Economic crime report 2004 - Ekobrottsmyndigheten

Proposed Direction and Measures for the
Next Three Years
The following section starts with an overall discussion of the direction
that the effort to combat economic crime should take over the next three
years. After that is a detailed presentation of the most promising ways to
deal with the types of threats described above.
To begin with, cooperation must continue and expand on the operational
level, including the joint development of new methods to more effectively
fight economic crime.
A second primary task is to broaden the prevention effort on the basis
of close, multilevel collaboration among the agencies concerned, as well
as the private sector and other interested parties. Young people, many of
whose attitudes toward undeclared work and economic crime need working
on, are a key target group. More suitable methods must be developed
to wield that kind of influence.
A third task is to maintain the focus on threat analyses. Next on the agenda
is a 2005 interagency review of the EU’s enlargement. Another essential
step is to build upon intelligence activities in the area of economic crime.
Links to organized crime should receive particular attention.
Cooperation is the key to success. Secrecy issues often come up in this
connection. SAMEB reports frequently argue that secrecy legislation
erects barriers to combating economic crime in several different areas,
particularly before a pretrial investigation or audit is launched. A more
general problem is that agencies often cannot provide information to
other agencies or receivers in bankruptcy unless expressly requested to do
so. The party that needs the information is frequently unaware of its existence.
Overhauling this kind of legislation would appear to be urgent.
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