1. Main Theme of the Seminar
Economic Crime in a Globalizing Society - Its Impact on the Sound Development of the State.

2. Rationale
Sustainable economic development is an indispensable and critical factor for the prosperity of the state and pursuit of human well-being. In the last 15 years or so, political democratization infiltrated society throughout the world, and most counties introduced or further promoted a market economy. Despite the recent depression in the global economy, many countries have tried to reform their socio-economic structure and promote free trade mechanisms to ensure their sound economic development. As a result, the world economy has globalized rapidly. Although the level of economic development varies from county to country, every country aims to protect its national property as well as encourage sound transactions in order to achieve sustainable economic development. However, with economic globalization, economic crimes have also been globalized, and its modus operandi has become more complicated and sophisticated. This has resulted in difficulties in their detection and investigation.

Economic crimes not only harm individuals, but also sometimes cause great loss to public property, and it results in damaging investors' confidence in doing business there and may lead them to invest elsewhere. Thus economic crimes may ultimately undermine the fundamental basis for the sound socio-economic development in each country. Therefore, every country must recognize the importance of fighting economic crime and consider how they can enhance effective countermeasures.

The United Nations has regarded the prevention of crime as a crucial factor for the establishment of international economic order since its 7th Congress in 1985. It has also granted priority to tackling economic crime as well as transnational crime, organized crime and money laundering at the Commissions on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the 1990s. At the 10th Congress in 2000, reaffirming that the choice of preventive measures against crime may often vary depending on the stage of each country's development, a new strategy for combating the increase in crime was discussed under the topic “Effective Crime Prevention: Keeping Pace with New Developments” under the main theme “Crime and Justice: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century”. The 11th Congress will be held in Thailand (Bangkok) in 2005 and the provisional agenda “Economic and Financial Crimes: Challenges to Sustainable Development” and a provisional workshop “Measures to Combat Economic Crime, Including Money-Laundering” have been approved.

In addition to the transformation of the socio-economic structure, the recent rapid development in communications technology and transportation have further promoted globalization and diversification of activities in the economic field, which are mostly business/financial transactions, and have increased in quantity tremendously. We can see a myriad of transnational economic activities all over the world. In accordance with such phenomena, economic crimes have globalized, the modus operandi of such crimes has become more advanced, and their scale has been increasing. In the last several years, this trend has been accelerated by the quick proliferation of computers, a rapid increase in the number of customers for Internet services and the expansion of a credit-card society. Crimes committed by using the Internet as a tool easily transcend national borders and prevail all over the world by their very nature. This makes the investigation of such transnational economic crimes more difficult. Thus, as economic crimes in a globalizing society do not stay in one country but prevail across national borders, they present a menace to international society and hamper the sound development of the world economy. Recognizing such hazards, we have to increase international cooperation to take effective countermeasures against economic crimes.

One of the remarkable characteristics of economic crimes in a globalizing society is that the crimes are well-organized. With globalization, economic crimes are being committed on a larger scale, are more complex, and tend to be committed by well-organized groups. This is one of the factors that makes the prevention and investigation of such crimes tougher. Corporate crime is a typical economic crime committed in a well-organized manner. Corporate related economic crimes usually cause larger-scale damage and have a terrible effect on the economy. We must also not forget the involvement of organized criminal groups in economic crimes. Criminal groups are involved in not only illegal activities such as drug trafficking, smuggling of persons and firearms trafficking, but also the management of companies by disguising legal transactions for illicit proceeds. The United Nations adopted the “Convention against Transnational Organized Crime” and its protocols concerning trafficking in firearms, trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, and requires states to take appropriate steps to combat organized crime. Economic crimes committed in a well-organized manner greatly affect society and effective countermeasures should be taken expeditiously.

Furthermore, we cannot ignore corruption as one of the economic crimes having a great impact on the national economy. Corruption is a crime itself, as well as a catalyst that promotes other types of economic crimes and also often aids in concealing them. Moreover, corruption undermines the sound development of a market economy as it interrupts fair economic competition. In this regard, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) adopted the “Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions” in 1997 in order to protect international business transactions. Corruption conducted by hi-ranking public officials has especially serious consequences. That is, such officials line their own pockets with public funds which should be used for the people's healthcare services, education and the social infrastructure of the country, etc.

Economic crimes in this globalizing society range from conventional types such as embezzlement and breach of trust to new types such as collusive bidding, cartels, insider trading, market manipulation, financial crime and computer crime which are increasingly getting more diversified, complicated and sophisticated. These new types of economic crimes have characteristics such that the victims and/or the damage cannot be identified nor measured, but this does not mean that the damage is not serious. Because the damage caused by such new types of economic crime may harm consumers in general, and may deprive the country of investors' confidence and the ability to compete.

Although we will not focus on the money laundering issue in this Seminar, we have to pay considerable attention to the illegal proceeds gained by economic crimes which are laundered in various forms to secure the perpetrator's illegal earnings. According to a survey conducted by the United Nations and other organizations, it is estimated that approximately 500 billion to 1 trillion U.S. dollars of illegal proceeds are laundered every year. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime requires state parties to extend the predicate offences for money laundering from drug offences to other serious offences, including economic crimes.

It is said that “prevention” is second to none in combating crime, therefore all of us need to be well equipped with the appropriate preventive measures to combat economic crimes. It is very important for every sector such as the government, corporations and business to establish a legal and/or organizational system of “good governance” including integrity, transparency, equity and accountability, as well as to apply and implement such laws appropriately. It is also considered effective to establish independent monitoring organizations and/or an ombudsmen system in order to secure good governance.

In the criminal justice field, firstly, from the perspective of substantive law, we have to identify and criminalize new types of economic crimes, which cannot be dealt with by traditional criminal law. Thus, for example, crimes related to “bonds” or “securities”, need to be criminalized as the market economy evolves and economic crimes diversify. We have to carefully consider meaningful sanctions including alternative administrative measures because criminal punishment alone has a limited effect on offenders or offending corporations as far as corporate crimes are concerned.

Appropriate legal measures and resources should be allocated to law enforcement agencies in order to investigate, prosecute and pursue trials relating to serious economic crimes and money laundering effectively. As for law enforcement agencies, for the purpose of tackling complicated economic crimes, experts in the field of financial transactions and/or computer technology, for example, should be invited to join the investigations, or a special investigative unit or agency consisting of experts should be established. Without such expertise, it might be difficult for the investigators to deal with complicated economic crimes. Since influential politicians, hi-ranking public officials, financiers and businessmen may be sometimes deeply involved in economic crimes, the independence of the investigative agencies for economic crime should be secured so as not to be influenced by them. As for the investigative method, new types of investigative techniques such as interception of communication and undercover operations as well as traditional techniques should be fully utilized to detect clandestine activities. Moreover, a system of utilizing whistle-blowers and/or immunity could be set up so as to gather information and evidence. Especially in the investigation of economic crimes, transaction records of financial institutions play a critical role in proving guilt, therefore it is necessary for each country to establish enforceable measures to collect such evidence and not to be hampered by bank secrecy laws. To show that economic crimes do not pay, an appropriate legal framework for the forfeiture and confiscation of illegal proceeds should be established and thoroughly enforced.

The cooperation and exchange of information amongst all sectors such as investigative agencies, administrative organizations and private enterprises are also indispensable in carrying out the effective investigation of economic crimes. Such cooperation and information exchange should be conducted both at a national and international level.

At the trial stage, securing testimony is a big concern especially in cases where economic crimes are committed by well-organized groups and the witnesses themselves are involved in the case. In such cases, witnesses tend to refuse to testify due to fear of punishment and/or retaliation by the offender.

In consideration of the above, UNAFEI which is a regional training institute for the prevention of crime and the treatment offenders of the United Nations is holding the 126th Senior Seminar focusing on serious economic crimes in the 21st century.

3. Objectives
Giving due consideration to the above mentioned rationale, this Seminar focuses on serious economic crime in a globalizing society, and intends to contribute to the socio-economic development of every participating country. We will explore more effective countermeasures against serious economic crimes by discussing practical examples which the participants will provide.
In the discussions at this Seminar, focus will be placed on the following elements:
I. Current situation and problems of serious economic crimes
II.Effective countermeasures
A. Effective preventive measures
B. Effective legal system (substantive laws, procedural laws, law enforcement agencies, etc.)
C. Effective investigation and trial.