In the PRICELESS project, we are improving the detection and prevention of subversive financial crime by examining how high-value unique goods—such as artworks, NFTs, and luxury watches—are transformed into financialized assets. This transformation enables actors to manipulate valuations, obscure ownership, launder money, and evade sanctions by exploiting gaps in regulation and oversight. Our research investigates how valuation practices vary across sectors and how these differences can be used to facilitate subversive crime. We use methods such as crime scripting and stakeholder interviews to uncover how value manipulation is embedded within financial and legal processes.
PRICELESS explores how data, information, and intelligence can be securely shared among public and private stakeholders to support more effective detection and regulation. We are developing privacy-preserving infrastructures that enable collaboration without compromising confidentiality by drawing on technologies like federated learning and secure multi-party computation. By combining interdisciplinary analysis with practical tools, PRICELESS contributes to improved valuation standards, stronger regulatory frameworks, and more effective law enforcement and oversight instruments. The project’s insights may also inform other sectors, such as real estate and private equity, where similar risks of assetization-based financial crime arise.
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