financial investigative techniques training course opens in dar today

The U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso Lenhardt, today, Monday, November 16, 2009, opened a training course “Money Laundering / Financial Investigative Techniques” at the Holiday Inn in Dar es Salaam.

The United States Embassy in Tanzania and the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation Division, is offering the course, which runs through November 20, 2009. The course objective is to support Tanzanian officials with techniques for investigating financial crimes and corresponding money laundering activities.

Some 25 participants from Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Tanzania Police Force, Attorney General – Zanzibar and Zanzibar DPP office are attending.

Pictured aboce front row, from left: Kathy Enstrom (trainer), John Voinovich (trainer), Ambassador Lenhardt, PCCB Director General, Edward Hosea and Mark Weber (trainer). (Photo courtesy of the American Embassy)

Addressing the participants, Ambassador Lenhardt said the U.S. Government, in collaboration with the Tanzanian government, aims to raise awareness of illicit financial transactions and their role in launder the proceeds of criminal activities.

“With the rapid expansion of global banking and instantaneous transfers of money, there is a need for regulators, law enforcement personnel, and bankers to work closely with each other to ensure that money launderers do not take advantage of potential vulnerabilities in the financial system,” Ambassador Lenhardt said.

The training is conducted by the United States Department of Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through the National Criminal Investigation Division. The course objective is to support Tanzanian officials with techniques for investigating financial crimes and corresponding money laundering activities.

This course builds on previous partnerships between the U.S. and Tanzanian government to fight financial crime. The Millennium Challenge Account Threshold program, along with the US Department of Justice, supported the development of Tanzania's Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2006 and provided assistance for the establishment of the Financial Intelligence Unit to curb tax evasion, money laundering and terrorist financing.

The IRS Special Agents leading this course will share best practices for tracking ill-gotten gains arising from illegal activity and building up prosecutable cases based on forensic accounting.

The training course addresses the following themes:
*money laundering theory;
*money laundering statutes and their elements;
*money laundering techniques;
*documenting evidence of money laundering transactions;
*money laundering transactions using banks;
*using circumstantial evidence and an indirect method of proof to show *involvement in an illegal activity related to money laundering;
*practical exercises that reinforce the participants understanding of money *laundering theory and techniques;
*practical exercises that reinforce the techniques used by investigators to gather, analyze and report on money laundering transactions; and
seizing proceeds from money laundering crimes.