DATACROS III Project Kick-off Meeting

The kick-off meeting of the DATACROS III project, coordinated by Transcrime, took place on  March 5th at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. The renewed funding by the European Union confirmed the long-term impact of the previous phases and of the DATACROS tool, designed to facilitate the investigation of organised and financial crime.

This tool, developed (DC I: 2019-2021) and enhanced (DC I: 2022-2024) in the first and second phases of the project, has already proven to be an invaluable asset for law enforcement agencies (LEAs), asset recovery offices (AROs), anti-corruption bodies and investigative journalists across Europe (discover more). Indeed, high end-user satisfaction scores (4.8/5) and the numerous investigations that have benefited from the tool underline its real-world effectiveness in identifying suspicious corporate links and financial anomalies that could indicate money laundering, corruption or collusion activities.

The third phase of the project

Over the next two years, DATACROS III will significantly expand the scope and capabilities of the tool, with new analytics functions, including:

• Machine learning-empowered anomaly and risk detection models
• NLP-based analysis of unstructured data sources information
• Satellite image processing

The AI-driven features will allow to better detect high-risk entities while reducing false positives. The enhanced version of the tool will also benefit from the integration of new data and sources:

• BO and business registers
• Company data
• Real estate data
• Public procurement and funds data
• Virtual currencies and transactions
• Satellite imagery

Over the course of the project, the enhanced version of the tool will be tested in operational scenarios with end-users. Also, workshops and training sessions will further support public authorities, civil society, and private organisations, to ensure effective adoption of the platform and raise awareness of the evolving risks of OC and remedies across sectors.

The project consortium, led by Transcrime – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, consists of 15 beneficiaries and 8 associate partners from 13 EU countries, including: UOHS (CZ), Government Transparency Institute (HU), the Latvian FIU, IrpiMedia (IT), Crystal Blockchain B.V. (NL), ANABI (RO), BR-AG (PL), the Greek Competition Authority, the Spanish Ministry of Interior, CERTH (EL), React S.R.L. (IT), Context.ro (RO), the Italian Anticorruption Authority, the Italian Ministry of Interior, OCCRP (NL), the French Competition Authority, GLEIF (CH), EBRA (BE), the Norwegian Competition Authority, the Greek National Transparency Authority, the Belgian Federal Police, and Transcrime’s spin-off Crime&tech.