Following the trend of an overall increase in crime rates, the Cayman Islands saw new threats from cyber and financial crimes last year, as detailed in the 2023 statistics report from the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service.
Officers investigated more than US$28.25 million in financial crime, including both domestic and international incidents, according to the RCIPS 2023 Crime and Traffic Statistics Report.
Police Commissioner Kurt Walton, during a press conference on Wednesday, 24 April to present the report, said that the RCIPS must address crime in a growing, increasingly globalised community.
“Crime evolves, which means our policing investigative skills will evolve,” he said. “We’re dealing with different threats that are on the horizon.”
The Financial Crime Investigation Unit dealt with 106 incidents and 50 active crimes in 2023, according to the report. It noted these cases are “often protracted and complex”, with 152 ongoing investigations.
Local service restructuring
When asked what is being done to investigate financial crimes both here and abroad, Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown said law enforcement efforts have been bolstered by a complete restructuring of the FCIU last year.
Among their successes, officers have taken a strong stance against rental scams, charging one person with 36 offences.
Overall, the unit recovered CI$952,537 and US$1,162,949 related to local crime, as well as two restraint orders worth CI$224,703 – meaning the assets cannot be sold while under investigation.
The revamped unit is complemented by the Cayman Islands Bureau of Financial Investigations, which has focused on cross-border money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, and proliferation financing since its establishment in 2020.
The bureau’s work resulted in the recovery of more than US$28.25 million in the Cayman Islands and four other jurisdictions, according to the report.
Lansdown said investigators have made particular progress with recovering assets like bitcoin.
“We get 25, 30 requests a year from international agencies for support and assistance, and they deal with those as well,” Lansdown added.
He said investigators have been accomplishing a lot in the fight against financial crime, but the problem is “growing exponentially”.
Prevention is key
Bureau of Financial Investigations head Victoria Templeman told the Compass that officers have been seeing a lot of cyber-crime activity,
“That’s probably because within Cayman, we have a really strong virtual asset industry, which is a good thing,” she said. “The paper trail still is very prevalent.”
She continued, “But we’re seeing all sorts of other things, including business email compromises and hacks on protocols.”
Lansdown had previously explained that in dealing with common work-permit scams, that police can work with Workforce Opportunities and Residency Cayman to prosecute offenders in some cases.
In some such scams, a person may promise the permit seeker help with their forms upon payment of the fees, without any intention of actually filling out the paperwork.
Lansdown highlighted the importance of individuals being diligent when navigating online businesses.
While convictions play a role in the bureau’s responses to cyber crimes, Templeman said it also focuses on asset recovery.
“You don’t prosecute a person – you prosecute a property,” she explained.
Threats continue to evolve, and Templeman stressed the importance of residents and businesses taking preventative measures in 2024.
Additional reporting by Andrel Harris.
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Nor directly related to this subject, but I note Govt is still receiving the proceeds of large numbers of dormant accounts each year. These windfalls must have amounted to tens of millions of dollars, with probably only few claims from the owners.I wonder if the Compass can ascertain from Govt the total recd since the law came into effect for the enlightenment of the public.