A lawyer spcialising in money laundering has put the validity of EU’s ‘white list’ in doubt
A lawyer specialising in money laundering and financial service regulation this week questioned the validity of the EU’s ‘white list’ of countries where money laundering controls are considered the same as EU member states.
Stephen Platt, BakerPlatt Group barrister and chairman, questioned why countries such as Russia, Argentina and Mexico could justifiably make the list and noted Australia and Canada, also on the list, were less than 25% compliant by the standards set by the Financial Action TaskForce (FATF) into money laundering controls, according to Tax-News.com.
Platt described as ‘bewildering’ that white list countries were regared as having a higher level of control of money laundering compared with leading offshore finance centres, including the British Crown Dependencies.
‘Having researched the background to some of the countries included, we question why countries that fall behind recognised international standards are on the list, whilst finance centres such as Jersey, the Bahamas and the Cayman are not,’ said Platt, who advises gand regulators on the implementation of effective regulatory and anti-money laundering rules.
Source: AccountancyAge
Showing posts with label Bahamas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bahamas. Show all posts
on Saturday, May 19, 2012
By Quincy Parker
The Ingraham Administration on Wednesday moved to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act 2004 in order to comply more fully with The Bahamas’ international obligations in relation to anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering activities.
Former Attorney General Alfred Sears, however, blasted the government for bringing legislation he suggested was deficient, and took credit for embarrassing the government into dealing with the issue now rather than going on vacation.
The Ft. Charlotte MP warned that not enough attention is being paid to the concerns about compliance with all the international anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering agreements.
Mr. Sears noted that in many instances, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) evaluators found The Bahamas partially compliant in many areas – there are eight areas in which the Act is deficient, he said, and the amendment doesn’t address them all.
"The bill before us – if it is intended to make the Anti-Terrorism Act fully compliant with the international standards, with the international conventions that we have signed as a country – the amendment before us will not do that," he said.
"In the mutual evaluation, which the government agreed, they have identified eight areas of deficiencies specific to this particular act, and here we are addressing only one."
"And we are addressing it," he added, "because (I) embarrassed them because thy wanted to go on holiday, and it was only after (I) challenged them (that they brought the amendment")."
Mr. Sears charged that the Ingraham government had been "asleep at the wheel" in 2000 when The Bahamas was blacklisted by the OECD. He quoted Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who said at the time he was "surprised and greatly disappointed" that The Bahamas was included on the blacklist.
"We are sleeping at the wheel again in 2008, because (the government has) the report. They agreed the report. They know that, with respect to the Anti-Terrorism Act, there are eight deficiencies identified," he charged.
"Why in heaven’s name would they come into this parliament, knowing that there are eight deficiencies identified, knowing that we are not fully in compliance with our international obligations?"
The former attorney general charged that the government is being "lackadaisical" and "reckless" with the financial services sector.
The proposed Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act 2008 was necessitated by conclusions drawn by the CFATF, which comprises those states and territories in the Caribbean Basin that have agreed to implement common countermeasures against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Minister of Education Carl Bethel – who served as attorney general in an earlier Ingraham Administration – moved the amendments on Wednesday morning, noting the findings of the CFATF evaluators published in a mutual evaluation report late last year.
"First the good news," the minister said. "The evaluators concluded that at the time of the evaluation there had been no evidence of terrorism or the financing of terrorism in The Bahamas."
"The evaluators further concluded that no suspicious transaction report from any financial institution or from any other source had been received that would indicate the occurrence of terrorism or of terrorism financing in The Bahamas."
Mr. Bethel said the findings were significant, because they showed The Bahamas was not in "mortal danger," as he said a PLP MP had alleged.
The minister said the passage of the 2004 Act was an attempt to comply with the most critical of the nine special recommendations promulgated by the FATF in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US.
Mr. Bethel noted that the CFATF evaluators had conducted a comprehensive review of the relevant laws including the Anti-Terrorism Act, about which they made specific recommendations.
He said the evaluators repeatedly noted that the act didn’t extend to all the conventions and protocols named in the Terrorist Financing Convention, nor did it fully implement the two UN Security Council resolutions arising out of the 9/11 attacks.
The evaluators noted that the requirement in Section 9(4) of the act makes reciprocity a pre-condition for giving international assistance in freezing assets of alleged terrorists, and according to the minister they said this "may not constitute the greatest measure of assistance as contemplated by…the Security Council Resolution."
Section 9 of the act is therefore being amended to remove the requirement for reciprocity before The Bahamas renders assistance as a result of a request from another state.
The bill proposes to amend Section 17 as well, which deals with the procedure by which assets are frozen under Mutual Legal Assistance requests.
Source: The Bahama Journal
The Ingraham Administration on Wednesday moved to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act 2004 in order to comply more fully with The Bahamas’ international obligations in relation to anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering activities.
Former Attorney General Alfred Sears, however, blasted the government for bringing legislation he suggested was deficient, and took credit for embarrassing the government into dealing with the issue now rather than going on vacation.
The Ft. Charlotte MP warned that not enough attention is being paid to the concerns about compliance with all the international anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering agreements.
Mr. Sears noted that in many instances, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) evaluators found The Bahamas partially compliant in many areas – there are eight areas in which the Act is deficient, he said, and the amendment doesn’t address them all.
"The bill before us – if it is intended to make the Anti-Terrorism Act fully compliant with the international standards, with the international conventions that we have signed as a country – the amendment before us will not do that," he said.
"In the mutual evaluation, which the government agreed, they have identified eight areas of deficiencies specific to this particular act, and here we are addressing only one."
"And we are addressing it," he added, "because (I) embarrassed them because thy wanted to go on holiday, and it was only after (I) challenged them (that they brought the amendment")."
Mr. Sears charged that the Ingraham government had been "asleep at the wheel" in 2000 when The Bahamas was blacklisted by the OECD. He quoted Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who said at the time he was "surprised and greatly disappointed" that The Bahamas was included on the blacklist.
"We are sleeping at the wheel again in 2008, because (the government has) the report. They agreed the report. They know that, with respect to the Anti-Terrorism Act, there are eight deficiencies identified," he charged.
"Why in heaven’s name would they come into this parliament, knowing that there are eight deficiencies identified, knowing that we are not fully in compliance with our international obligations?"
The former attorney general charged that the government is being "lackadaisical" and "reckless" with the financial services sector.
The proposed Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act 2008 was necessitated by conclusions drawn by the CFATF, which comprises those states and territories in the Caribbean Basin that have agreed to implement common countermeasures against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Minister of Education Carl Bethel – who served as attorney general in an earlier Ingraham Administration – moved the amendments on Wednesday morning, noting the findings of the CFATF evaluators published in a mutual evaluation report late last year.
"First the good news," the minister said. "The evaluators concluded that at the time of the evaluation there had been no evidence of terrorism or the financing of terrorism in The Bahamas."
"The evaluators further concluded that no suspicious transaction report from any financial institution or from any other source had been received that would indicate the occurrence of terrorism or of terrorism financing in The Bahamas."
Mr. Bethel said the findings were significant, because they showed The Bahamas was not in "mortal danger," as he said a PLP MP had alleged.
The minister said the passage of the 2004 Act was an attempt to comply with the most critical of the nine special recommendations promulgated by the FATF in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US.
Mr. Bethel noted that the CFATF evaluators had conducted a comprehensive review of the relevant laws including the Anti-Terrorism Act, about which they made specific recommendations.
He said the evaluators repeatedly noted that the act didn’t extend to all the conventions and protocols named in the Terrorist Financing Convention, nor did it fully implement the two UN Security Council resolutions arising out of the 9/11 attacks.
The evaluators noted that the requirement in Section 9(4) of the act makes reciprocity a pre-condition for giving international assistance in freezing assets of alleged terrorists, and according to the minister they said this "may not constitute the greatest measure of assistance as contemplated by…the Security Council Resolution."
Section 9 of the act is therefore being amended to remove the requirement for reciprocity before The Bahamas renders assistance as a result of a request from another state.
The bill proposes to amend Section 17 as well, which deals with the procedure by which assets are frozen under Mutual Legal Assistance requests.
Source: The Bahama Journal
on Monday, March 26, 2007
After consultation with local regulators of financial services in The Bahamas, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has released the 2007 Suspicious Transactions Guidelines, which relate to the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The 2007 guidelines replace the 2001 guidelines and apply to all financial institutions in The Bahamas as defined in section 3 of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2000.
Edward Smith, FIU deputy director, said the guidelines tell the financial institutions what to do and give examples of how money is laundered, and how transactions are considered suspicious.
“It’s just guidance to help them understand how things are done globally,” he said.
Suspicious Transactions, according to the guidelines, are financial transactions where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the funds involved are related to the proceeds of criminal activity.
Based on the guidelines, financial institutions can recognize suspicious transactions because they can fall into one of many categories such as unusual financial activity of a customer, and unusual transaction in the course of some usual financial activity.
According to the guidelines, money laundering covers all procedures to conceal the origins of criminal proceeds so it will appear to have originated from a legitimate source and also includes hiding the origin of legally acquired money that will be used to finance criminal activities.
The three stages of laundering – placement, layering, and integration – can sometimes occur sequentially but often overlaps, the guidelines pointed out.
Placement is the physical disposal of criminal proceeds and in many serious crimes the
proceeds can take the form of cash, the guidelines said.
Layering is the separation of criminal proceeds from their source by the creation of complex layers of financial transactions designed to disguise the audit trial and to provide the appearance of legitimacy, according to the guidelines.
When criminal proceeds are treated as legitimate, they have reached the stage of integration, the guidelines stated.
The guidelines provide examples of terrorist financing to help financial services businesses recognize terrorist transactions.
Terrorists are financed through donations, extortion, smuggling, charities, drugs, and counterfeit goods, according to the guidelines.
Extortion is the crime of obtaining money or something valuable by the abuse of one’s office or authority and, according to the guidelines this form of raising money continues to be one of the most prolific and highly profitable.
Financial institutions have a responsibility under the law to know their customers and identify suspicious activities that may relate to criminal activities, like financing of terrorism and report it to the FIU, Mr. Smith pointed out.
The FIU is the central national agency for the investigation of reports of suspicious transactions in The Bahamas and its mandate is to receive, analyze, obtain, and disseminate information from suspicious transaction reports, he reminded.
“FIU has the responsibility to analyze the information and determine if the reports relate to criminal activities and if so submit them to the Royal Bahamas Police Force for investigation,” Mr. Smith added.
He pointed out that under the FIU Act 2000, the FIU has the permission to issue guidance in relation to suspicious transaction reporting.
By Deandrea Williamson
The Bahama Journal
http://news.bahamianyellowpages.com/2007/03/21/revised-guidelines-take-effect-for-suspicious-transactions-reporting-2/
The 2007 guidelines replace the 2001 guidelines and apply to all financial institutions in The Bahamas as defined in section 3 of the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2000.
Edward Smith, FIU deputy director, said the guidelines tell the financial institutions what to do and give examples of how money is laundered, and how transactions are considered suspicious.
“It’s just guidance to help them understand how things are done globally,” he said.
Suspicious Transactions, according to the guidelines, are financial transactions where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the funds involved are related to the proceeds of criminal activity.
Based on the guidelines, financial institutions can recognize suspicious transactions because they can fall into one of many categories such as unusual financial activity of a customer, and unusual transaction in the course of some usual financial activity.
According to the guidelines, money laundering covers all procedures to conceal the origins of criminal proceeds so it will appear to have originated from a legitimate source and also includes hiding the origin of legally acquired money that will be used to finance criminal activities.
The three stages of laundering – placement, layering, and integration – can sometimes occur sequentially but often overlaps, the guidelines pointed out.
Placement is the physical disposal of criminal proceeds and in many serious crimes the
proceeds can take the form of cash, the guidelines said.
Layering is the separation of criminal proceeds from their source by the creation of complex layers of financial transactions designed to disguise the audit trial and to provide the appearance of legitimacy, according to the guidelines.
When criminal proceeds are treated as legitimate, they have reached the stage of integration, the guidelines stated.
The guidelines provide examples of terrorist financing to help financial services businesses recognize terrorist transactions.
Terrorists are financed through donations, extortion, smuggling, charities, drugs, and counterfeit goods, according to the guidelines.
Extortion is the crime of obtaining money or something valuable by the abuse of one’s office or authority and, according to the guidelines this form of raising money continues to be one of the most prolific and highly profitable.
Financial institutions have a responsibility under the law to know their customers and identify suspicious activities that may relate to criminal activities, like financing of terrorism and report it to the FIU, Mr. Smith pointed out.
The FIU is the central national agency for the investigation of reports of suspicious transactions in The Bahamas and its mandate is to receive, analyze, obtain, and disseminate information from suspicious transaction reports, he reminded.
“FIU has the responsibility to analyze the information and determine if the reports relate to criminal activities and if so submit them to the Royal Bahamas Police Force for investigation,” Mr. Smith added.
He pointed out that under the FIU Act 2000, the FIU has the permission to issue guidance in relation to suspicious transaction reporting.
By Deandrea Williamson
The Bahama Journal
http://news.bahamianyellowpages.com/2007/03/21/revised-guidelines-take-effect-for-suspicious-transactions-reporting-2/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
