Tessa is an external PhD candidate conducting research on how the current practical and legal-normative frameworks for international criminal cooperation in cross-border gathering of evidence related to criminal money flows can be improved from the point of view of both effectiveness and lawfulness.
Serious organized crime and white-collar crime are aimed at financial gain. Illegal cash flows lie at the core of criminal revenue models. These illicit financial flows almost always have an international dimension. It may concern money illegally obtained (for example from corruption, human trafficking or drug trafficking), illegally transferred (for example tax evasion) and/or having an illegal destination (for example terrorist financing). Investigative authorities try to map and disrupt these money flows, punish suspects and take away their criminally earned assets. However, this is not an easy task: while the movement of money is not bound by national borders, extraterritorial investigation is. How effective is the current cross-border gathering of evidence in such cases? What legal normative and practical bottlenecks are there in this context? And how could the gathering of evidence from abroad be improved? These questions are central to her PhD research.
