The Importance of Suspicious Transaction Reporting in Criminal Investigations

Know Your Compliance (KYC)

In this episode, Greg is joined by Stephan Scott, a retired RCMP officer with 31 years of experience in organized crime and money laundering investigations. Stephan provides a powerful perspective on the importance of suspicious transaction reporting, explaining how the information gathered by reporting entities like real estate professionals can be crucial in supporting criminal investigations. He shares gripping stories from his career to illustrate how money laundering is deeply connected to serious predicate crimes like drug trafficking and human trafficking. While individual suspicious transaction reports may not directly lead to arrests, Stephan emphasizes that they become part of a larger puzzle that investigators use to uncover criminal activity. He encourages reporting entities to file STRs whenever they have reasonable grounds to suspect suspicious activity, as this information can make a meaningful difference even if the individual impact is not immediately visible. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights into the real-world impact of compliance efforts and the critical role that reporting entities play in supporting law enforcement's fight against organized crime and money laundering

Key Takeaways:

• Money laundering is not just an abstract financial crime - it is closely tied to serious predicate crimes like drug trafficking, human trafficking, and violent organized crime.
• The information reported through suspicious transaction reports (STRs) and other financial intelligence can be crucial in informing and advancing criminal investigations.
• While individual STRs may not directly lead to arrests, they become part of a larger puzzle that investigators use to uncover criminal activity.
• It is important for reporting entities like real estate professionals to file STRs when they have reasonable grounds to suspect suspicious activity, as this information can make a difference even if the individual impact is not immediately visible.
• FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence unit, analyzes STRs and other financial data to generate intelligence disclosures that are provided to law enforcement to support investigations.

About the guest: Stephen Scott

Stephen Scott is a former member of the RCMP and in 2017 through 2021 was an investigations and training consultant to the UNODC GPML in Southern Africa. While in the RCMP, Stephen worked in the Calgary Integrated Proceeds of Crime AML Unit, INSET and the IMET JSIU where he managed and conducted money laundering, asset forfeiture, organized crime and terrorist financing investigations for 24 years. As a member of the RCMP IPOC AML Unit Stephen served as the FINTRAC liaison, CBSA currency interdiction contact and the “gatekeeper” to the Alberta Justice Civil Forfeiture program. He was a designer and facilitator on the RCMP Advanced and Basic Proceeds of Crime / ML courses as well as a facilitator at the Canadian Police College for the National Expert Witness training and Drafting Information to Obtain search warrants courses.

In 2019/20, Stephen Scott served on contract as a sworn member of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service Bureau of Financial Investigations conducting international money laundering and asset forfeiture investigations.

Currently, Stephen is a licensed Private Investigator in Alberta and is currently contracted to firms that conduct due diligence, background, OSINT and asset recovery investigations.

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