Veto on law on opposing money laundering leading Ukraine to blacklist

The president's veto of the law on opposing money laundering is leading Ukraine to the blacklist of the FATF (the Financial Action Task Force), according to a statement by Ihor Cherkassky, the head of the State Committee for Financial Monitoring of Ukraine, the text of which has been sent to Ukraine.


"Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko gave an original "present" to the financial system of Ukraine, having used his right of veto on the law on fighting money laundering and financing terrorism. By his actions, the head of state has brought Ukraine before the so called blacklist of the FATF," the statement reads.

According to the statement, the approval of the corresponding law represented the fulfillment of the obligations Ukraine undertook before the FATF and the international community.

"The fact Ukraine succeeded in persuading international organizations about its ability to approve such a law, which would meet all of the challenges of the modern world, gave the possibility to take our state off the blacklist of the FATF in 2004, and in 2006 to stop the procedure of active monitoring," Cherkassky said.

The statement reads that the Ukrainian parliament approved new wording of the law on Nov. 6.

"While imposing the veto, it was even not taken into consideration that in June 2009, the FATF introduced strict demands on countries, and included our state on a preliminary list of high risk countries," the statement reads.

According to the statement, the only was to avoid Ukraine being put onto the blacklist is for a parliament mission to submit a new law to the FATF European Control Group by Dec. 10.

Source: The Kyiv Post