On 22 July 2018 the OECD Secretary General and the Treasury Minister of Argentina presided over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to set up a centre of the OECD Academy for Tax and Financial Crime Investigation.
The OECD Latin America Academy for Tax and Financial Crime Investigation is to provide capacity-building courses for tax crime investigators and other related law enforcement officials, including prosecutors, anti-money laundering and anti-corruption officials. In addition to broad-based courses on conducting and managing financial investigations there will also be targeted courses on specific types of tax and financial crimes, such as those associated with crypto-currencies, money laundering and VAT fraud. The first events are planned to begin in late 2018.
Government budgets throughout the world and particularly in developing countries are threatened by illicit financial flows including tax evasion and other financial crimes. These activities can take place where there is a climate of secrecy, inadequate legal frameworks, poor regulation enforcement and insufficient co-operation between government agencies.
In addition to the Latin America Academy for Tax and Financial Crime Investigation there is already a centre hosted by the Guardia di Finanza in Italy and a pilot Africa Academy for Tax and Financial Crime Investigation that was launched in June 2017 by the OECD, Kenya, Italy and Germany at the G20 Africa Partnership conference.
