Money moves in seconds.
Mutual legal assistance requests may take months or years.
This imbalance remains one of the greatest structural weaknesses in international criminal justice.
Although organizations such as FATF, INTERPOL, Europol, the Egmont Group and national Financial Intelligence Units have significantly improved cooperation, major obstacles persist:
- different legal systems;
- banking secrecy;
- varying evidentiary standards;
- jurisdictional conflicts;
- political sensitivities;
- limited asset recovery mechanisms.
Criminal organizations exploit these delays as part of their business model.
Improving international cooperation is therefore not simply an administrative objective—it is an essential component of effective human rights protection.