Interpol's crack team to 'follow the money' in crypto crimes, says official

Red corner notice not tantamount to international arrest warrant: Jürgen Stock

The world’s largest police body with 195 members has formed a specialised team in Singapore to help countries combat crimes involving virtual assets. Interpol Secretary-General Jürgen Stock, who is in Delhi for the 90th General Assembly of Interpol starting Tuesday, said at a press conference on Monday that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum pose challenges to law enforcement agencies in the absence of a legal framework.

“Criminals are using cryptocurrencies to move money around the world, all the while keeping it hidden from enforcement agencies,” said Stock.

He said Interpol has set up a specialised team in Singapore to help countries develop a legal framework whilst also devising instruments to track and seize digital currencies.

The crack team, he said, is also providing requisite training to countries to combat virtual assets-related tactics, trends, etc.

Interpol’s General Assembly is taking place in India after 25 years – it was last held in 1997 – as part of India’s 75th Independence Day mahotsav.

The General Assembly is Interpol’s supreme governing body. It meets once every year to take key decisions related to its functioning.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - designated as the National Central Bureau of India for Interpol - said the agency is seized of this (cryptocurrency) challenge and discussing evolved areas of non-fungible tokens and cryptocurrency-enabled fraud threadbare. 

“International cooperation and sharing real-time information could prevent cryptocurrencies from being used to transfer and launder illegally gained assets,” Praveen Sinha, special director, CBI, told reporters at the same media briefing.

On refusing the issuance of a red corner notice (RCN) against some high-profile individuals, Stock said it is not tantamount to an international arrest warrant as is often perceived. Interpol, he said, cannot coerce any member country into arresting an individual who is the subject of the notice.

 “It is not for Interpol to judge the merits of a case or the decision taken by national courts. That is a sovereign matter,” he said, adding that the role of the world’s largest police organisation is to assess if a request for a notice is in line with its constitution and rules.

“We cannot accept a request if, for example, it is political, military, religious or racial in character, or is not in accordance with our rules,” he clarified.

Recently, Interpol refused to issue an RCN against controversial Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik. Some more requests were dropped lately, informed sources.

“About a dozen requests have been turned down by the police body in the recent past, making it challenging to track offenders who have taken refuge abroad,” said a CBI official.

“While we understand that the decision to not publish an RCN may not be welcomed by a member country, a part of the power of such a notice is in the trust of our membership that we implement the same rules when assessing any request from every country,” said Stock.

Sources said that the refusal of RCN was triggered by the decision of the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files. It is an independent body ensuring all personal data processed through Interpol’s channels conform to the rules of the organisation. 

Stock further highlighted that organised crime networks are making billions of dollars, and that less than 1 per cent of global illicit financial flows are intercepted and recovered. Rather, nearly 99 per cent of stolen assets remain in criminal hands. This, he said, should be of greater concern.

“Combined with the estimates of the global cost of cybercrime, expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025, it brings us to the basics of policing – follow the money,” added Stock.

Interpol has developed its global stop-payment mechanism, the anti-money laundering rapid response protocol, which in the past 10 months alone has helped member countries recover more than $60 million in criminal proceeds from cyber-enabled fraud.

The meeting of Interpol’s General Assembly is a way for member states to discuss the objectives set by the organisation, review and approve the programme of activities, go through the financial policy for the coming year, and have opportunities for knowledge-sharing.

The organisation has 90 million records spread across 17 databases.