“Antiquities, the Art Market and Financial Crime: What AML Professionals Need to Know About the Looting and Trafficking of Cultural Artifacts and Fine Art”
April 10, 2019
Tuesday, April 16
4:50pm – 5:50pm
ACAMS 24th Annual International AML & Financial Crime Conference,
Hollywood, Florida
Next week, the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) will convene dozens of experts at a three-day conference on financial crime, which will include a panel addressing art crime. On this panel, Antiquities Coalition Executive Director Tess Davis will speak about how better to protect the art market and banking sector from being misused by cultural racketeers. She will be joined by leaders in the AML community including Bonnie Goldblatt, CAMS, Director, Deputy Head of Global Investigations Unit AML Compliance, Citicorp; Anthony Rodriguez, CPA, CAMS, Chief Global Compliance Officer at AFEX; and Alexander Wilson, Co-Chief, Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit, Asset Forfeiture Coordinator in United States Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York. The panel will be moderated by John J. Byrne, CAMS, Esq., Vice Chairman of AML Rightsource.
Looting is a practice as old as the sites being plundered, but due to the rising price of art and antiquities on the international market, cultural property has also become a lucrative vehicle for committing a wide range of financial crimes. The Financial Action Task Force has warned that art and antiquities are particularly vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing, while the art market itself has also recognized its vulnerability to fraud and forgery. However, despite these risks, it remains the largest unregulated market in the world.
Next week’s panel will analyze the guidance of the FATF and law enforcement agencies on the risks of crime within the art market to strengthen the due diligence of those involved, review federal and international investigations into these crimes, and asses the trends within EU, Swiss, and US regulations and public policy proposals. To learn more about the connection between looting and laundering art, antiquities, and financial crimes, click here.