From October 22 to 24, the OSCE organized the second Workshop on Cryptocurrency Investigations in Astana, Kazakhstan. The intermediate workshop brought together more than thirty practitioners from the Asset Recovery Committee, the Financial Supervision Agency, the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
“Criminal use of virtual assets has become one of the most discussed issues in the financial system and for the economic security of most countries,” said Mr. Murat Tuleganov, Head of the Asset Recovery Committee Office. “This highlights the critical need to build the capacity of practitioners to effectively identify, trace and seize cryptocurrencies used for criminal purposes,” he added.
Through real-world case studies, participants had the opportunity to learn about the various stages of the investigative process, including perpetrator identification, basic transaction analysis, collection of evidence, reporting suspicious transactions, as well as freezing and suspending cryptocurrency assets.
The workshop also focused on how to communicate effectively with other institutions and the private sector throughout the investigation process, including with international counterparts.
This workshop was organized within the framework of the extra-budgetary project “Innovative policy solutions to mitigate money laundering risks related to virtual assets”, implemented by the Office of the Coordinator of Economic and Environmental Activities of the OSCE. The project is financially supported by Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States.