Artificial intelligence can help combat monetary crime

The BVI Financial Investigation Agency could soon use artificial intelligence to tackle child sexual exploitation, human trafficking and other illegal activities as it steps up its efforts following recent criticism of the territory’s ability to combat monetary crime, according to FIA director Errol George.

Currently, the agency is devoting more resources to addressing the issues raised in the damning Mutual Evaluation Report released in February by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, Mr George said during a recent BVI Finance webinar.

Part of that effort, he said, involves responding to a significant increase in reports of suspicious activity involving virtual assets, which are classified as any digital representation of value that can be digitally traded, transferred or used for payment.

“We have a number of these reports related to child sexual exploitation,” he told the Sept. 6 webinar. “We have many reports involving what we call dark web-related activities – illegal gambling, buying and selling of firearms and even drugs – using virtual assets. This is something we are looking at closely.”

Artificial intelligence

To tackle this problem, Mr George says, the FIA ​​is stepping up its monitoring and analysis of transactions related to virtual assets.

But he acknowledged the agency needs help in this area.

“We don’t have the resources for that at the moment,” he says. “We currently have two analysts on board who are exclusively concerned with analyzing the virtual assets. We are at the point where we need to integrate additional technology. We look at how we can best integrate artificial intelligence into our analysis.”

Such technology, he added, is likely to be an important weapon in the fight against financial crime identified by suspicious activity reports, which he described as a crucial tool for his office.

“If they enter into a transaction and those transactions are done in cash… and are considered suspicious for any reason, they are legally required to report these matters to the FIA ​​through a suspicious transaction report,” said he.

As part of efforts to expand into artificial intelligence, the FIA ​​is in talks with a British company about acquiring new technology, according to the director.

Mr George also said the FIA ​​is planning more extensive assessments and site visits for entities deemed to be at high risk of criminal activity.

Human smuggling

The director also told the webinar about an ongoing FIA project analyzing human trafficking.

“Every now and then we hear about the apprehension of illegal migrants entering the area – and being dropped off on many islands in the BVI,” he said. “So we thought this would be a good project to look at in the BVI after seeing some of the connections and financial flows between the BVI and the US Virgin Islands.”

Report on the way

Mr George said this work – which he described as important for government policymakers – will result in a report that he hopes will be released on Monday.

In addition, the organization is expanding its network to better ensure that a range of entities – including real estate agents, lawyers, jewelers, car dealers, yacht brokers and non-profit organizations – comply with laws designed to deter financial crime.

“These entities are often at risk of being exploited for money laundering or terrorist financing, given the nature of their services,” he said.

Supervisory task

To better address such issues, the FIA ​​is expanding its supervisory duties, in line with the requirements of the CFATF, said Mr George, who has led the FIA ​​since 2009.

“We are strengthening our supervision,” he says. “It is a result of the recommendations of the mutual evaluation report.”