JAPAN: University crime experts on call

The second article in a special series on how universities are helping fight crime.

Though the number of academic specialists in commercial crime in the Asia-Pacific region may be fewer than in the US or Europe, many of the leading figures are willing to work with corporate clients and have a great deal of experience outside the ivory towers.

Concourt refuses witness protection appeal
A Limpopo couple will not be able to appeal to the Constitutional Court for the payment of daily allowances to each member of their family on the witness protection programme.

The Constitutional Court on Friday refused to reinstate Phineas Lekolwane and his wife Elizabeth's application for leave to appeal against a high court ruling denying payment of R10 per day to anyone other than the bread-winner in the family.

The Lekolwane family was placed on the witness protection programme on August 15, 1998 after members of their community violently expelled them from their area and set fire to their home and spaza shop, destroying them.

As a result, Phineas Lekolwane lost the source of income with which he supported his family.

In 2002, after the department of justice and constitutional development had refused to pay Lekolwane, his wife and three children an allowance of R10 each, he took the matter to the Pretoria High Court.

However, it dismissed his application, holding that his wife had received no income before he was placed in protective custody and their children were legally incompetent to receive any income.

Lekolwane then appealed to a full bench of the High Court. It too dismissed the case, finding that it could not be shown that his wife and children forfeited income because he was placed on the programme.

Lekolwane claimed this interpretation of the law was unconstitutional because it unfairly discriminated against his family, and violated the rights of his children and family to dignity, healthcare, food and social security.

The Constitutional Court noted in its judgment on Friday that the Lekolwane's initial application for leave to appeal was struck from the roll on August 22, 2006.

While reinstatement of the application was possible if they could show good cause, the affidavit they lodged did not do so.

"Moreover, the reinstatement application was lodged with this court on 4 June 2008, nearly two years after it had earlier been struck from the roll.

"No convincing explanation is given for this delay either," the court found, adding: "We are not satisfied that it is in the interests of justice to re-enrol the application."

- Sapa


And while there are, of course, law faculties at universities in every Asian country, the highest-level institutions are almost inevitably concentrated in the most developed parts of the region such as Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.

It is here that companies with commercial crime problems looking for assistance from academics are likely to find the search most fruitful.

Despite Japan's high-profile problems with financial crime - the yakuza even has its own branch of corporate racketeers, the 'sokaiya', dedicated to corporate blackmail - academic experts in the field are scarcer than might be expected in a country with an economy of such size and sophistication.

"Academics in Japan haven't been sufficiently interested in financial crime, there is a gap there," said Professor Yasunobu Sato who teaches applied law at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Science.

There is another issue Sato identified: "Some of the academics and lawyers don't speak English well enough for global access. I sometimes act as a translator and a kind of coordinator in such situations."

Sato, who presented a paper on Preventing Financial Crime in Japan at a Cambridge University international symposium on crime, took his doctorate of law at the University of London and worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Another Japanese academic with experience in the financial world is Professor Akihiro Wani who lecturers at Sophia University's faculty of law (www.sophia.ac.jp) and is a senior partner of Linklaters' law firm (www.linklaters.com). Wani is a specialist in structured finance and derivatives, and lectures on various legal issues relating to international capital markets.

The University of Tokyo, Japan's top institution, provides other academic experts in the field. Professor Hideki Kanda's main areas of specialisation include commercial law, corporate law, banking regulation and securities regulation. Kanda has served as a visiting professor at Chicago and Harvard law schools.

In Australia, the Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention (CTCP) was established at the faculty of law in the University of Wollongong in July 2000. The CTCP has a wide brief on transnational crime as an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre, covering human trafficking, financial crime, drug trafficking, cyber crime, identity fraud, money laundering and terrorism.

Director and Associate Professor Doug MacKinnon explained how the centre had gone from strength to strength since its founding: "After a series of good scores we achieved, particularly with financial crime and security issues, the Australian government provided A$12 million [US$15 million] in funding for a purpose-built facility for CTCP in 2006."

MacKinnon spent 20 years with the Australian Federal Police but said his "days of jumping over fences and running across rooftops are well behind me now". He has been at CTCP since its launch and specialises in fraud, maritime crime and related issues.

The centre has worked closely with national governments and the Asian Development Bank, as well as numerous international companies.

"We've worked with some of the big four accountancy firms such as KPMG, and Ernst & Young on a fraud and risk plan for an Indonesia telecom firm," MacKinnon said. "That was led by Mark Loves, a former head of Optus-Singtel Security in Australia, who is now a senior lecturer with us."

Other members of the centre include Professor John Broome, an expert on money laundering. and Associate Professor John Walker who developed an innovative model for monitoring illicit money flows.

On the academic side, CTCP offers postgraduate degrees in transnational crime prevention, prosecutions and forensic accounting, in addition to cooperating with universities in Malaysia and China.

The staff come from a wide background of disciplines and cooperate with other departments and faculties. The CTCP (www.ctcp.uow.edu.au) can be contacted by email at ctcp@uow.edu.au

Staying in Australia, Dr George Gilligan is senior research fellow at the department of business law and taxation at Monash University. His research interests centre on the regulation of the financial services sector, white-collar crime and organised crime.

Elsewhere in the region, another commercial crime expert is Associate Professor Simon Young from the faculty of law at Hong Kong University. Young believes pro-activity is essential in dealing with commercial crime:

"Prevention is the key and companies need to be aware of the legal framework surrounding issues such as money laundering," he said. "In Hong Kong, the laws governing this are very broad and academics can work with HR departments to ensure employees undergo appropriate training. If problems do arise then advice and assistance can be provided on damage control and dealing with law enforcement."

Young, who attended Harvard Law School and received his doctorate from the UK's Cambridge University, also worked as a prosecutor in Canada before returning to his native Hong Kong.

With increasing economic activity and prosperity in China, commercial crime is also on the rise and some of the proceeds are being moved through Hong Kong. According to Young, this is often with the help of organised crime groups such as the local Triads.

This has made research into commercial crime issues an even greater priority in the region. Young's specialities include money laundering and white-collar crime, and he is also co-director of the Asia-America Institute in Transnational Law.