Organized Crime Infiltration of Legitimate Businesses in Europe: A Pilot Project in Five European Countries. Final Report of Project ARIEL – Assessing the Risk of the Infiltration of Organized Crime in EU MSs Legitimate Economies: a Pilot Project in 5 EU Countries

This research is an exploratory study on the infiltration of organised crime groups (OCGs) in legal businesses. Infiltration occurs in every case in which a natural person belonging to a criminal organisation or acting on its behalf, or an already infiltrated legal person, invests financial and/or human resources to participate in the decision-making process of a legitimate business. The main output of the research is a list of risk factors of OCG infiltration in legal businesses, i.e. factors that facilitate or promote infiltration. Risk factors are derived from an unprecedented cross-national comparative analysis of the vulnerabilities of territories and business sectors, criminal groups’ modi operandi, and the characteristics of infiltrated businesses. Infiltration risk factors provide inputs for the development of a risk assessment model of OCG infiltration. Its development will assist Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in identifying the factors facilitating and/or promoting infiltration and enhancing the prevention and enforcement of criminal infiltration. This will help protect EU MS legitimate economies from the misuse of legal businesses for illicit purposes

Beyond the Prediction Paradigm: Challenges for AI in the Struggle Against Organized Crime

In the future, audiological rehabilitation of adults with hearing loss will be more available, personalized and thorough due to the possibilities offered by the internet. By using the internet as a platform it is also possible to perform the process of rehabilitation in a cost-effective way. With tailored online rehabilitation programs containing topics such as communication strategies, hearing tactics and how to handle hearing aids it might be possible to foster behavioral changes that will positively affect hearing aid users. Four studies were carried out in this thesis. The first study investigated internet usage among adults with hearing loss. In the second study the administration format, online vs. paper- and pencil, of four standardized questionnaires was evaluated. Finally two randomized controlled trials were performed evaluating the efficacy of online rehabilitation programs including professional guidance by an audiologist. The programs lasted over five weeks and were designed for experienced adult hearing-aid users. The effects of the online programs were compared with the effects of a control group. It can be concluded that the use of computers and the internet overall is at least at the same level for people with hearing loss as for the general age-matched population in Sweden. Furthermore, for three of the four included questionnaires, the participants’ scores remained the same across formats. It is however recommended that the administration format remain consistent across assessment points. Finally, results from the two concluding intervention studies provide preliminary evidence that the internet can be used to deliver education and rehabilitation to experienced hearing aid users who report residual hearing problems and that their problems are reduced by the intervention; however the content and design of the online rehabilitation program requires further investigation

Organized crime behavior of shell-company networks in procurement: prevention insights for policy and reform

In recent years, the analysis of economic crime and corruption in procurement has benefited from integrative studies that acknowledge the interconnected nature of the procurement ecosystem. Following this line of research, we present a networks approach for the analysis of shell-companies operations in procurement that makes use of contracting and ownership data under one framework to gain knowledge about the organized crime behavior that emerges in this setting. In this approach, ownership and management data are used to identify connected components in shell-company networks that, together with the contracting data, allows to develop an alternative representation of the traditional buyer-supplier network: the module-component bipartite network, where the modules are groups of buyers and the connected components are groups of suppliers. This is applied to two documented cases of procurement corruption in Mexico characterized by the involvement of large groups of shell-companies in the misappropriation of millions of dollars across many sectors. We quantify the economic impact of single versus connected shell-companies operations. In addition, we incorporate metrics for the diversity of operations and favoritism levels. This paper builds into the quantitative organized crime in the private sector studies and contributes by proposing a networks approach for preventing fraud and understanding the need for legal reforms.Comment: Corruption; fraud; public procurement; shell-companies; ownership; organized crime; network analysi

Developing a Model for Explaining Network Attributes and Relationships of Organised Crime Activities by Utilizing Network Science

The main objective of this research is to provide an innovative exploratory model for investigating substantive organised crime activities. The study articulates 30 critical independent variables related to organised crime, network science and a comprehensive exploratory approach which converts measurements of the variables into meaningful crime related inferences and conclusions. A case study was conducted to review initial feasibility of the selected variables, exploratory approach and model, and the results suggesting good effectiveness and useability

Organised crime economy: managing crime markets in Europe

This edited volume contains a selection of peer-reviewed papers prepared for the sixth Colloquium on Cross-border Crime, held at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin, Germany, in September 2004.Tom Vander Beken, Karen Verpoest, Annemie Bucquoye and Melanie Defruytier present a study on the criminal vulnerability of the European road freight transport sector. Jackie Harvey examines distinguishing characteristics of countries believed to be money laundering centers. Ton Schudelaro assesses the money laundering threat posed by electronic payment systems. Anna Markina and Jüri Saar present a study on law enforcement expectations about the development of cross-border crime in Estonia after the EU enlargement. Niels Bagelius investigates how Swedish companies investing in Eastern Europe cope with the challenges of transition economies. Miroslav Scheinost, Vladimir Baloun and Drahuse Kaderabkova describe the situation of economic crime in the Czech Republic with a special focus on financial markets. Petrus van Duyne and Mark Houtzager present an empirical study on criminal sub-contracting in the Netherlands. Per Ole Johansen presents findings from interview-based research into the illegal alcohol market in Norway. Klaus von Lampe presents quantitative and qualitative data from various sources to question commonly accepted explanations for the emergence of the cigarette black market in Germany. Tom Blickman assesses the relative importance of the Netherlands in the global ecstasy business. Tihomir Bezlov summarizes the findings of four studies on the drug market and the related organized crime situation in Bulgaria. Almir Maljevic presents an interview-based study of victims of human trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina