Leveraging modern technology for swift, targeted digital investigations of financial crime

May 15, 2025

Financial crime poses a significant threat to government revenues, national security, and society more broadly, which makes it crucial for state departments and public sector teams to pursue swift and accurate investigations. “With 80% of crimes having a digital component” according to a Press Release issued by the European Commission on 14 April 2021, gathering online data for “digital leads” could provide the forensic evidence on a case-by-case basis that is essential to support cases and hold perpetrators accountable.

While vast amounts of data are available to help investigators, sometimes the volume of information can hinder progress and slow teams down as they search for specific insights and material evidence. Until recently, there have not been solutions for government teams that can bring together both internal and open-source intelligence (OSINT) data along with other external inputs to enable investigators to follow clear digital leads.

This article from Nicola Passariello, Financial Crime Expert at Moody’s explores the importance of leveraging modern technology in digital investigations to combat financial crimes more effectively and help generate income for governments, particularly through the swift and targeted processing of data needed for building cases.

Drowning in data while thirsting for insights to support digital investigations

One of the challenges government investigators can face in conducting investigations into financial crimes is the sheer amount of data that needs to be viewed and analyzed. Extensive databases are available for analysis and interrogation. These datasets provide information on beneficial ownership, corporate structures and organizational connections, indicators of risk—such as shell company risk—and financial performance. However, in very large global databases investigators are at risk of getting lost.

While the available and accessible data relevant to an investigation might be valuable, it can potentially tell too many different stories, or it may require resources and training to examine it effectively. So, investigators need fast, accurate procedures to hone down research; stay on the trail of their digital lead; and find the insights and evidence they actually need.

Specific solutions, engineered to support investigation on specific targets or cases, like Moody’s Maxsight™ Investigations platform, can streamline the process of gathering digital leads and evidence. The platform can integrate internal data and OSINT to drive insights that follow the trail of money in a specific instance along with the people who may be implicated.

It is a single platform that can also be tailored for specific investigative purposes and used in many types of cases, such as:

Sanctions evasion
Infrastructure and assets protection
Cybersecurity and prevention of cyberattacks
Trade embargoes
Revenue- and tax-crime prevention
Fraud investigation

Tax evasion use case

Part of the State of Tax Justice report shared in 2023 estimated that “Countries are losing $480 billion in tax a year to global tax abuse.” Recovering a greater percentage of tax can provide a substantial boost to government incomes, especially in the face of budget deficits that many nations are grappling with.

In tax evasion cases, speed is of the essence to investigators. The financial networks involved can be highly sophisticated and there is a narrow window between the financial crime being committed and the money becoming effectively untraceable.

Acting quickly to recover taxes is essential, as there are many avenues for illicit money to flow through. It could be transferred to an offshore account, or processed through a shell company, or funneled into a subsidiary organization, which makes recovering any money challenging.

In its 2021 Press Release (referred to above), the European Commission said: “[…] over 60% of criminal networks active in the EU engage in corruption and more than 80% use legitimate businesses as a front for their activities, while only 1% of criminal assets is confiscated”. If further recoveries were possible, it could alleviate significant strain on government budgets.

How modern investigation tools can help with digital forensics

Crimes like online extortion, ransomware attacks, tax evasion, cybercrime, and so on can offer high profits and a lower probability of getting caught than physical crimes. So, criminals are engaging digitally to steal and defraud the public. This makes it essential for law enforcement agencies to adopt modern technology and skills to keep up with criminal enterprise.

Combining OSINT data with internal data, platforms like Moody’s Maxsight™ Investigations platform can help filter and export relevant information for specific, targeted investigative purposes. It is designed to help uncover connections between individuals and entities and data that indicates financial crime risk. The ability to swiftly surface targeted insights can help investigation teams and government departments follow the trail of money and build their body of evidence.

Incorporating different data sources, such as company data, sanctions risks, negative news stories, misuse of legal entities, and social media footprints, investigators can extract valuable evidence to pursue criminals and criminal enterprises and build their cases. Rather than drowning in a sea of data, they can focus on a specific target and uncover relevant entities and networks involved in financial crimes.

The return on investment for leveraging these tools in investigations is compelling, as they can provide the necessary resources to help gather in-depth, material information to support investigation of critical cases. And incremental gains on revenue recovered have the potential to be game-changing.

Learn more about Maxsight™ Investigations.

Get in touch with our team today.

Article authored by: Nicola Passariello, Financial Crime Expert, Moody’s