Tristram Hicks has been in Financial Crime Law Enforcement since 1999 rising through the ranks of London’s Metropolitan Police to Detective Superintendent. He then went on to train officers and was instrumental in the creation of the UK’s concept of Accredited Financial Investigators which he says almost became a profession and he explains why that didn’t happen. After several years of being involved in projects, often in countries that could be considered the world’s financial crime trouble spots, he continues to work with governments on an ad hoc basis.

As a true architect of the UK’s “asset recovery” system, Tristram discusses what changes are needed for other countries to be able to match the UK’s very high ratio of forfeitures related to financial crime, he explains why the term “economic crime” is counter-productive and why fraud trials, in particular, are so long, so expensive and what could be done to correct this. He also tells us why he’s a bit of a fan of the Financial Action Task Force and why Suspicious Activity Reports are the best starting point for financial crime investigations.

We thought we’d been talking for 15 minutes. Then we saw the clock.

So, get a cup of tea and some biscuits and settle back for a lively discussion.

Tristram Hicks is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristram-hicks-98a24b2b/