The Azerbaijani government is making progress towards the introduction of parallel financial investigations and non-conviction-based confiscation into national legislation and practice. In this context, and following recent support provided by the project through an expert opinion on draft legislative amendments in these areas, a workshop on parallel financial investigations was organised for 31 prosecutors, investigators, judges, financial intelligence and other law enforcement practitioners. The workshop aimed to provide them with financial investigative techniques to effectively detect money laundering, terrorist financing and other serious crimes, as well as identify and recover the proceeds from those crimes.

The international Council of Europe experts and practitioners contributing to the workshop took participants through the different operational stages of financial investigations, and showed them how these can be exploited to prove money laundering or other criminal offences, and trace assets for future confiscation. They explained how financial investigations, when planned strategically and implemented accurately, can serve as an effective instrument to recover assets of unlawful origin. These explanations were complemented with practical illustrations and case studies referring to the real-life application of successful financial investigations.

The workshop allowed to emphasise the importance of effectively combating the penetration of illicit interests into the economic system, in its various manifestations, by pursuing the objective of affecting the flows of dirty money and depriving criminal organisations of their economic resources and proceeds. With this purpose in mind, the “Follow the money” methodology, which helps investigate financial transactions for collecting evidence about crimes and tracing illicit proceeds of these crimes, was also looked at in detail in the workshop. Furthermore, the workshop also demonstrated how organised crime groups and mafia-type organisations infiltrate the legal market, and described red-flag indicators that help detect an “infiltrated” company in the legal market, through the analysis of the nature and origin of money and assets inflows and outflows.

Azerbaijani delegates were immersed in the simulated investigation of a case, which took them through the financial investigative steps they would need to take in order to advance the investigation and maximise confiscation opportunities under the current national legislative provisions. The simulated case involved analysis of data, collating of evidence, and establishing sound grounds for relevant provisional measures and confiscation of assets. This practical exercise also allowed to examine different approaches and encourage domestic cooperation and coordination in the fight against economic crime among the participating agencies. The workshop was further enriched with several additional exercises, enabling the participants to learn by practice how to determine “financial discrepancies” and estimate amounts to be proposed for seizure and confiscation. 

The workshop was of particular significance in the context of forthcoming national legislative and institutional reforms in the area of parallel financial investigations. It contributed to enhancing the capacities of Azerbaijani authorities in exploiting different financial investigative techniques to better combat money laundering and effectively confiscate illegal proceeds of crime. 

This activity was organised within the framework of the project “Strengthening anti-money laundering and asset recovery in Azerbaijan”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II.