Earlier this month Crown Counsel (Economic Crime) Michael Adamberry, representing the Ministry of Justice, attended the “Illicit Finance Dialogue” in Miami, a high-level set of meetings over three days focused on combatting illicit financial flows.

The event was hosted by the Government of Bermuda and co-chaired with the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), and aims to enhance cooperation between the UK and its Overseas Territories (OTs).

Mr Adamberry is part of the Ministry of Justice, Trade and Industry, and presently deployed at the Royal Gibraltar Police’s Economic Crime Unit and HM Customs Financial Investigations team.

The event brought together over 50 attendees from OTs, including government officials from Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, St. Helena and the United Kingdom.

The event focused on several key topics, including strengthening asset recovery and denial frameworks, enhancing beneficial ownership transparency, emerging illicit finance threats, crypto-asset regulation and the risks posed by privacy tokens, as well as improving information sharing through international mechanisms. Discussions also covered supervisory challenges, including risk- based supervision and oversight of high-risk sectors such as legal professionals.

Gibraltar was able to effectively contribute to the discussions and note the substantial programme of work on its Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO) Register, as reported by HM Government of Gibraltar back in February.

The Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, Nigel Feetham, added:

“Gibraltar continues to engage actively with international partners to strengthen our collective response to financial crime. Forums such as this provide an important opportunity to share operational insight, develop coordinated approaches and ensure that our frameworks remain effective against increasingly complex and cross-border threats. Our participation reflects Gibraltar’s ongoing commitment to maintaining the highest standards in tackling illicit finance.”