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An investigation thats led to the arrest of the CEO of a UK-based carbon credit firm underscores the growing risk of a new type of criminal enterprise: carbon crime.

Global Witness, an organisation that works to exposes corruption in international trade and exploitation of natural resources, spent the past two years investigating the British firm Carbon Harvesting Corporation, led by Mike Foster. Foster was arrested Thursday by officers from the city of London police departments anti-corruption unit in connection with a carbon credits trading deal involving a proposed carbon concession in Liberia.

According to Global Witness, the Carbon Harvesting Corporation approached the Liberian government in 2007 to negotiate the allocation of a 400,000-hectare forest carbon concession with the goal of selling carbon credits to customers seeking to offset their carbon emissions. The size of the allocation represents a full fifth of Liberias rainforest.

Prompted by concerns about a lack of fundamental information regarding the project, as well as potential financial losses of more than $2 billion (US) for the Liberian government, Global Witness says its investigation found evidence of unofficial payments between the Carbon Harvesting Corporations Foster and representatives of the Liberian government. It then reported those findings to the police.

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Tags: carbon credits, carbon crime, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Trading