After five months of collaboration with law enforcement agencies in up to 30 law jurisdictions, INTERPOL’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC) conducted action days to crack down on cyber-enabled financial crime and money laundering. In this global so-called HAECHI III operation, 975 suspects were arrested, and almost $130 million was seized.
The operation allowed investigators to resolve more than 1,600 cases. In addition, almost 2,800 bank and virtual asset accounts linked to the illicit proceeds of online financial crime were blocked. Operation HAECHI III investigations generated the publication of 95 INTERPOL Notices and diffusions and the detection of 16 new crime trends
Operation HAECHI III deployed INTERPOL’s new global stop-payment mechanism, known as the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol (ARRP), which enables countries to work together to submit and handle requests to restrain criminal proceeds.
Operation HAECHI III cracked down on voice phishing, romance scams, sextortion, investment fraud, business email compromise, and money laundering associated with illegal online gambling.
The operation was coordinated by INTERPOL’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC), which supported 30 countries via their respective INTERPOL National Central Bureaus (NCBs). It brought together law enforcement agencies, Financial Intelligence Units, asset recovery offices, prosecutors, and private sector financial experts to identify illicit funds and money mules, detect money laundering activities and deactivate associated bank accounts.
