RBPF to strengthen its financial crimes unit

RBPF to strengthen its financial crimes unit

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) is aggressively working toward strengthening its Financial Crimes Unit with highly qualified and trained financial experts, according to national security minister Marvin Dames.

Dames’ comments came at the official opening of an intense financial crimes training seminar launched at the Paul Farquharson Police Headquarters on Monday morning.

A number of officers within the Financial Crimes Unit will participate in the 10-day training workshop, which is being facilitated by international law enforcement financial crimes experts.

According to Dames, his ministry has placed addressing the issue of money laundering and terrorist financing high on its agenda.

The seminar comes on the heels of a number of recent court arraignments where police brought persons before the magistrate’s court on money laundering and stealing by reason of employment charges.

The national security minister said the force will begin strengthening its financial crimes unit by building its capacity.

“That not only means working with those who have been in the field for a very long time, but what it means is that it is now causing us to look at the way we recruit,” he shared.

“So, we are looking for persons with degrees in finance and computers because we want to build a very robust and vibrant financial investigations team. This is very important to us.”

Dames said the exercise of building capacity began with the seminar which launched yesterday and confirmed that other efforts will be made visible in the near future.

“Very shortly the commissioner will be building this team to the numbers it ought to be to ensure that we have the skilled persons to protect out financial industry,” Dames affirmed.

Nearly two dozen officers are participating in the seminar, which culminates May 17th.

 

About Theo Sealy

Theo Sealy is an award-winning journalist who serves as senior broadcast reporter and weekend TV news anchor at Eyewitness News. He has achieved several career milestones, including his work as a field contributor with CNN, his coverage of four consecutive general elections, his production of several docuseries and his Bahamas Press Club Awards win for “Best Television News Story” in 2018.