Insp. Ermis Rogers
Detective Inspector Ian McDonald, a Financial Crime Investigator, from the United Kingdom, is now heading the Financial Investigation Unit of the Royal Anguilla Police Force for the next three years. He took up his appointment on Monday, September 9, and succeeds Mr Andy Arsenault whose contract ended about a year ago.
Mr McDonald, who appeared at the regular Police briefing on Wednesday, was welcomed by Commissioner Mr Rudolph Proctor who said his appointment came at a time when the Financial Investigation Unit was very busy with an increasing number of matters in the public and private sectors.
Inspector McDonald has been a Detective for about twenty years and during the last ten years or so he had been involved in financial investigation and the investigation of organised crime as well as serious fraud and public corruption. He carried out those duties as an officer in the Police Service of Northern Ireland and was based in Belfast for most of his career.
“I am hoping to build on the already existing undoubted expertise of the Royal Anguilla Police Force’s Financial Investigation Unit,” he told media representatives. “In the short time that I have been here, having arrived at work on Monday just gone, I have had the opportunity to speak to all the members of the Unit. I am already very impressed with their high workload, and their dedication to the task, and I am hoping to build on that by bringing some of the experience from the UK and Northern Ireland to enhance the already existing capability of the Royal Anguilla Police Force.
“I have already had the opportunity to meet with the Financial Services Commission, and later on this week I will be meeting with various members of the financial sector. As the weeks progress I will also be holding meetings with other members of the business community. It is very important for Anguilla – its reputation and its economy – that the financial and business sector is strong; and financial crime investigation is an important part of what I hope to assist the business and financial community with.”
Commenting on Mr McDonalds’s remarks, Commissioner Proctor said: “Because of the workload that the Financial Investigation Unit has, and we believe the way things have been going in our community, that we may receive more cases to investigate. We therefore want to have the capacity to deal with those issues.”
Mr McDonald said that from his findings so far, there were various matters on the island to investigate. These included internal business fraud, abuse of the banking system for money-laundering by criminals and public sector fraud and corruption.
