Consultancy for Conducting Assessment on IWT-related Money Laundering Risks with Banking Sector in Viet Nam, and Developing Relevant Intelligence Products

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I.          Background: 

Wildlife crime is a complex, global problem that needs to be addressed through various strategies. To move, hide and launder illicit money generated from illegal wildlife trade (IWT), transnational organized crimes exploit weaknesses in the financial and non-financial sectors, enabling further wildlife crimes and damaging financial integrity.[1] Financial investigation is an important step/part in identifying revenues, property sources, money flows and uses; however, it has not been applied in investigating illegal wildlife trade flows and jurisdictions rarely investigate the financial trail left by this crime.[2] To date, jurisdictions have not prioritized combatting the financial flows connected to IWT in line with risk. Thus, lack of required knowledge, resources and cooperation mechanism prevent the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) from properly assess and combat the threat of money laundering. The limited focus on the financial side of IWT has largely prevented jurisdiction from being able to identify and sanction IWT networks.

International organizations/units worked on financial investigation such as Financial Action Task Force (FAFT), Egmont Center of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) Excellence & Leadership (ECOFEL) have recently conducted a series of research and analysis to assess money laundering aspects of wildlife crime and provided suitable methodology and tools that jurisdictions should apply to combat IWT in the aspects of linked illicit financial transaction.

Those together with weak inter-agency coordination lead to hesitation in undertaking financial investigations or pursuing money laundering cases, especially at the district levels, where most (wildlife) investigations take place.

WCS Viet Nam program believes that by increasing the capacity and awareness of FIUs, banks and financial service providers, LEAs, prosecutors and judges, they can pay greater attention to IWT cases and effectively utilize financial investigative tools. Furthermore, providing Intelligence products (IPs) highlighting areas of potential financial risks in wildlife supply chains, locations, and companies vulnerable to be exploited by wildlife traffickers to with the relevant LEAs, FIU, concerning banks, and financial service providers will contribute to improving their analytical process and integration of the databases to receive and analyze the suspicious transaction reports, early detect money laundering risks related to illegal wildlife trade and identifying other relevant illegal activities.

At this stage, we aim at increasing the awareness and capacity of FIU, banks, financial service providers on these issues and supporting them with intelligence products (IPs). Therefore, we are seeking consultant service to support us to realize the mentioned goal. 

II.        Objectives:

WCS will hire a consultant(s) to:

• Assess the current awareness/perception of FIU and banks in Viet Nam on money laundering risks related to IWT, their current risks mitigation and management, their cooperation with LEAs, and their needs on capacity building, intelligence support to identify potential gaps, loopholes in the legal framework and practice from which interventions are recommended; 
• Develop a standard template for wildlife-related financial risks gathering and monitoring, tools for financial risks analysis and identification of high-risk areas; as well as provide technical training/guidance on using these templates, tools to WCS Viet Nam.

III.      Activity, Expected outputs/deliverables and tentative deadline  

IV.      Fee:

The estimated cost will be provided by the independent consultant based on the proposal of the working day for each activity mentioned in item III.  Activity, Outputs/deliverables and work timeline and approved by WCS in compliance with WCS Vietnam's norms. Total working days must not exceed 28 working days.

V.        Consultant Requirements:

1. Master degree in banking and finance, commerce, economics, criminology or relevant fields;
2. A member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Professionals (ACAMS) is required;
3. At least 10 years of experience in tackling financial crime (e.g. forensic accounting, financial crime intelligence and investigation, anti-money laundering) in a FIU, commercial banks, financial service providers, law enforcement agencies, or international organizations, and NGOs;
4. Extensive knowledge of, and demonstrates skills in providing mentorship and coaching on AML related to IWT;
5. Understanding the current situation of money laundering crime and wildlife trafficking in Viet Nam is an advantage.

VII. Application procedure:

Interested candidate(s) are invited to send their i) Technical proposal; ii) Resume(s) and iii) Expected fees and expenses to [email protected] before 17:00 of Monday 23 August 2021.

Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.