J5 Communique

May 2022

The Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) met May 9-13, 2022, in London, UK as part of the J5 International Tax Enforcement Summit. The Chiefs have met virtually several times a year since the inception of the organization and this summit was the fourth in-person meeting since 2018. The J5 leads the fight against international tax crime and money laundering, including cryptocurrency threats and those who undertake, enable, or facilitate global tax evasion. In addition to the Chief’s meeting, the summit also included the fourth iteration of the J5 Challenge, a Global Financial Institution Summit, and a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) event.

Key topics discussed during the week include:

• An opening keynote address by Financial Secretary of the Treasury Rt Hon Lucy Frazer QC MP, where she discussed tax fraud as the perennial and persistent threat that all our nations face. Unity, transparency, and collaboration will be essential if we are to tackle it.
• Presentations from each of the countries on current issues affecting one another.
• A presentation by the world’s leading financial institutions during the Global Financial Institute Summit about joint topics of interest and the biggest threats facing each of our organizations.
• A collaborative meeting with the Wolfsberg Group in which ways our organizations can work together more was discussed.
• A discussion with leading financial institutions on working together through PPP and what the banking industry is doing to support tackling tax crime and associated money laundering.
• Operational successes from the past year and a calendar of events for the year to come.

At the conclusion of the week, the J5 Chiefs reaffirmed their commitment to the organization, to tackling tax crime together, and to pushing the boundaries of what has been done in the past to achieve operational and innovative results. Specifically, the Chiefs celebrated and agreed to:

• Highlight the PPP commitment to tackle professional enablers of tax and associated money laundering.
• Enhance our systems to better detect and disrupt criminal networks.
• Share information across the J5 and continue to build stronger relationships with financial institutions to place us at the forefront of disrupting criminal networks that target our public finances - particularly tackling professional enablers of tax crime.
• Continue to bring together the world's most influential leaders in financial crime and tax crime compliance from both public and private sectors. Members include the J5 Chiefs, the Wolfsberg Group of banks, UK Finance, the Canadian Bankers Association, the Australian Banking Association, and the Royal United Services Institute.
• The Summit opened an ambitious dialogue on shared vision, common goals in tackling tax crime through collaborative efforts, identifying new opportunities to encourage breakthrough thinking and recommendations for future working. The group highlighted the UNCLASSIFIED [TYPE HERE] importance of top-level commitment, sharing learning between public and private sectors and being clear on the prioritisation of tax crime threats.
• The GFIS endorsed PPP as being key to tackle international tax crime and committed to resourcing PPP efforts in the years to come. The group have agreed to meet again in the near future in order to monitor progress and continue the dialogue.
• The J5 PPP Project held it's first in-person event, a major step in multi-jurisdictional cooperation and engagement to tackle priority financial crime threats.
• A series of workshops took place on a variety of topics, including risks surrounding money service businesses, cryptocurrencies, and the Pandora Papers.
• Subject matter experts from across public and private sector shared knowledge and expertise, identified further opportunities for PPP working, and have committed to resource a programme of work in the year ahead with a view to developing guidance products for wider sharing with law enforcement and private sector partners.
• The challenge commenced with a multi-faceted agenda covering NFTs and DEXs seeking not only to focus on operational outcomes, but also the specialist education pillars to enable success.
• A key driver was establishing a contemporary, uniform understanding of highly complex topics and their application in the tax crime and broader crime thematic.
• A unique aspect in the strength of the challenge was the inclusion of PPP crypto asset specialist attendees collaborating in real time.
• Operational leads were developed in a condensed time scale. Among the leads generated by the collective is a multi-jurisdictional organised crime case, affecting not only all J5 countries but victims around the world. The lead involves an unprecedented value concerning criminal activity in virtual worlds, the abuse of NFTs and broader illicit funds flows.
• The J5 looks forward to greater collaboration with the Crypto asset community in the fight against tax crime by preventing the abuse of crypto assets by the small determined minority.
• Raise awareness of the J5 amongst the international tax community by growing our social media following and expounding upon our online presence.
• Promote the operational successes to promote compliance and deterrence.