A law in the UK making it a criminal offense for a company to knowingly supply printing equipment to a counterfeiter has been welcomed by INTERPOL’s Counterfeit and Security Documents Branch (CSDB) as a step in reducing the access of criminals to the equipment and supplies they require to counterfeit documents.
With the UK legislation tied to Project Genesius, a partnership between the London Metropolitan Police Service and the specialist printing industry, Jim Anderson, Assistant Director of the INTERPOL Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes unit, which includes CSDB, underlined ‘the role played by industry suppliers to ensure good practice and due diligence to minimize the risk of misuse of printing equipment’.
The international policing body based in Lyon points to the increasing sophistication in the quality of counterfeit currency and travel documents posing a serious threat to national economies, financial institutions, consumers, and national points of entries worldwide, the UK initiative also aligns with INTERPOL’s Project S-Print which assists companies in the printing industry perform due diligence on potential customers.
Project S-Print is INTERPOL’s initiative to prevent the proliferation of counterfeit currency and other security documents. In practice, the project is involved in the tracking of second-hand Intaglio machines as well as the verification of potentially suspicious enquiries made to companies in the security printing and associated industries. It aims to reduce the crime of currency counterfeiting and altered security documents by preventing the necessary production materials and supplies from reaching counterfeiters.
INTERPOL adds that its Counterfeit and Security Documents Branch provides forensic support, operational assistance and technical databases to assist its 190 member countries as well as high-security companies in the areas of counterfeit currency, travel documents (passports and identity documents) and other security documents.
