Effective Practices for International Cooperation on Anti-Money Laundering and Illegal Offshore Banking

Whistleblowers have exposed many of the largest money laundering and bribery scandals in history. How can governments encourage more of them to come forward, and work together once they do? This side event was held at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC COP13) in Vienna. It was hosted by the National Whistleblower Center (NWC). The panel looked at how anti-corruption advocates can promote cross-border cooperation and use financial rewards to help detect and deter transnational financial crime, including money laundering and illegal offshore banking.

Speakers

Eliza Lockhart, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Finance and Security, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and author of The Inside Track: The Role of Financial Rewards for Whistleblowers in the Fight against Economic Crime; Stephen M. Kohn, Founding Partner, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, and Chairman of the Board, National Whistleblower Center; Jeana Lee (moderator), Program Manager, National Whistleblower Center

Key takeaways

• How a whistleblower reward program works, from the first report through investigation, prosecution, and award
• Why governments should treat whistleblowers as a source of intelligence and compensate them for results
• How U.S. foreign bribery enforcement has worked with law enforcement agencies in other countries
• Why Kohn says other countries, starting with the UK, can and should take on a bigger enforcement role

Chapters

• 0:00 — Welcome and introductions
• 1:38 — Eliza Lockhart: how whistleblower reward programs work and what the research shows
• 16:30 — Stephen Kohn: transnational whistleblower laws and international enforcement
• 40:33 — Audience Q&A