(Sarajevo, 15 October 2020) - Given the importance of proactive financial investigations in cases of economic crime and other related serious crimes, eleven financial experts were engaged by the HJPC in ten prosecutors' offices in BiH to assist prosecutors in conducting investigations into cases of economic crime, organised crime and corruption, with particular emphasis on financial investigations.

A financial investigation is an analysis of where money comes from, how it moves, and how it is used. 

The activity is fully financed from the project "Building an Effective and Citizen-friendly Judiciary" that is funded by the European Union as part of continued EU support over the years to the Rule of Law sector in BiH, which is the core of the EU accession process and the reform of BiH's judiciary. The engagement of the financial experts aims to facilitate a proactive approach to investigations and evidence gathering, including the motion for confiscation of assets at an early stage of the investigation.

Financial experts are primarily hired to deal with the most serious forms of economic crime and related crimes, such as fraud in public procurement, abuse of authority, tax evasion, manipulating the capital and stock market, etc.

Peer to peer meeting of financial experts

The benefitting prosecutor’s offices stressed the crucial importance of EU financial support through the involvement of financial experts, whose work has contributed to accelerated evidence gathering, improved indictment quality, backlog reduction, better communication with expert witnesses and law enforcement agencies, and improved efficiency in cross-examination and financial investigations.

From January 2019 until August 2020, the financial experts analysed a total of 436 cases, 29 of which required financial investigation.

An analysis of statistical data for the period from January to September 2020 compared to the same period in the previous year showed that in cases of economic crime, organised crime and corruption there was an increase in the number of filed indictments by 7% (or 26 cases) and in the number of confirmed indictments by 4 % (or 16 cases). The number of financial investigations in progress increased from 54 to 100 cases.

The financial experts are currently preparing a "Practitioner Manual for more efficient processing of economic crime, organised crime and corruption cases", which will focus on the course of financial investigations from a prosecutor perspective.

For more information, please contact: Dalila Hadžić, IPA Communication and Visibility officer at 033 704 601.