Environmental Crime Fuels Corruption and Financial Crimes

This week at New York Climate Week has provided an opportunity to talk more about environmental crime. Illegality, organised crime and corruption have come up in several sessions. A key next step is bringing financial crime teams into these conversations—their expertise in following the money, identifying criminal networks and disrupting illicit financial flows is essential to addressing this growing issue. I’m pleased to share this blog I co-authored, published by ACAMS Today, exploring why financial services professionals should be paying closer attention to environmental crime and what institutions can do to identify and address their exposure. #ClimateWeekNYC #EnvironmentalCrime #FinancialCrime #AntiMoneyLaundering #FollowTheMoney

Climate and nature commitments mean little if the money behind environmental destruction keeps moving freely. This week at Climate Week Network, WWF, Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), United For Wildlife and HSBC came together to discuss exactly that, and ACAMS ACAMS Today has now published an excellent piece by John Elsmore Dodsworth and Geraldine Fleming on what it means in practice. The central point resonates strongly with us at Themis: environmental crime is rarely visible from inside a single institution. It shows up across the system, in a timber payment here, an unexplained intermediary there, a permit secured through bribery further upstream. No single bank, regulator or NGO can see it all, which is why collaboration matters so much. I'm proud of our partnership with WWF-UK on the Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit, and of the teams on both sides whose work is helping protect ecosystems, the communities who depend on them, and the integrity of the financial system itself. This kind of impact is why we do what we do. The tools exist. The question now is whether they change the questions we ask of our customers and the action we take when something doesn't add up. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/e4vUbnwj Access the free toolkit: https://lnkd.in/eeKVjpJ3 #EnvironmentalCrime #FinancialCrime #Leadership #NatureFinance #PublicPrivatePartnership Michelle Owen Camille Chorley @Millie-Hawkins Rob Wood Olivia Dakeyne

Grateful to Nicholas Schumann for connecting me with John Elsmore Dodsworth from WWF and Geraldine Fleming from The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, who graciously shared their expertise and knowledge with ACAMS Today readership about the far-reaching effects of environmental crime and the importance of collective action to combat it. Here is an impactful quote from the article: "Environmental crime is difficult to detect from a single institution, signs of it are usually visible across the whole system, which is why the sector must build this capacity together." Click link in original post to read the full article.

Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit featured in ACAMS Today, one of the most respected voices in financial crime compliance. Thank you for the support! Environmental crime generates an estimated $110-281 billion in criminal proceeds every year. Those proceeds don't stay in the forest, the mine or the port. They move through supply chains, trade finance and everyday payments, often alongside bribery, fraud, sanctions evasion and money laundering. In partnership with WWF-UK, we built this free resource to give compliance teams, the media and businesses looking for practical, open-access resources to recognise these risks and act on them. There are over 370 well researched case studies, filtered by a number of typologies and geography. Explore the toolkit here: https://lnkd.in/e6KmZ6Qh

Environmental crime is a growing threat, not only to nature, but increasingly to the integrity of commodity supply chains and financial systems. The challenge is understanding how illegal activity becomes embedded within otherwise legitimate markets. Illegal mining, deforestation, fishing and wildlife trafficking rarely operate as isolated environmental issues. They can intersect with money laundering, corruption, fraud and organised crime, creating risks that are often difficult for financial institutions to identify through conventional ESG or financial-crime controls alone. Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)’s work on environmental crime is an important contribution to this discussion, recognising the financial, operational and strategic risks that can arise when illegal activity sits within value chains and portfolios. This is also the challenge we have been trying to address through the development of the Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit, a collaboration between WWF-UK and Themis, which provides financial institutions with practical guidance to identify environmental-crime risks, red flags and exposure across higher-risk sectors and commodities. I’ll be in New York for Climate Week later this month and am keen to meet others working across nature, financial crime, commodity supply chains and financial risk. If you’ll be in New York, it would be great to connect. #environmentalcrime #financialcrime #greencrime #climateweek #esg https://lnkd.in/e_gGcsyk

𝐄𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 Environmental crime and money laundering are two closely linked, global forms of crime that pose a threat to security and sustainable development. Environmental crimes such as illegal logging, wildlife trade, illegal fishing, illegal mining, dangerous waste dumping, illegal hazardous waste trafficking and land clearance generate huge profits for criminal organisations. Money laundering activities, or the process of covering up the sources of these illegally acquired proceeds and making them part of the legitimate financial system, are how criminal organisations expand their criminal activities (Financial Crime Academy, 2026). [This is only an extract of an article published in 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐦𝐮𝐬: 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔. This article is available for purchase on our website: www.servamusmagazine.co.za.]

Environmental crime is financial crime. That’s the conversation we’ll be taking to New York Climate Week on Monday 21st September.   Illegal logging, illegal fishing, wildlife trafficking and illegal mining are among the most profitable illicit trades in the world. These profits then move through the global financial systems, through reputable institutions that often have no idea they are carrying the risk.   For banks and investors that means real exposure - to money laundering, to sanctions and enforcement risk, and to reputational damage. But WWF can support institutions with the tools to tackle it. Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit is a practical resource that helps financial institutions see where their exposure sits, recognise the red flags, and act on what they find - within the due diligence, screening and risk assessment processes they already run. WWF and partners are inviting the financial sector to join us for a special New York Climate Week event - From Disclosure to Action: Applying the Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit and TNFD Guidelines to Nature-Related Risk Management. You can register here: https://lnkd.in/ekXaV8xU If you work in financial crime, risk or compliance, this will be well worth your time, and if you're in down do get in touch! #environmentalcrime #financialcrimerisk #ESG #NYClimateWeek

Operation Green Shield 2026 just wrapped, it deserves more attention from our industry than it's getting. Environmental crime needs to become a global priority. Over 17 days, 3,600+ officers from Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru ran 1,045 field operations against illegal mining, logging, wildlife trafficking, fuel smuggling and land grabbing across the Amazon Basin. The results: 839 arrests, over $280 million in seized assets, including 280,000 cubic metres of illegal timber, 195 metric tons of minerals, and more than 3,000 live animals rescued. It's a genuinely impressive operation, and also a reminder of the scale of the problem. Some of the illicit gold and timber which got through has been traced to buyers in the US and Europe, moving through supply chains that look entirely legitimate on paper. UNEP and INTERPOL estimate environmental crime is worth up to $258 billion a year globally, the fourth largest criminal enterprise behind drugs, counterfeiting and human trafficking. We only spend around $30 million a year fighting it. That imbalance is the problem. For criminals, environmental crime is still low risk and high reward. Enforcement is patchy, penalties rarely match the profits, and proceeds move through the same laundering channels used for by other organised crime. Corruption is rife: timber gets laundered through fraudulent permits, and criminal networks reuse their existing smuggling infrastructure, such as those used for drugs, to move environmental goods. We need sustained, well-resourced global enforcement, not periodic surges. For financial crime teams, this isn't an ESG side issue. It's a predicate crime with clear laundering typologies that needs serious attention. UNGA Resolution 80/227 this year put minerals and timber crime formally alongside other organised crime. Two things worth building into your programme: - During KYC CDD, treat mining, timber, agri-commodities, precious metals and waste/recycling as inherently higher-risk regardless of country of incorporation. Understand corporate structure, UBOs and geography, but more importantly the supply chains, don't just rely on paperwork provided. - During ongoing monitoring, watch for trade-based red flags: invoice mismatches, volumes that don't match known production capacity. Look out for payments through jurisdictions with weak environmental enforcement, and counterparties named in enforcement or NGO reporting even without formal designation. Weak onboarding or ineffective ongoing monitoring means missed risk. The pattern often only emerges over time, which is exactly why perpetual KYC and transaction monitoring matter here as much as anywhere else in financial crime. Article: https://lnkd.in/e68HwPna #FinancialCrime #AML #EnvironmentalCrime #KYC

⚠️ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗡𝗙𝗗 𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻��𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼𝘀 Environmental crime, including illegal land conversion, illegal mining, illegal fishing, wildlife trafficking and pollution-related offences, is often hidden in plain sight, creating risks that can undermine nature-related assessments, business resilience and long-term value creation. Announced this weekend by TNFD Co-Chair Razan Al Mubarak during the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the TNFD is releasing new guidance to help organisations incorporate environmental crime considerations into their assessment of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. 🔗 Download the guidance: https://lnkd.in/eSFCbaME Environmental crime is estimated to be worth around USD 300 billion annually. Illegal activity is thought to account for 15–30% of global logging and approximately 20% of the global fish catch, with impacts extending across supply chains, trade routes and financial systems. As enforcement increases and legal frameworks place greater expectations on organisations to understand and manage risks within their value chains, environmental crime is becoming an increasingly significant business issue. The guidance helps corporates and financial institutions apply environmental crime considerations throughout the TNFD LEAP approach, including: ▪️ Identifying sectors, commodities, geographies and trade routes where environmental crime may create hidden exposure ▪️ Evaluating how illegal activity may obscure or distort assessments of nature-related dependencies and impacts ▪️ Assessing physical, policy, liability, market, reputational and systemic risks associated with environmental crime ▪️ Preparing governance, risk management and disclosure responses to strengthen organisational resilience Produced in partnership with The Royal Foundation's United For Wildlife and building on consultation feedback from companies, financial institutions and other stakeholders, the final guidance provides practical support for organisations seeking to understand how environmental crime can create hidden nature-related risks and opportunities and strengthen the credibility of their decision-making. Environmental crime is not only a law enforcement issue. It can create and amplify nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, making it an increasingly important business and financial issue. #TNFD #NatureRelatedRisk #EnvironmentalCrime #NaturePositive #SustainableFinance #RiskManagement #LEAPApproach #CorporateGovernance