Cross-border access to electronic evidence: is there any light at the end of the tunnel?

With a substantial number of criminal activities, ranging from attacks against information systems to ‘old-school’ fraud and extortion, taking place in online settings, electronic information can be an important source of investigative leads. However, both the definition of the term ‘electronic evidence’ (e-evidence) and the relevant criminal procedural approaches continue to vary at national level. At […]
TRACE training programme is now in development

TRACE is beginning a new phase, preparing training resources and sessions for law enforcement, legal practitioners, and financial regulators showing how our insights and technology can be used to tackle money laundering and illicit money flows. Theoretical and technical material is being developed now. Stay tuned for updates on our new resources and training events […]
DeFi Regulation in the EU: should we act now?

European Union states continue to take significant steps towards improving crypto assets regulation. Regulation of operations with crypto assets at the EU level is extremely important for participants in the crypto market. As of today, different countries of the European Union have different rules and approaches to the regulation of operations with crypto assets. The EU […]
Registries of beneficial owners in the European Union: Freedom of information or protection of privacy?

In Joined Cases C-37/20 and C-601/20, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Article 1(15)(c) of the Directive 2018/843 (5th AML/CFT Directive) is invalid. The issue at stake was access to the registers of beneficial ownership by the general public in Member States. Under the provisions of the AML/CFT Directive, the public […]
Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism Compliance: Europe to implement more comprehensive regulation for cryptoassets

TRACE has passed its first year and in the two years since its inception a lot has changed. The timeframe in the financial sector is significant for the technology-intensive field, particularly in the emergent areas of cryptocurrency and Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) regulations. A lot of challenges have pushed the regulatory interventions, including the Financial […]
TRACE Consortium meets in Tallinn

The EU funded TRACE project aims to trace illicit money flows in various organised crime schemes by utilisation of cutting edge AI technology. The TRACE Consortium met in Tallinn on 12-13 September 2022, to assess our progress and coordinate the upcoming tasks. The project meeting, kindly hosted by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board, started with a welcome from the Director General, […]
Optimising AI solutions for Law Enforcement Agencies – TRACE partners discuss development plans in Vienna

On 29 July 2022, the TRACE project technical partners (AIT) and socio-legal research partners (Coventry University and VICESSE) met at the Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna. At this meeting, AIT presented the infrastructure and hardware of the TRACE technical /AI solutions and demonstrated their use and development in various scenarios, such as terrorist financing […]
Response of the EU-funded projects to the EC consultation on a proposed Cyber Resilience Act

The European Commission (EC) has issued a call for evidence for an impact assessment in connection with its proposed Cyber Resilience Act. In response to that call, this document represents the views of those listed at the end of this document. Principally, the list comprises the coordinators and partners of multiple EU-funded security projects. We […]
How can Law Enforcement Agencies tackle terrorism using web forensics?

Web forensic and open-source intelligence (OSINT) are the basic tools used for information gathering related to crime in cyberspace. The use of new and advanced technologies by terrorist groups is a daily routine, starting with promotion on social networks and ensuring encrypted communication and ending with the financing of individual terrorist groups. A considerable example […]
Money Laundering Via Non-Fungible Tokens

Editor’s note: This blog was first published at the Oxford Business Law Blog site. If you would like to hear more about this topic, please consider visiting our lecture “Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in the art market: A new medium for money laundering?” at the CEPOL conference on the 9th of June, 14:30-14:50 CEST. When we think of art, what often […]