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MORE than 20 major fraud cases involving millions of pounds being allegedly laundered through Jersey banks by people from all over the world are being actively investigated by financial crime detectives, the States police have revealed.

The operations department of the Joint Financial Crimes Unit are working on 23 ‘major’ investigations, some of which have been active for up to six years. All allegedly involve millions of pounds.

Detective Inspector Dave Burmingham, head of the unit, said the cases involved jurisdictions, people and financial institutions across the globe.

• The JFCU is a combined team of 28 staff from the States police and Customs and Immigration. The staff are made up of a lawyer, accountant, financial crime analysts and administrative staff
• Their role is to combat all manners of economic crime from fraud to money laundering and terrorist financing
• The unit has three core areas; crime investigation, drugs trafficking and financial intelligence or operations
• 80 per cent of cases involve foreign jurisdictions.

An average of ten reports concerning the potential financing of terrorism every year were also received by the JFCU, he added, and all were thoroughly investigated. However, nothing had ever been found.

In 2013 a report found that Jersey contributed more – £118 billion – to the UK economy that it lost through its financial operations. The same report from Capital Economics concluded that the amount of tax evasion ‘plausibly’ facilitated through Jersey has been no more than £150m a year.

However Det Insp Burmingham could not rule out the possibility that funding for terrorist organisations such as Islamic State and Al Qaeda could pass through Jersey in the future.

‘We have got 23 major investigations going on at the moment. These are multi-million pound investigations involving very complex structures from all around the world across most of the continents,’ Det Insp Burmingham said.

‘We have investigations going on in the operations department at the moment that have been gong on for six years.’

He added that due to the Island’s proximity to Europe and London it was an attractive location for money launderers and possibly those financing terrorism too.

• The Egmont Group, consists of 147 jurisdictions and financial crime-fighting agencies from across the globe
• The goal of the Egmont Group is to provide a forum for financial intelligence units around the world to improve cooperation in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

‘We are always vigilant to the threat and all of the staff in our team are trained in London by the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit. We treat it very seriously and we are not complacent.’

Asked if money passing through Jersey could be used to fund terrorist activities around the world Det Insp Burmingham said: ‘You can never say never.’

The detective also revealed that his department had received an increased number of Suspicious Activity Reports – notifications that are presented to the police by a financial institution if they come across a suspicious transaction. However he stressed that it did not mean that there had been an increase in financial crime.

‘We receive about 2,300 SARs a year,’ he said. ‘They have increased over recent years but I think this is due to a change in landscape of tax matters around the world. General awareness has increased and so has Jersey’s regulatory and legal framework. For financial institutions, reporting something to us gives them protection from the law. We have certainly had an increase in reports but I would not say there had been an increase in crime.’

The JFCU, which has grown to become one of the largest departments in the force with 28 staff, is connected to 147 jurisdictions and global crime-fighting agencies – including Europol – worldwide through the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

• Former St John Contable Graeme Butcher was sentenced to six months in prison last after he was convicted of using parish money to carry out renovations on his home and furnish his properties with personal items. Then Deputy Bailiff (now Bailiff) William Bailhache said that Butcher had ‘dishonestly abused his position to buy goods for himself at the expense of the parish

• Online bingo addict, Patricia Ann Lomas, was jailed for four year after she abused her position at Ashburton (Jersey) Ltd and stole more than half a million pounds from the investment firm. The 55-year-old, who spent £759,625 on gaming websites between 2008 and 2013 took £542,610 from client accounts by manipulating reports and doctoring statements.

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