Launch of TAIPAN

TAIPAN has advanced features to ingest external structured or unstructured data, securing, analyzing and sorting the data into simple search formats. The data is then displayed on interactive dashboards for easy analysis and distribution. The system will allow analysts to turn data into visuals and provide analysts powerful analytical tools for quick and simple analysis of large volumes of data. The system will also provide additional data security measures and can be used to integrate multiple data sources.

Fiji FIU’s on-line reporting and data analytics initiative was first developed and implemented from 2006 to 2007 with the technical and financial assistance of AUSTRAC, Australia’s financial intelligence agency and regulator, and with funding from the Australian Government.

AUSTRAC Deputy CEO Intelligence, Dr John Moss AIM said transnational crime syndicates have targeted the Pacific, with new technologies increasing the threat.

“AUSTRAC’s partnership with Fiji will help to build financial intelligence capability, and ensure Pacific Islands are not seen by criminals as soft targets to launder criminal proceeds.”

“AUSTRAC is focussed on keeping Australia’s financial systems free from criminal and national security threats. Given Australia’s physical proximity to the Pacific, financial security cannot be seen in isolation. Sharing financial intelligence, tradecraft and tools is critical, so that as a region the Pacific is resistant to threats which undermine collective financial security and community safety.”

“The TAIPAN system that AUSTRAC has provided, will give Fiji and other Pacific partners, an enhanced collective ability to detect and analyse complex money laundering in the region through innovative triage and interrogation of bulk data.”

The Director of Fiji FIU, Mr Razim Buksh said that currently 165 financial institutions are registered on Fiji FIU’s online reporting system with an average of over 200,000 financial transactions per month that are reported electronically to the FIU. As at August 2022, the FIU database received over 24 million financial transaction reports from financial institutions since on-line reporting commenced in 2008. There are currently 203 authorized users of this system.

Mr Buksh said that 99.99% of all financial transaction reports are received online from the financial institutions.

Mr Buksh said that the FIU continues to invest in IT solutions to drive its core reporting, operational and strategic processes. In 2021, the FIU disseminated 418 intelligence reports on 952 individuals and 384 entities to its law enforcement partners.

“The Fiji FIU has disrupted hundreds of cyber scam and fraudulent transactions in Fiji. The Fiji FIU has also identified several hundred foreign cybercriminals and their syndicates that have been black-listed from receiving funds from Fiji. 61 designated officers of FIU’s key networking and law enforcement partner agencies have direct access to FIU’s technology system. This access significantly contributes to the preliminary financial analysis and profiling of individuals and entities that are subject to the agencies’ investigation of serious offences, namely, fraud, cybercrime, drug trafficking, tax evasion, corruption and other financial criminal activities.”
 

The costs associated with the development and implementation of TAIPAN were met by the Australian government. The Director FIU acknowledges and thanks the Australian government and AUSTRAC for providing this system to the Fiji FIU, noting that partnerships like this one, are key to combatting serious and organised crime in Fiji and across the Pacific region.

Refer to the following PDF link: FIJI FIU Media Release - Launch Of TAIPAN