years. One of the reasons for this difference between Courts may be that not every Court entered the project at the same time. The Court of Appeal of Antwerp for instance has only started referring cases to the FAST team since 2009. FAST was initially created in 1999 for the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal of Brussels and has been steadily expanded ever since. This results in the fact that in the first years a certain backlog had to be caught up. It has to be noted that the judicial district of Antwerp gives special attention to the Imposition of sentences as this matter falls within the special competences of the prosecutor-general of Antwerp (e.g. economic and financial crimes are special competences of the prosecutor general of Brussels).
4.4.
Prosecuting authorities at the Courts of Assize
The chart below reflects the arrests pronounced by the Courts of Assize. These are organized per province. ‘Brussels’ represents the provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and the Brussels metropolitan region. Over the past years the number of cases has varied around approximately 10 per year. Court of Assize
4.5.
2009
2010
2011
2012
West-Flanders East-Flanders Antwerp Limburg Brussels Liège Namur Hainaut Luxemburg
0 0 0 0 2 2 1 6 0
0 0 0 0 2 5 0 2 0
0 0 1 1 0 2 3 2 0
3 0 3 0 2 0 0 0 0
TOTAL
11
9
9
8
Prosecuting authorities at the Federal Prosecuting office
The chart below outlines the number of cases emanating from the Federal prosecuting office. Over the past four years 46 cases were handled. The number handled per year has remained relatively stable.
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Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total
4.6.
Federal prosecuting office 11 11 12 12 46
Examining magistrates
Notwithstanding the fact that FAST’s core business is tracing fugitive convicts, sometimes the FAST unit is called in to trace fugitive suspects. These are persons against whom criminal investigations are being conducted. In 2012, 7 suspects were traced which is the lowest number in four years. Similar missions are carried out in consultation with the police in charge of the investigation. The intervention of FAST is often requested to accelerate the cooperation with foreign authorities. Year
Missions examining magistrates 2009
11
2010
23
2011
12
2012
7
Total 5. 5.1.
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Arrests Number of arrests in FAST-cases
In the 306 cases that were assigned to the FAST-unit – often when a person could not be located by other police services – FAST managed to achieve positive results, breaking in doing so the record of 2011 when they proceeded to 272 arrests. In 2010 they arrested 263 persons and in 2009 they managed to close 199 cases with an arrest as is reflected in the chart below. Year
Number of arrests 2009
199
2010
263
2011
272
2012
306
Total
1 040
The surplus value of FAST is clearly sustained by the more than 1000 arrests made over the past four years. Opting for a central team that has built up solid expertise and experience is justified also from an economic point of view. Local police forces and federal judicial police units could never achieve such results at the same cost. 5.2.
Location of the arrest
Out of the 306 arrests made in cases that were assigned to FAST in 2012, 117 (38.24%) were made in Belgium while 189 occurred abroad. The chart below reflects the numbers and percentages for the four past years. We see that 67.31% of the arrests over the past four years occurred abroad. These figures illustrate the importance of well oiled international police cooperation and they explain why it is so difficult for local police forces and even the judicial police to organise active searches in their day-to-day operations. Locating
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fugitives abroad and collaborating with other police forces to make such arrests requires quite some experience. It is hardly surprising that most countries opt to have one national team to achieve maximum economy of scales. Year
2009 2010 2011 2012 TOTAL
Number arrests 199 263 272 306 1 040
# Arrests in Belgium 69 90 64 117 340
% Arrests in Belgium 34.67 34.22 23.53 38.24 32.69
# Arrests abroad
% Arrests abroad 130 173 208 189 700
65.33 65.78 76.47 61.76 67.31
Taking a closer look at the arrests made abroad, we see that the major part of the arrests (91.97%) is made within the EU, more specifically 642 arrests of the 700 made during the last four years. The intent to enhance the international police cooperation within the EU through the creation of an ENFAST network seems thus a logical result. This should however not lead to a reduced cooperation with Interpol, which is why right from the start the ENFAST network provided the possibility to award an observer status, for instance to Interpol.
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Part IV - Projects for 2013 The DJF Directorate and its various units have set out a number of goals they would like to achieve within 2013. Among those projects, we highlight the following some of which have already been achieved as we write this report: Expertise and support – Study day ‘Follow the money, the sequel’ In 2006 a study day was organised called ‘follow the money’. The National Security Plan 2012-2015 stipulates: ‘In the approach of the priority criminal phenomena special attention shall be given to the detection (laundering) of criminal assets and the maximal seizure with a view to confiscation’. Obviously a second study day on the newest techniques regarding asset recovery is indicated. International cooperation - ENFAST
On 9 and 10 September 2010, the Belgian FAST was one of the initiators of organising a European network of FAST units within the scope of the Belgian Presidency of the EU. In 2011 the Belgian FAST applied for ISEC-funding at the EU, which was granted. The first meetings of the core group (Germany, Austria, Spain, the UK, The Netherlands and Belgium) were held in 2012 and on 27, 28 and 29 May 2013 the fifth ENFAST seminar was held (the first with ISEC-funding).
Expertise – Counterfeit training Following the new 5-euro note and the circular letter of the Board of Prosecutors general regarding the fight against counterfeit money (euro), CDBV/OCRF will in collaboration with the Bank of Belgium and the prosecuting office organise training sessions for the police and prosecuting offices.
Information flow - Database international economic data In 2012 a budget was awarded to grant access for the police to a database with international economic data. The Direction of Purchases has issued a tender in collaboration with the Directorate of Operational police information and C&L/C&D, which shall follow the case as expert. Access is expected in 2013.
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International cooperation - Serbia On 15 June 2009 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the governments of the Kingdom of Belgium and the Republic of Serbia to promote bilateral cooperation in the fields of training, information exchange and technological and scientific support. The action plan concluded in 2012 commits the Commissioner-General to collaborate in the field of training and the exchange of experience regarding the fight against corruption. CDBC/OCRC will organise a study visit in 2013. Expertise – social fraud The Policy & Strategy unit will make a first analysis in 2013 on social fraud on the basis of figures from the General National Database. The social penal code of 6 June 2010 came into force on 1 July 2011. The work year 2012 is the first full year with available figures. Internal functioning - logistics
SAQ/Jaspers-Eyers and Partners/Archi2000 In 2013 P&O shall start with the preparations for the big move from the Atrium site to the renovated site near the Central Station of Brussels. Moving an entire directorate with two operational units (CDGEFID/OCEDEFO and CDBC/OCRC) requires a lot of thought and effort. The move is scheduled for 2014.
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Acronyms and abbreviations
English AMON
Anti-Money Laundering Operational Network
AFA BNG ANG
Financial analysis cell National general database
BelNIS
Belgian National Information Security
C&D C&L
CALog
Coordination of Investigations & Information Flow Management Administrative personnel
CTIF CFI
Financial Intelligence Processing Unit
DGJ
General Directorate of the Judicial Police Economic and Financial Crime Directorate European Network Fugitive Active Search Team Fugitive Asset Search Team Federal Computer Crime Unit Forensic Robust Investigation Toolkit
DJF ENFAST
FAST FCCU FRIT
LPI WGP OCDEFO CDGEFID
Law on the integrated police Organised Economic and Financial Crime Unit
OCRC CDBC
Anti-corruption Unit
OCRF CDBV
Forgery and Counterfeit Unit
PJF FGP
District Judicial Directorate (~Criminal Investigation
French Réseau opérationnel de lutte contre le blanchiment d’argent Cellule Analyse financière Banque de données nationale générale
Dutch
Cel Financiële Analyse Algemene nationale gegevensbank
Plateforme fédérale de concertation pour la sécurité de l’information Coordination des enquêtes & Direction des flux d’informations
Federaal overlegplatform informatieveiligheid
Membre du personnel du cadre administratif et logistique Cellule de traitement des informations financières
Leden van het administratief en logistiek kader Cel voor financiële informatieverwerking
Direction générale de la police judiciaire Direction criminalité économique et financière
Algemene directie van de gerechtelijke politie Directie economische en financiële criminaliteit
(consultation simultanée et automatisée des données) Loi sur la police intégrée
(simultane en geautomatiseerde gegevensbevraging) Wet op de geïntegreerde politie Centrale dienst voor de bestrijding van de Georganiseerde Economische en Financiële Delinquentie Centrale Dienst voor de Bestrijding van de Corruptie Centrale Dienst voor de Bestrijding van Valsheden
Office central de lutte contre la délinquance économique et financière organisée Office central pour la répression de la corruption Office central pour la répression des faux Police judiciaire fédérale
Coördinatie onderzoeken & Leiding infoflux
Federale gerechtelijke politie
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P&O P&S B&S PNS NVP TVA BTW UNCAC
Department) Personnel & Organisation Policy & Strategy
Personnel & Organisation Politique & Stratégie
Personeel & Organisatie Beleid & Strategie
National Security Plan
Plan national de sécurité
Nationaal Veiligheidsplan
Value Added Tax
Taxe à la valeur ajoutée
United Nations Convention against corruption
Convention des Nations Unies contre la Corruption
Belasting over de Toegevoegde Waarde Verenigde Naties Verdrag tegen corruptie
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