Background checks in financial investigations

Abstract

The confiscation of crime-acquired assets, as an anti-crime measure has found full recognition in the legislations of most developed European countries in the last decade of the 20th century, as an effective way of battling organized crime. In Serbian practice, this institute is relatively new; it has been recently introduced, by the relevant normative-legal framework which was adopted more than three years ago. The mentioned framework set up a special investigating entity, the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU), as the organizational unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which, under the formal command of the public prosecutor, is taking a wide range of measures and actions aimed at establishing the existence of 'criminal assets'. Within the powers available to the FIU, one can find mostly traditional, already known police powers along with somewhat adapted ones specific to financial investigation and designed to gather evidence or take actions that have only informal importance. The subject of exploration here are adapted measures, including primarily background checks, comprising of a complex set of actions which confirm (or deny) the initial findings of the existence of property derived from crime. The author has analyzed the initial sources of findings about the criminal origin of property and then tried to point to the specifics of these checks in financial investigations, both in the form and contents, as well as in terms of standards that are established in this area and have marked the previous work of this investigation subject (FIU).

U Srbiji je primena instituta oduzimanja imovine stečene kriminalom tekovina novijeg datuma, za razliku od većine razvijenih evropskih, gde je ovaj institut pronašao punu afirmaciju još tokom poslednje decenije 20. veka i gde je posmatran uglavnom kao efikasan vid borbe protiv organizovanog kriminala. Pravni okvir kojim je u Srbiji omogućeno efikasnije istraživanje dobiti stečene kriminalom, a koji se primenjuje nešto više od tri godine, predvideo je i osnivanje posebnog istražnog subjekta, Jedinice za finansijske istrage (JFI), organizacione jedinice zemalja Ministarstva unutrašnjih poslova, koja pod rukovodećom ulogom javnog tužioca preduzima širok dijapazon mera i radnji usmerenih ka utvrđivanju postojanja 'kriminalne imovine'. U okviru ovlašćenja kojima raspolaže JFI pronalaze se mahom od ranije već poznata klasična policijska ovlašćenja, unekoliko prilagođena specifičnostima finansijskih istraživanja, namenjena prikupljanju dokaznog materijala ili preduzimanju radnji koje imaju isključivo kriminalistički značaj. Predmet interesovanja autora su drugonavedene radnje, a među njima prvenstveno kriminalističke provere, kao kompleksan skup radnji kojima se početna saznanja o postojanju imovine stečene kriminalom potvrđuju ili opovrgavaju. Autor analizira početne izvore saznanja o kriminalnom poreklu imovine koji su najzastupljeniji u praksi, a zatim ukazuje na specifičnosti koje navedeni vid provera poprima tokom finansijskih istraga, kako u pogledu forme i sadržine, tako i u pogledu standarda koji su na ovom planu uspostavljeni i koji su obeležili dosadašnji rad ovog istražnog subjekta.