Sandstone leads in training for EDA

25 May 2009 – Brussels – Today Sandstone s.a. announced the commencement of intelligence training delivered to the European Defence Agency (EDA) in Brussels, Belgium. Sandstone is the leader of a consortium selected by EDA to deliver intelligence training to analysts and officers from participating Member States and related EU bodies and organizations.

“I am particularly pleased and honored to share our expertise with this distinguished group of analysts from participating member countries, all working together in an international context in the pursuit of a terrorist free world,” said Mr. Schneider, Managing Partner of Sandstone.

Training has commenced today and will be delivered periodically throughout 2009. The subject matter of the training covers the use of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) techniques for collection and analysis of terrorist and extremist activity, including a special focus on the use of the internet in this context.

The participating co-contractor in the consortium is Infosphere AB, a management and intelligence consultancy based in Stockholm, Sweden. Sandstone s.a. is a due diligence and competitive intelligence solution provider based in Luxembourg.

For more information, please see www.sandstone.lu and www.infosphere.se

Sandstone Sponsors LIGFI

Sandstone is proud to be an initiating and charter member of the Luxembourg Institute for Global Financial Integrity.

Following Sandstone's initiative with President Prof. Gilbert McNeill, we are pleased that the Institute has been successfully constituted by a prestigious and capable group of professionals with a common interest in improving global financial integrity.

The founding members are:
- Jacques Santer, Honorary Minister of State and former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, former President of the European Commission;
- Michel Maquil, President of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange;
- Lucien Thiel, Member of Parliament of Luxembourg and Honorary Director of the ABBL;
- Patrick Zurstrassen, Chairman of the Institut Luxembourgeois des Administrateurs;
- Yves Wagner, President of the Association des Analystes Financiers et Gestionnaires de Portefeuilles;
- François Schanen, Manager of the BCEE;
- Gilbert McNeill, Professor and Counselor;
- Luc Henzig, Senior Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers;
- Guy Harles, Senior Partner of Arendt & Medenach;
- Jed Grant, Senior Partner of Sandstone S.A.;
- René Brülhart, Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Principality of Liechtenstein.

The first honorary chairman appointed for the board of regents is Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg.

The Institute will now begin the difficult task of enlisting and motivating a global group of financial actors to assist and enable the Institute to achieve its mission.

We are looking forward to the results!

Constitution Of The Luxembourg Institute For Global Financial Integrity

The Luxembourg Institute for Global Financial Integrity announced its constitution today. Founded by private citizens from Europe and The United States, under the auspices of Jacques Santer, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg and President of the European Commission, the institute is a nonprofit organization, that addresses the integrity of the global financial sector and the social responsibility practiced by all of its stakeholders.

According to Mr. Santer, “We recognized that the global financial sector is in need of stronger ethical practices and standards based on the principles of integrity: transparency, fairness, responsibility and accountability”.

Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, has given his personal endorsement and support to the institute in recognition of the need for a private, independent and impartial body that will group corporate, academic and non-governmental organizations, in Luxembourg and abroad who are engaged in the global financial sector, together to solve the challenges faced by the global financial sector pertaining to crime, such as fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering, and to the funding of criminal activity and terrorism.

The institute announced that in one of its first projects, Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, will advise and contribute to the institute in developing a financial sector ethics model that will serve as a reference framework and benchmark in the development of the ethical code of conduct of the global financial sector and the work that will later be carried out by the Institute.

As a newly created nonprofit organization, The Luxembourg Institute for Global Financial Integrity, is now enrolling members who will be active in all aspects of the institute. Banks, institutions and service providers in the global financial markets are being invited to join the institute. Research Fellows and Visiting Research Fellows are being sought out and brought on board. Collaboration is being established with universities, think-tanks and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in social responsibility and transparency within the global financial sector.

The institute will initiate its first open dialogue within the global financial sector and with public and private institutions by organizing a Conference on “Ethics, bank secrecy and fiscal paradise” in Luxembourg on the 10th and 11th of December, 2009.

For more information see www.ligfi.org.

Conference on Islamic Finance and Funds in Luxembourg

Sandstone was a proud sponsor of the IFBL Conference on Islamic Finance and Funds in Luxembourg on May 5-6, 2009.
We were pleased to see such an enthusiastic turn out and would like to thank the IFBL for organizing this informative and valuable conference.