Day: March 18, 2021

On 18 March, Traffic announced that Case Digest- An Initial Analysis of the Financial Flows and Payment Mechanisms Behind Wildlife and Forest Crime, provides a thorough examination of the financial data from more than 40 wildlife crime cases from across the globe, including 11 detailed case studies.  The report is described as a product of years of unprecedented collaboration between participating government agencies, financial intelligence units, non-governmental organisations and other sector experts.  TRAFFIC, together with its key partner UNODC canvassed the globe for cases, with valuable contributions from leading financial crime partners, to identify examples where financial investigation was conducted to analyse and build out specific patterns, trends and recommendations for practitioners. The report also includes specific red flag indicators, criminal network diagrams, identified corruption vulnerabilities, lists of associated high-risk entities, and data on convergence between wildlife and other crimes.  It is argued that the lack of precedent in applying financial investigative techniques to wildlife crime cases is a significant barrier to combating illegal wildlife trade.

https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/case-digest-an-initial-analysis-of-the-financial-flows-and-payment-mechanisms-behind-wildlife-and-forest-crime/

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On 18 March, the Department for International Trade published advice on how military and dual-use technology is defined for export controls.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exporting-military-or-dual-use-technology-definitions/export-of-technology-remote-access-and-the-use-of-cloud-computing-services

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On 16 March, El Pais in Spain reported that Spain will take Gibraltar off its list of tax havens after an agreement with the UK on tax cooperation entered into force earlier this month.  While it is no longer on the EU or the OECD lists of non-cooperative jurisdictions, it remained on Spain’s own blacklist, created in 1991.  The agreement seeks to reinforce cooperation and information exchange to prevent Gibraltar from becoming a magnet for Spanish tax evaders.  It sets out clear rules to define when a natural or legal person shall be considered tax resident in Spain.

https://english.elpais.com/economy_and_business/2021-03-16/spain-to-take-gibraltar-off-tax-haven-list-after-treaty-enters-into-force.html

The agreement is available at –

https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/new/sites/default/files/press/2019/Press%20Releases/Text%20of%20Tax%20Treaty%20in%20English.pdf

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The USAID Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species (ROUTES) Partnership has produced a report based on new research, carried out by C4ADS, exploring the overlap of methods and routes used in wildlife trafficking and other illicit smuggling crimes such as drugs and weapons.  Using this analysis, it gives recommendations to aviation and enforcement agencies on how to strengthen mitigation of wildlife trafficking and the wider spectrum of transnational crime.  It says that an assessment of the routes, networks and methods used for trafficking wildlife and other illicit goods such as drugs and weapons between 2015-2019 shows a high degree of interconnection, which if addressed could prove hugely beneficial to disrupting illicit activities.  Recommendations fall into 3 broad categories –

• improving collection and reporting of seizure data;
• increasing collaboration between aviation and enforcement stakeholders in addressing convergence; and
• refining mitigation activities to address all illicit commodity types.

https://routespartnership.org/industry-resources/publications/sharedskies/view

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