This year, Latvian State Police have arrested assets worth EUR 1.4 billion in efforts battling money laundering. Approximately EUR 47 million was declared illegally acquired finances and was transferred to the state budget, as journalists were told by deputy chief of State Police, Main Criminal Police Headquarters chief Andrejs Grišins on Friday, 8 October.
Grišins said State Police actively work towards preventing money laundering and making sure organized crime feel the grip of law enforcement as clearly as possible.
This year there were 300 criminal processes related to money laundering, in which police imposed arrests on different forms of assets – finances, real estate, vehicles – worth more than EUR 1.4 billion.
Approximately EUR 47 million was declared as illegally acquired finances this year. Half a million of this amount was paid out to victims of crimes.
Although the value of arrested assets was much higher than the amounts declared illegally acquired, Grišins said each criminal process and their investigation included parallel financial investigation and research of where the illegally obtained finances were illegally invested.
As previously reported, this week Latvian State Police and the US embassy in Latvia organized one of the biggest international professional training events for law enforcement, office of the prosecutor and courts of law to provide a better insight into money laundering prevention and discuss investigation practices on an international level. The event was attended by law enforcers, investigators, prosecutors and judges from Baltic States, as well as experts from USA, Israel, Netherlands and the UK.
Battling money laundering, Latvian police arrest assets worth more than a billion euros this year
