Our Services

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Crime Data Analytics and Strategic Forecast

At Mo & Associates we use data analysis techniques and tools to examine and interpret information related to criminal activities. This involves the collection, processing, and analysis of large sets of crime data to identify patterns, trends, and insights that can be used to support law enforcement, criminal investigations, and the development of crime prevention strategies.

We leverage on various data sources, including but not limited to:

  1. Incident Data: Information about specific criminal incidents, including the type of crime, location, date, and time.
  2. Demographic Data: Data about the demographics of the population in a given area, such as age, gender, income levels, and education.
  3. Geospatial Data: Mapping and location-based data to analyse the spatial distribution of crimes and identify high-crime areas.
  4. Temporal Data: Time-related information to identify patterns and trends over different periods.
  5. Social Media Data: Monitoring social media for potential criminal activity or public sentiment related to crime.
  6. Criminal Records: Data from criminal databases containing information about individuals with criminal histories.

By employing various statistical and analytical techniques, such as machine learning, data mining, and predictive modelling, Mo & Associates produce results that help law enforcement agencies in the following ways:

  1. Predictive Policing: Anticipating where and when crimes are likely to occur based on historical data, allowing law enforcement to allocate resources more effectively.
  2. Crime Pattern Recognition: Identifying patterns and trends in criminal behaviour to enhance understanding and inform proactive policing strategies.
  3. Resource Allocation: Optimizing the deployment of law enforcement resources to target high-crime areas or specific types of criminal activity.
  4. Investigative Support: Providing analysts and investigators with tools to uncover connections and insights from large volumes of data, aiding in solving and preventing crimes.
  5. Policy Development: Supporting the development of evidence-based policies and interventions to address the root causes of criminal behaviour.

It’s important to note that while crime data analytics can be a valuable tool, ethical considerations, privacy concerns, and potential biases in the data must be carefully addressed to ensure responsible and fair use. Mo & Associates ensures that all its research and analysis are conducted in compliance with all data policy regulations, especially where it relates to personal information. Additionally, we provide a collaborative platform for data analysts, law enforcement professionals, and policymakers for effective implementation and interpretation of results.

Using a combination of advance technologies and data analytics, Mo & Associates can monitor and identify potential threats within organization’s financial transactions or at a regulatory level identifying early warning signals or red flags that may indicate suspicious activities. Some of the early warning signals for financial crimes include:

  • Unusual Transaction Patterns
  • High-Risk Transactions
  • Identity and Account Anomalies
  • Unexplained Geographic Discrepancies
  • Unusual Customer Behaviour
  • Complex Transaction Structures
  • Frequent Cash Transactions
  • Lack of Transparency
  • Automated Monitoring Alerts
  • Collaboration and Information Sharing

Financial institutions often employ a combination of these signals and leverage technology to enhance their ability to detect and prevent financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Additionally, staying informed about evolving risks and compliance requirements is crucial for effective prevention and response.

A Financial Intelligence Strategic Forecast typically involves predicting and planning for future trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field of financial intelligence. Financial intelligence is crucial for identifying and addressing various financial crimes, including money laundering, fraud, and terrorist financing. At Mo & Associates, we conduct financial crime forecasts for businesses and regulatory agencies where we provide them with likely issues that can affect their businesses or the regulatory field in the future and recommendations on how best to approach them. Key components of our strategic forecast include:

  • Technological Advancements
  • Regulatory Changes
  • International Cooperation
  • Cybersecurity Threats
  • Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets
  • Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)
  • Global Economic Trends
  • Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Factors
  • Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
  • Data Privacy and Ethical Considerations
  • Training and Skill Development

We provide a comprehensive financial intelligence strategic forecast that is dynamic, can be regularly updated, and structured to be responsive to changes in the financial and regulatory environment. This helps organizations and authorities adapt their strategies to effectively combat financial crimes and safeguard the integrity of the financial system.

  • Financial Intelligence Training (Tactical and Strategic Analysis)
  • Threat Analysis

Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), Sanctions, and Fraud Compliance Programs

Typology studies are systematic analyses of the patterns and methods used by criminals for specific types of illicit activities, such as money laundering, terrorist financing, or other financial crimes. These studies help authorities and financial institutions and organizations understand the evolving techniques employed by criminals, identify common characteristics, and develop effective countermeasures. Typology studies provide insights into the “typical” behaviours, transactions, and structures associated with specific illicit activities. Mo & Associates conducts both strategic and Typology studies for clients through the following procedures:

  1. Defining the purpose of the typology & strategic study at the onsite with the purpose of understanding the vulnerabilities that exist in the organization’s system and processes.
  2. Collection and analysis relevant data to the purpose of typology and strategic study and producing a report showing common characteristics, emerging trends, and development of red flags.
  3. Development of recommendations to the Organization to enhance its regulatory responses, enhance mitigation strategies and organization’s compliance to standards.
  4. Design and implement monitoring and update measures & process for the organization.

IFFs affect many countries across the globe as a source, transit or destination country. By eroding the tax base and discouraging public and private investment, IFFs obstruct efforts towards inclusive and resilient recovery, structural transformation of economies and efficiency of green policies. It is therefore paramount to quantify and analyse IFFs from various sources, and design and implement policies within integrated national financing frameworks for sustainable development.

At Mo&Associates we conduct system reviews and capacity building to enhance the capacity of organization to aid them in producing standard estimates of illicit financial flows and enhance their investigative and analytical capacities to develop evidence -based policy responses to monitor and curb illicit financial flows. This is developed in tandem with the primary & Secondary targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations.

Criminals are motivated by financial gain. By following and confiscating the proceeds from environmental crimes, authorities can decrease the incentive for criminals to engage in environmental crimes.  At Mo and Associates we provide agencies with capacity building in financial investigations related to environmental crimes. This training will allow them to utilize their respective jurisdictional laws in tracing the origin of funds laundered from predicate environmental crimes. Most importantly, financial investigations can help strengthen environmental crime investigations by drawing on investigative techniques and sanctions provided under anti-money laundering laws. Some of our capacity building programs include:

  • Financial Intelligence Training
  • Travel entry information and customs declarations
  • Import and export information analysis.
  • Traveler profiling and passenger advance manifest analysis.
  • Travel/Trade routes analysis.
  • Waste Trafficking
  • Export and Transfer Pricing

The illegal wildlife trade is a major transnational organised crime, which generates billions of criminal-proceeds each year. Wildlife traffickers exploit weaknesses in the financial and non-financial sectors, to move, hide and launder their proceeds, enabling further wildlife crimes and damaging financial integrity. One of the most effective ways to identify the broader criminal networks and take the profit out of this crime, is to follow the financial trails of wildlife traffickers.

At Mo&Associates we provide FIUs, Law Enforcement Agencies, and Prosecutors with the capacity they require to identify and assess money laundering risks relating to illegal wildlife trade in their jurisdiction and how to put in place appropriate mitigation mechanisms.

This is in addition to the training in:

  • The conduct of parallel financial investigations, pursuance to money laundering activity and how to seek and apply money laundering charges where feasible for criminal investigations into illegal wildlife trade offences.
  • How to trace, Identify, freeze, seize and confiscate associated assets when investigating money laundering related to illegal wildlife trade.
  • And how best to exploit develop, promote and exploit public-private collaboration and information exchange to effectively identify and address money laundering linked to illegal wildlife trade.

With the development of anti-money laundering measures across all sectors of the financial system, Money launderers have taken another route to launder the proceeds of their criminal activities. Trade based money laundering (TBML) is one process though which laundering the proceeds of crime can be achieve. The process involved the movement of funds through the international trade system to legitimize them.

Trade-Based money laundering involved can include the falsification of price, and the quantity and quality of goods imported or exported. TBML can be a simple transaction of buying and importing across two jurisdictions on a direct purchase between two companies or or it can take a complex nature where multiple parties and jurisdictions are involved. This brings about issues related to prohibited goods and services, sanctioned individuals, countries, and organizations and outright movement of illicit funds derived from illegal activities.

Thus at Mo & Associates we provide trade systems assessments, TBML training which involve customer due diligence measures at both individual and corporate levels to uncover undesirable elements hiding behind corporate structures to perpetrate their illicit activities.

TBML takes advantage of the complex nature of trade systems, most prominently in international contexts where the involvement of multiple parties and jurisdictions make know your customer and anti-money laundering (KYC and AML) checks and customer due diligence (CDD) processes more difficult.

Mo & Associates provide training to agencies on TBML which include the following.

  1. How does trade based money laundering work?
  2. TBML red flags
  3. TBML risk indicators
  • Structural risk indicators
  • Trading risk indicators
  • Document risk indicators
  • Account and transaction risk indicators
  1. AML challenges in trade-based money laundering
  • Understanding Pricing
  • Understanding Goods
  • Licensing
  • Document verification
  • Circumvention and
  • Paper transactions

Transaction monitoring, whether because of a regulatory inquiry or as part of a self-imposed lookback process or a result of pattern alert recognition can create an immense strain on the resources of financial institutions such as retail banks, investment banks, financial services firms, and virtual currency exchanges. Our dedicated team of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) specialists will work with you to navigate the through challenges of a historical transaction lookback from data acquisition to regulatory filings. We are practical team players, focused on helping our clients develop and maintain an efficient and fully compliant transaction monitoring and transaction review. With the understanding that no two financial institutions are the same, we have a bespoke approach to each engagement that considers the institution’s resources and its current compliance program, as well as its prior history with regulatory inquiries.

Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC) Investigations and Compliance

Our ABC assessment lays a foundation for a thorough look at the systems and processes laid out by organizations to determine their risk exposures to corruption and bribery. Mo&Associates regards risk assessment as a necessary business process without which an institutions’ ABC counter measures can be less effective. The risk assessment is not designed to uncover all corrupt activity that may be occurring but to assess the control environment to mitigate corruption risk. The process is more akin to an audit than an investigation.

    • Mo& Associates conducts this risk assessment by covering four key elements and these are:
      • A review of the organization’s business to identify and understand its most significant corruption risks.
      • A review of the current state of the organization’s current anti-corruption compliance program & structure.
      • A “gap analysis” of the current program versus the anti-corruption risks identified.
      • Recommendations for improvement to the program based on common and leading practices but also what is most practicable for the organization in terms of achieving compliance.

 

  • ABC investigations: Mo & Associates offer investigations into corruption allegations using financial intelligence, thus, providing organizations discreet means of investigating corruption allegations without the fear of tipping-off subjects. We rely on our financial intelligence knowledge, experience and vast network of covert sources to arrive at a highly probable inference making it easier for evidence gathering for ease of prosecution.

The nature of a general compliance structure of an organization and an ABC compliance structure is mostly a function of its business complexity. However, there are key elements of such structures that must be present no matter the business complexity or size of the organization.  Mo & Associates provides a compliance program and structure for organizations’ covering 12 key areas as follows:

  1. Tone at the Top
  2. Policies and Procedures
  3. Training & Awareness
  4. Recruitment, vetting and performance management.
  5. Gifts, entertainment & Hospitality
  6. Charitable and Political Contribution and Sponsorships
  7. Whistle blowing
  8. Third parties
  9. Risk Assessment
  10. Internal Financial Controls
  11. Ongoing Monitoring and reporting
  12. Audit and Review

The efficacy of control measures against corruption and bribery lies in the strength of the audit program of an organization. This is where the results of the controls measures set-up show whether the counter measures are producing the desired results or not and why. At Mo & Associates we subject each counter measure developed to a series of tests to check for its efficacy against the threats it was intended to detect and deter and prevent and further subject it to other scenarios we have previous found elsewhere (within the same context) to provide for the effectiveness and elasticity of the counter measure put in place.  

Integrity Compliance Assessment and Training Service

Mo & Associates provides Integrity Compliance Assessments and Training for organizations to ensure compliance with international standards. We also conduct independent Integrity compliance assessments for corporations that are looking to get certified by international organizations for the purpose of disbarment. Our integrity Assessment and Training modules include:

  • Prevention of Sexual Harassment
  • Code of Ethical Misconduct
  • Anti-Bribery and Corruption
  • Information and Security Awareness
  • Diversity and inclusion
  • Whistle Blowing

We are committed to ensuring total compliance with international standards for corporate integrity and accountability, as such our assessment scope covers the following areas:

  • Misconduct
  • Responsibility
  • Program Initiation, Risk Assessment & Reviews
  • Internal Policies
  • Policies re: Business partners
  • Internal Controls
  • Training and communications
  • Incentives
  • Reporting
  • Remedial misconduct
  • Collective Action

Financial Intelligence Investigations and Forensic Accounting

Allied Services

At Mo & Associates we provide compliance services for our DNFBP client. This is a one-stop-shop for clients that are registered with authorities for the purpose of ensuring their compliance o regulatory requirements.

The Compliance hub will provide an end-to-end compliance solution to all type of DNFBPs in line with regulatory requirements and in addition to individual training and compliance assessment to meet those requirements. This will afford the operating DNFBPs the opportunity to focus on growing its business as this give it a centralized resource that helps the DNFBP adhere to regulatory requirements and implement robust compliance measures.

While we understand that AML/CFT/CPF compliance is a major factor within a DNFBP business, we are also not unmindful of the attendant cost of compliance to individual DNFBPs, as some of them have smaller volume and less complex transactions and coverage, yet they can be exploited for ML/TF/PF purposes with great consequences to both business, industry, and country compliance rating. As such this hub will provide several individual DNFBPs within the same sector the opportunity to share cost of compliance thus, reducing the cost when paid individually.

Mo and Associates provides the following to its DNFBP clients.

  1. Industry registration
  2. Set-up of a complete compliance program for each category of DNFBPs
  3. Develop a SAR/STR reporting platform to cater for each individual DNFBP and ensure timely reporting to SCUML through its reporting platform.
  4. Provision of a compliance software for the generation of STR and other mandatory reports to authorities
  5. Periodic Risk Assessment and compliance assessment and monitoring
  6. Conduct of Compliance Audit, Customer due diligence and onboarding process amongst others

In addition, Mo & Associates provides both customized and off the shelf training modules for DNFBPs and training can be delivered both virtually and face-to-face.

We assist with the identification of data sources for transactions related to customers under review and will work with client’s staff and data owners to ensure data integrity by fulfilling all data integrity elements: Completeness, Accuracy and Timeliness and Authorized.

We analyze the transaction profile to determine the scenarios and parameter values to be implemented in the transaction analysis. Based on this information, we build customized models using logic to meet our client’s risk assessment transaction profile, perform a threshold analysis to determine appropriate monitoring levels, analyze test alerts to assess the thresholds, and in accordance with the different likely scenarios.

We prepare the production environment and generate alerts based on the migration of all test data, customer and transaction data, and scenario code. As a part of this preparation, we develop tailored procedures and conduct training for all staff assigned to the transaction review process.

In case of generating Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs) or Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) our team works with client to agree and develop what warrants STRs or SARs and designed models for their automatic generation for human review and filing process. During such, we will work with the client team to develop a standard for STRs/SARs drafts, the STRs/SARs narrative, and STRs/SARs reviewers to verify the information and ensure that the narrative is clear, concise, and accurate. We complete each STRs/SAR in accordance with local regulatory requirements and will pass the completed STRs/SARs form developed to the institution for final approval and submission to appropriate authorities.

When institutions experience an unusually high volume of alerts either monthly or weekly, we can assist with clearing a backlog of alerts for such institutions. Because of our flexible approach, we can develop new models for that purpose or use or tweak our/the client’s traditional lookback model for the purpose of a backlog review, utilizing our client’s existing protocols or develop a blended approach. Depending on our client’s needs, we can offer co-sourcing or staff augmentation options for alert clearing or SAR/STR drafting for short- or long-term projects. We also have analysts who are trained in surveillance, list screening, and due diligence tools and offer such Analyst to our clients for staff augmentation on a short- or long-term basis. Our senior practitioners have in-depth experience with some transaction monitoring systems. With the ability to work remotely or at our client’s place of business, our teams are available on a global basis to meet the needs of our clients’ global businesses.

At Mo & Associates we also provide advisory services to corporations, governments, Law Enforcement, Intelligence organizations on threat assessments, crime analysis, asset tracing while providing Financial Institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions on how to assess, manage and mitigate AML/CFT/PF and Fraud risks. Our team of experts and experienced former law enforcement officers and intelligence agents brings diverse cultural, geographic, industry, and functional expertise and the ability to dive into the most challenging geographies, situations, and industries.

We leverage investigative experience honed through decades of service in different law enforcement and intelligence fields including diverse knowledge of data analytics and artificial intelligence, couple with a robust network of long-standing and trusted relationships with regulators, law enforcement, industry leaders, and other facets of society to derive intelligence for our clients. We use our expertise and experience to craft risk mitigation strategies for our clients and to support them in executing those strategies.

Our intelligence and risk advisory services teams assist clients in multiple areas:
• Strategic Intelligence – Through our crime analysis and strategic forecast unit we provide strategic forecast for events and threat assessments of incidents for law enforcement action, provides insights into the risks and opportunities to businesses for the purpose of competitive advantage, geopolitical issues, and market entry.
• Dispute Advisory Services – we provide facts, evidence, and intelligence gathering in the context of for corporations in dispute resolution issues, business disputes, as well as arbitration and litigation. We separate fact from fiction and deliver a clear version of events to clients, regulators, the media, and shareholders. We leverage our network of skilled human assets in various industries and sectors and our experience and knowledge of crime and policing skills to assess the strength and risk of a case, gather the evidence to support clients’ legal and public relations strategies, and advise on strategy, negotiations, settlement, and financing options.
• Due Diligence- we identify legal, commercial, financial crime, or integrity risks related to investments and transactions, third parties and vendors, politically exposed persons, and witnesses and build profiles on each of them for guidance to our clients where they need to understand the other party in the preparation for business engagement.

We assist clients in the development of compliance structures and further provide compliance audit for them to ensure the efficacy of the compliance structures. In doing so we make use of our risk assessment report conducted on the client’s business and provide them with a tailored compliance structure.

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