Side Event: OECD Conference on Building Upstream Resilience to Organised Crime

Mar 23, 2026 | 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Auditorium

Description

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann will open the morning session of this conference, to which all GACIF participants attending onsite are invited to join. Please note that the lunchtime and afternoon sessions, starting at 1.00pm are closed-door, by invitation only. As criminal networks increasingly exploit global supply chains, cross-border money-laundering schemes, and digital tools to expand and diversify their activities, the threat they pose to society and the economy – through corruption and coercion – has intensified. Building resilience to organised crime’s influence over the public and private sectors has therefore become a top priority for countries around the world. Meeting this challenge requires a strategic approach that goes beyond strengthening law enforcement capacity to include closer institutional cooperation and stronger anti-corruption tools. This conference will explore how countries can design and implement policy responses that address the complex dynamics of organised crime-driven corruption. Session 1: Infiltrating the State — How Organised Crime Exploits Institutional Vulnerabilities Over the last decade, organised crime has expanded globally, affecting most if not all OECD Members and Partners, with a cost reaching 2 to 4% of the global economy. Corruption, infiltration of the public sector and the licit economy, or the abuse of governance weaknesses and regulatory gaps are important avenues used by organised crime to develop and prosper. As governments are looking at ways to elevate their policy responses to this increasing threat, this session will explore how organised crime groups are exploiting public and private institutions vulnerabilities and how to build their resilience. Moderator: Mr. Elias Soley, Costa Rica Ambassador to the OECD Panelists: • Ms. Alexandra Gillies, Chief Impact Officer, Global Anti-Corruption Consortium Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project • Mr. Jorge Sicilia, Chief Economist, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria -BBVA • Mr. Ricardo Treviño Chapa, Deputy Secretary-General, World Customs Organization • Colonel Claudio Petrozziello, Guardia de Finanza, Italy Session 2: Using Integrity Systems to Disrupt Organised Crime: Toward Adaptative and Coordinated Strategies Corruption has become a key tool for exploiting weak governance structures, capturing service provision, defrauding the state, obstructing justice and unduly influencing policy decisions, particularly at the local level. Although many countries are taking action to counter organised crime, its link with corruption could be better explored and addressed. As corruption by organised crime differs from traditional corruption, national anticorruption strategies need to evolve accordingly. This session will focus on the nexus between integrity, anticorruption and organised crime and discuss ways to align strategic frameworks to tackle the corruption threat posed by organised crime. Moderator: Mr. Simon Madden, Chair of the OECD Working Party on Public-Integrity and Anti-Corruption, Director of Propriety & Ethics, Cabinet Office, United Kingdom Panelists: • Prof. Heather Marquette, Director of the Serious Organised Crime & Anti-Corruption Evidence research programme, University of Birmingham • Ms. Isabelle Jégouzo, Directrice, Agence française anticorruption • Mr. Kazuhiko Takeda, Deputy Commissioner, National Tax Agency Japan, Chair of the OECD Taskforce on Tax Crimes and Other Financial Crimes Session 3: Private Sector Under Pressure: Preventing Criminal Exploitation and Protecting Markets and Trade While legal, corporate and financial actors can serve as gatekeepers that help prevent and detect crime, they can also become enablers of organised crime – whether knowingly or unknowingly – by helping to conceal, transfer or launder illicit assets. Enabling actors provide the expertise that criminal groups themselves often lack, making them indispensable to the functioning of complex criminal enterprises, including illicit trade. This session will aim to identify ways to dis-enable the enablers, as well as to build more broadly the resilience of the private sector to organised crime. Moderator: Ms. Kathleen Roussel, Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery, Senior Advisor for Trade Compliance, Canada Border Services Panelists: • Ms. Alexandra Belmonte, Chief Compliance Officer, A. P. Moller – Maersk and member of the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network • Mr. Ruslan Stevanov, Chief Economist, Center for the Study of Democracy, Bulgaria • Ms. Elisa de Anda Madrazo, President of the Financial Action Task Force • Mr. Chris Martin, Assistant Director, His Majesty Revenue and Customs, United Kingdom and Co-Chair of the OECD Working Party on Countering Illicit Trade Closing: Mr. Young Tae Kim, Secretary-General, International Transport Forum

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