News
International Groups Say Corrupt PEPs Can Often Loot With Impunity
By Colby Adams and Brian Monroe
printThree intergovernmental groups are questioning the effectiveness of anti-money laundering controls meant to curb abuses of corrupt political figures who steal from their countries. The World Bank and United Nations said in a joint June 21 report that at least 74 of 124 jurisdictions examined have not complied with anti-money laundering (AML) recommendations to quash kleptocracy by political figures. The record indicates that financial institutions and the agencies that regulate them may be "deficient" in enforcing the controls, the report said. In a separate report published July 29, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) warned banks and other companies...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
Four months after the enactment of the EU's latest anti-money laundering directive, British officials are considering how to navigate new standards for political accounts in light of complaints from lawmakers.
ACAMS moneylaundering.com recently spoke with officials from the FBI's kleptocracy squad about the unparalleled cooperation and inevitable difficulties in following the money.
Follow the headlines and you'll find an all too common story: the political winds shift, a leader is deposed and a fortune in dirty money is uncovered in a warren of offshore accounts. But why did no one stop the plundering sooner?
Ukraine's widespread protests and weakened political stability are likely to prompt nervous investors and corrupt officials alike to move their money abroad, say economic analysts.
A Berlin-based advocacy group said Tuesday that Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia remained the least trusted nations in the world for the second year in a row.
Countries should require their political officials to publicly and verifiably disclose their assets and income in order to better combat bribery and embezzlement, the United Nations and World Bank said Wednesday.
Complex offshore financial structures and shortcomings in international legal assistance agreements are jamming efforts to repatriate funds considered stolen by former North African leaders, say asset recovery experts.
Calls for a survey of how U.S. banks monitor high-risk accounts are likely to be ignored even if such a review would expose anti-money laundering compliance gaps, say industry experts.
The Federal Reserve issues a cease-and-desist order against Royal Bank of Scotland for AML violations, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. hands out three AML-related enforcement actions, and more, in this week's roundup.
Despite public rhetoric about freezing the assets of corrupt dictators, less than three percent of the funds stolen by kleptocrats are ever returned to looted countries, according to Steffen Binder, co-founder of My Private Banking, a research and networking Web site for clients of private banks.
A Russian law that prohibits corporate bribes and raises the ceiling on punitive fines isn't likely to impede businesses from offering illegal incentives to win lucrative contracts, say political observers.
More sensitive diplomatic communiqués leaked by Wikileaks.org, prosecutions against former UBS AG account holders for tax evasion continue, and more, in this week's roundup.
The European Commission is asking EU leaders to allow the European Council to augment a blacklist of suspected terrorists whose assets must be frozen to include individuals and groups in Europe.
Foreign government officials with U.S. accounts are increasingly banking at smaller financial institutions that are vulnerable to financial abuse because of scant compliance resources, say analysts.
Inconsistent international forfeiture laws continue to hamper global asset forfeitures, according to Stefan D. Cassella, chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering section of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.
Up to 67 percent of the estimated $859 billion in illicit funds moved out of developing countries between 2002 and 2006 ended up in banks in developed nations, according to a report released Thursday.
The U.S. Justice Department continues to seized more than $3.2 million in nearly 400 accounts tied to narcotics dealers, Transparency International published its annual corruption report and more, in this weeks roundup.
Global corruption is antithetical to economic growth, according to Transparency International, an organization known for its yearly publication of the Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks 180 countries by their levels of corruption.
The United Nations and World Bank estimate that $45 billion a year is lost to corruption, which contributes to poverty, disease and environmental destruction, according to Jack Smith of the Caux Roundtable, a group that will try to recover pilfered assets when it launches in January.
The United Nations and World Bank are planning to tap financial intelligence units worldwide in an effort to better reclaim assets stolen by corrupt political figures and their associates.