The Knoble Launches Project Umbra for the Disruption and Prevention of Child Sexual Exploitation
The Knoble announces the launch of Project Umbra, a multi-stakeholder collaboration to identify indicators necessary to identify and reduce child sexual exploitation. Leveraging The Knoble Network this collaboration brings together financial institutions, regulators, NGOs, and law enforcement. It is led by Karim Rajwani, SVP Financial Crimes Risk Management, Chief Operating Officer at Scotiabank, and volunteer Advisory Board Member for The Knoble.
“Initiatives such as Project Umbra will make the world a little less dangerous place for our most vulnerable by improving our capabilities to identify and report financial intelligence to law enforcement and other agencies. Collaboration across civil society, including financial institutions and government agencies, is absolutely essential to fight human trafficking and child sexual exploitation,” said Rajwani.
Global financial institutions will benefit from a financial industry-wide analysis and development of an inventory of red flags and other indicators of child-sexual exploitation. This will allow for early identification of suspicious activity and eventual prosecution.
“Project Umbra focuses on creating awareness and disrupting the finances of child sexual exploitation. We can prevent financial crime harming the vulnerable if we work together to drive systemic change,” said Terry Schappert, Head of Financial Institution Relationships for The Knoble.
This thought-leadership initiative leverages the excellent work of Project Shadow, a public-private partnership initiative co-led by Scotiabank and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, supported by Canadian law enforcement agencies and FINTRAC to combat child sexual exploitation.
The Need is Urgent
The scale, severity, and complexity of child sexual exploitation is increasing at a faster pace than those aiming to tackle the activity can respond. Referrals from industry and law enforcement partners are now reaching record highs. This creates an urgent need for financial institutions, government, law enforcement organizations, NGOs, plus the technology industry, and other sectors to work together to step up their collective response.
Launched in May
The Knoble Network of financial and human trafficking experts launched this initiative in May 2021 to better prevent these heinous crimes.
Project Umbra Working Group Participants
- Scotiabank
- Fifth Third
- M&T Bank
- LexisNexis Risk Solutions
- Early Warning Services, LLC
- RedCompass Labs
- Department of Homeland Security
- FINTRAC
- And other governmental agencies and private companies
About The Knoble Network
Founded in 2019, we are a non-profit network of experts with a passion for preventing financial crime that harms the vulnerable around the world, including prevention of modern slavery, human trafficking, elder abuse, and child exploitation. Led by subject matter experts in fraud, financial crime, financial services, data, and technology, and other professions, The Knoble’s cross-industry initiatives in the public, private and charitable sectors create an ongoing, system-wide effort to detect and prevent human crime and bring about systemic change. For more information, visit TheKnoble.com.
