In 2020, national judicial and law enforcement authorities seized or froze about EUR 1.9 billion in operations coordinated through Eurojust.
Economic crime remained a major focus of Eurojust’s casework in 2020, which covered investigations into a wide range of offences, including swindling, fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and corruption, as well as environmental and intellectual property crime. Criminal investigations primarily tackling some other form of crime, such as drug trafficking, terrorist activities or trafficking in human beings (THB), often also included economic crimes such as money laundering.
In addition to the extensive casework tackling economic crime, the Economic Crime Team of the College of Eurojust monitored the changing crime typologies of economic crime to collect, collate and rationalise lessons learnt and best practice which arises from Eurojust’s casework. The results serve to provide a practitioner's perspective to the national and EU legislators seeking to combat these developments and guide prosecutors at national and international level, such as the Report on Eurojust’s Casework on Environmental Crime (published in January 2021).
Other ongoing projects focus on money laundering, corruption, investment fraud and mutual recognition of freezing and confiscation orders due to come to fruition in 2021/2022 and guidance for judicial practitioners on the new EU legal framework governing judicial cooperation in the field of asset recovery, which became applicable in December 2020.
‘The range and type of economic crime offences being committed across the European Union are constantly evolving and developing. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the development and growth of fraudulent activity committed through the Internet.’
Frank Cassidy, National Member of Eurojust for Ireland and Chair of the Eurojust College economic crime team
Eurojust is an agency of the European Union