Countering criminal facilitation through public–private cooperation in The Netherlands

Abstract

Public–private Financial-Intelligence Sharing Platforms (FISPs) have contributed to changing the mindset between law enforcement agencies and regulated entities in countering money-laundering. This chapter reflects on opportunities that intensified public–private cooperation offers to increase the possibilities of discovering more effective remedies against crime. The chapter also provides insights into the complexities and obstacles of joint-efforts and illustrates these challenges via the case of the founding-process of the newly established Serious Crime Task Force (SCTF) in the Netherlands. The SCTF initiative aims to process and produce more actionable intelligence on the activities of professional money-launderers, via intensified, co-located cooperation between banks, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and various Dutch law enforcement agencies. The SCTF case illustrates how cooperation in PPPs can also create tension between participating organisations when it crosses established formal positions, responsibilities and other established interests.