More Uses for GenAI in FinCrime Investigations

 

Building on my previous post: 3 Ways Generative AI Can Help with Financial Crimes Investigations we'll explore three more ways GenAI can be useful in FinCrime Investigations:

This technology is here to stay and it should be made good use of!

1. Enhanced transaction monitoring: By using Generative AI more sophisticated, beneficial and adaptive transaction monitoring systems can be created. These systems can learn from past incidents and continuously update their criteria to detect new and evolving financial crime patterns in real-time. While this technology is currently in use, GenAI can be leveraged to make it even more efficient.

2. Synthetic data generation: AI can generate synthetic financial datasets that mimic real-world scenarios. How cool is that? This allows investigators and analysts to train on diverse, complex scenarios without compromising sensitive customer data. Investigators and analysts will be more protected from being able to damage evidence, inadvertently or on purpose.

3. Automated report generation: Reports are always fun, no? AI can compile and summarize investigation findings into coherent, standardized reports. This saves time for investigators and ensures consistency in documentation across cases. Always remember: AI is there to give you the answers you want, not necessarily the truth. GenAI is an excellent summarization and re-wording tool.

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3 Biggest Problems Faced When Considering Evidence

   

I have been working financial crimes and cyber investigations for over 20 years.

Since starting as a computer geek and working my way up to financial crimes investigations, I have learned a lot about what it takes to solve some of the biggest problems people face in our industry. In fact, they are a lot easier to solve than most people think. You just need to change how you're thinking about them.

Here they are (in a nutshell), and how to solve them:

#1: Not following applicable laws: How to solve it: Investigators must thoroughly familiarize themselves with applicable laws, particularly the Rules of Evidence. These crucial regulations, typically adopted by statute, are codified into formal legal documents that guide investigative procedures and admissibility of evidence.

#2: Not authenticating your evidence: How to solve it: Authenticating evidence typically requires witness testimony. For digital evidence, this may involve a witness with personal knowledge of the item in question. For example, someone who shared a computer with the accused and directly observed the relevant document or file on that device could serve as an authenticating witness.

#3: Not defining your evidence: How to solve it: Learn how to define the different types of evidence. Evidence in investigations can be both digital and physical, and it's often the combination and correlation of different types of evidence that builds a strong case.

See? That wasn't so hard.

Obviously, these are very surface samples of what problems can be faced when considering evidence. Keep tuned for future posts that will help elaborate on these critical issues regarding evidence.

I'd love to hear your viewpoints!

#fincrime #investigations #financialcrime #banks #cybersecurity #evidence #court #witnesses #documentation #authentication #laws #jurisdictions

3 ways generative AI can help with financial crime investigations:

 

1. Pattern recognition and anomaly detection: Generative AI models can analyze vast amounts of financial transaction data to identify unusual patterns or anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activity. By learning normal transaction behaviors, the AI can flag deviations for further investigation.

2. Natural language processing of documents: AI can rapidly process and extract key information from large volumes of unstructured text like emails, chat logs, and financial documents. This can help investigators quickly sift through data to find relevant evidence and connections.

3. Predictive modeling of criminal networks: By analyzing historical data on known financial crimes, generative AI can create models to predict potential criminal networks or forecast likely future criminal activities. This allows investigators to take a more proactive approach.

(A Couple) Technology Mistakes in FinCrime and how to avoid them

Over the past decade, technology in financial crime prevention has evolved significantly. When properly utilized, it serves as a powerful ally for financial institutions in their battle against fraudsters and in safeguarding customer assets. However, if misused, this same technology can become a destructive force, enabling theft, embezzlement, and devastating personal lives.

Modern innovations like sophisticated behavioral analysis, AI, machine learning, and robotics offer valuable tools for this purpose. When implemented effectively, these technologies can enhance the detection of suspicious activities, minimize false alarms, and accelerate response times.

The trick is understanding how to use this technology, when and where. It's onerous, it's expensive and as transactional volumes increase, so do the potentials for mistakes.

You Can't See Me: Illicit actors establish numerous fraudulent accounts through shell companies to facilitate the laundering of their unlawfully acquired funds. The proliferation of digital banking has intensified this issue, allowing for the rapid global transfer of immense amounts of money in near real-time.

Developing a secure technological infrastructure for the transparent and trackable sharing of customer data, disseminated via digital pathways under the control of sanctioned users, offers a solution to this challenge. This system, akin to a digital passport, can foster trust among participants.

You can have your privacy, but security too? How do global governments and regulatory bodies balance preserving their citizens' privacy with implementing sufficient oversight and transparency to safeguard against criminal activities? What's the optimal approach to simultaneously uphold citizens' rights and ensure their protection? There needs to be an innovative structure of working to combat these kinds of illegal activities via a collective, collaborative effort by both the public and private sector.

Enhancing protocols for financial institutions to verify suspicious activities would be a crucial first step. Ultimately, this issue revolves around trust: individuals must have faith in their governments and banks regarding the appropriate use of their information, while banks and regulators need increased certainty about account holders' identities.

Missed Evidence in not the same as overlooked, or missing evidence.

  

Missing evidence is not the same as missed evidence or evidence that is lost. When I speak of missed evidence it relates to evidence that could have been found had the right avenues been followed down.

One notable case is the O.J. Simpson murder trial from 1995. There was delayed collection of evidence wherein police waited hours before thoroughly searching the crime scene, potentially allowing evidence to be contaminated or lost. Among other errors there was overlooked evidence: A bloody fingerprint on a gate near the crime scene was not properly documented or analyzed. These investigative errors were exploited by Simpson's defense team to cast doubt on the prosecution's case, potentially contributing to his acquittal in the criminal trial.

This could have been avoided by:

• Following proper evidence collection procedures and handling,
• Following proper documentation procedures in criminal investigations

Instead, the playing field was leveled through time and age.

Thankfully, lessons were learned and have significantly influenced modern forensic science and criminal investigation procedures, leading to more rigorous standards and practices in evidence handling across the legal system.