The Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities strengthens virtual asset investigation skills for officials in Georgia

Twenty-seven supervisory and law enforcement representatives from Georgia strengthened their skills in identifying and investigating the financial crimes conducted with cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets in a training course held from 17 to 20 October 2023 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The course was organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“Georgia is a crucial partner and beneficiary for us, and the dedication and interest in these trainings and workshops is high,” said Vera Strobachova-Budway, Acting Senior Economic Officer at OCEEA. “This is the second training on investigation of virtual assets for Georgian authorities and the OSCE will continue to support Georgia’s efforts to combat money laundering, in particular though virtual assets and cryptocurrencies.”

The course covered advanced techniques and practical tools that can help government officials investigate financial crimes committed with virtual assets, such as advanced tracing of criminal transactions on different blockchains, case studies, and best practices, as well as familiarisation with specialized analytics software

The training course is part of an OSCE-led extra-budgetary project on “Innovative policy solutions to mitigate money-laundering risks of virtual assets”. The project is designed to support the governments of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine in building national authorities’ capacities to mitigate criminal risks related to virtual assets and cryptocurrencies and provide them with analytical software to trace virtual assets through various blockchains. The project is funded by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Romania and Poland.