Executive Summary
Economic and financial crime in Latvia include a wide range of illegal acts. These are, but are not limited to, the sale of illegal goods and services, fraud, embezzlement, racketeering, white collar crime, counterfeiting, money laundering, corruption and tax evasion. Many forms of economic criminal activity are difficult to understand, detect, and investigate, leading to a perception that they are low-risk and high-reward crimes. If law enforcement efforts stall or are otherwise ineffective, economic crimes may pose a significant threat to the nation’s business community and economy. The volume and obfuscation of economic crimes in Latvia present a persistent challenge for law enforcement investigations, and have led to on-going efforts to strengthen authorities’ ability to detect, investigate and successfully prosecute them.
This report identifies gaps in Latvia’s criminal justice system that make investigation and prosecution of economic and financial crime more difficult. It provides context to understand challenges that are specific to Latvia, as distinct from the complex nature of economic and financial crime in general. Indeed, this context explains why many of the challenges have continued despite previous reports on the topic. The report provides recommendations to support sustainable change in the investigation and prosecution of economic and financial crime, and to inform future capacity-building investments.
The report highlights public management success stories in Latvia that mark concrete improvements to crime prevention and detection institutions, including:
the establishment of joint investigation teams; improved supervision by prosecutors on serious cases
recent amendments to legislation on criminal procedure that confer broader authority to terminate cases and joint training sessions are used to improve sharing of information among government agencies
Challenges remain, however. For example, lack of specialised training and knowledge amongst police and prosecutors, justice delays due to lack of resources, as well as challenges related to international co-operation, and the increasing complexity of cases due to the cyber dimension of economic crimes. The report notes that it is difficult to measure successful performance of economic crime investigations and prosecutions. The State Police have made considerable changes in recent years to the legal framework and operations to combat economic crimes, but thoroughly implementing such changes will requires a commitment to continued training, the introduction of modern investigative equipment and related technology, and stability of efforts over time. A lack of resources in law enforcement is a consistent problem; greater investments are needed in the human and operational resources of the State Police.
The core recommendations of this report are, first and foremost, to develop a dedicated economic crime strategy in Latvia and, second, to conduct a root and branch review on the current investigative model for economic and financial crimes. Models used in different jurisdictions could inspire part of the dedicated economic crime strategy in line with the remaining recommendations of this report.