Peter Johnstone

International controls of corruption: recent responses from the USA and the UK

Describes how the USA and UK have established many and varied tough new provisions in the fight against crime, and corruption in particular. Traces the long history of corruption and attempts to suppress it, and defines the terms bribery and corruption. Looks at the US legislation against corruption, focusing on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) 1970 and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) 1977, also the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) 1989 and most recently the PATRIOT Act 2001, which covers corruption as part of a wider response to the terrorist attacks on the USA. Moves onto UK legislation since 1889, including the OECD Convention, the Anti‐Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, the draft Corruption Bill, and legislation enacted against money laundering and to seize the proceeds of crime.

The changing character of criminality and policing in post-socialist Lithuania: From fighting organized crime to policing marginal populations?

This paper argues that the character ofcriminality in post-socialist Lithuania isundergoing a significant change. Up untilthe mid 1990s criminality was defined bythe conflict between the state and criminalgroups who challenged the states authorityin the re-distribution of state property.Criminal groups used violence to challengethe states rules and regulations regardingthe process and outcomes of privatization. The state responded by legal andinstitutional reforms leading tomilitarization and centralization of thepolice force.Successful legal and police reformsinitiated during the early 1990s led to adramatic decline in organized crimeactivities. Crime rates also began tostabilize because of the improvingsocio-economic situation in the country. As a result, by the mid 1990s the characterof criminality began to change. There aresigns that it is increasingly associatedwith the growing social and economicmarginalization of those segments of thepopulation, which did not (or could not)adapt to the introduction of competitivemarkets. The situation was aggravated by arapid decline of employment within theLithuanian economy and significantcurtailment of social welfare provided bythe state. A growing number ofindividuals, especially males with poorskills and education whose employmentopportunities were severely restricted withthe decline in manufacturing industries,were dropping out from the labor force evenin the presence of jobs; were not marrying;and were increasingly plagued by a varietyof social pathologies and health problemsincluding crime, alcoholism, drug abuse,and depression. New forms of entrenchedpoverty unknown during the socialist erasuch as vagabonds and homelessness,including homeless children, has nowdeveloped and is associated with itsapparently inevitable concomitant increasedpetty criminality.

Changing Typology of Organised Crime in a Post-Socialist Lithuania (the Late 1980s–Early 2000s)

This paper analyzes the dynamics of organised crime in post-socialist Lithuania. Three overlapping periods in evolution of organised crime are discerned. During the mid 1980s organised crime emerged with the attempts to liberalise the state socialism by legalizing cooperative and individual property as a basis for economic activities. By the early 1990s organised crime in Lithuania began to metamorphose from illegal manufacturing to opportunistic criminality associated with the privatisation of state property. Since the mid 1990s organised crime has again undergone change. It has entered what could be termed a maturation phase. This maturation was influenced by a number of factors including; the end of the privatization process, resumed growth of the economy, development of the legal and fiscal infrastructure to regulate a market economy, and increasing effectiveness and successes of policing in Lithuania [1]. In this article the political, socio-economic, organisational and cultural factors that influenced the dynamics of change in organised crime are analyzed.

Expectations of privacy and market abuse ‐ support for the Financial Services and Markets Act and the Canadian approach

Introduces the UK Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), a determined effort to modernise financial regulation which creates the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as a monolithic regulator and the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal as an appellate channel. Shows how the Act represents a shift from self‐regulation to statutory regulation, remedying the shortcomings of the 1986 Financial Services Act. Outlines the FSA’s powers, and how they might conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights. Compares the FSMA with the Canadian approach to the questions of balancing regulation and public confidence in the market on one side, with protection of individual rights on the other; these concerns are embodied respectively in the Securities Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Human Rights and the Restructuring of Financial Services Regulation in the UK

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been provided with the statutory authority to demand the attendance of suspects at its offices and also to demand that information is supplied, irrespective of whether or not the suspect has been charged with a criminal offence. It has been held that the provisions of Art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) do protect the defendant from self‐incrimination, and the UK government has been successfully challenged at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over these issues. The powers conferred on the SFO remain in place, but these must now be viewed in the context of the Human Rights Act 1998, which became law in the UK in October 2000; unless the powers of the SFO are reviewed by Parliament, it would seem to be the courts who will take responsibility in the UK for ensuring that the rights of suspects are upheld.

The Facilitation of Money Laundering Through Western Europe and the United States by Russian Organised Crime Groups

Over the past decade the Russian Mafia has established itself as capable of causing serious disruptions within the worlds financial markets. Organised crime groups control a substantial number of the banks within Russia and as a consequence they are capable of infiltrating major sources of money supply and taking control of legitimate businesses, both foreign and domestic. Once an organised crime group has entered the banking structure, it can expand its operations by using the veneer of legitimacy provided by the bank as a source of utility for further criminal ventures. The laundering of illegal proceeds, both national and international, has now become one of the major activities conducted by Russian organised crime groups in the former Soviet Union.