What's Happening

The Minister of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago, the Honourable Mr. Colm Imbert stated that there were 958 suspicious transaction reports/suspicious activity reports (STRs/SARs) valued at TTD $1,937,211,057 up to September 30^th, 2022 reported by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (FIUTT). The STRs/SARs were based on tax evasion, fraud, money laundering and drug trafficking activities. The Minister elaborated by noting that the most prevalent reason for STRs/SARs  filings was suspicious activity, which accounted for 301 persons, “followed by tax evasion (211 persons), fraud (196 persons), money laundering (155 persons) and drug trafficking (35 persons).” The Minister further disclosed that these accounted for 94 percent of the total STRs/SARs received by the FIUTT and 60 per cent of the total monetary value of all STRs/SARs submitted.

Regarding the type of transaction, it was revealed that 844 reports were completed transactions while 195 were attempted transactions, valued at TTD $1,586,346,802 and $350,864,255 respectively. However, 16 STRs/SARs contained both completed and attempted transactions. He further stated that “this represented a 24 percent decrease in completed transactions and a 68 percent decrease in attempted transactions when compared to the previous reporting period.”

Minister Imbert also highlighted that there was an increase in requests from foreign law enforcement agencies and FIUs with the local FIU for cooperation on these matters. More specifically, the requests were related to 85 subjects in comparison to 26 for the comparative period in 2021.  Four (4) other requests sought intelligence on 34 subjects. Requests from foreign authorities originated mainly originated in the Caribbean, the Middle East and Europe. Similarly, the FIUTT sent 23 requests about 45 subjects to foreign authorities for financial intelligence and information to foreign authorities mainly in the Caribbean, the Americas and Asia. The requests sent included 11 cases of suspected fraud and five (5) cases of drug trafficking.

Additionally, the FIUTT disseminated 12 spontaneous disclosures to foreign FIUs and law enforcement agencies. Minister Imbert said, “the spontaneous dissemination of intelligence was linked to the suspected criminal conduct related to fraud and money laundering, accounting for 83 per cent and 17 percent of the total number of spontaneous intelligence reports disseminated, respectively.” He also noted that the FIUTT has 36 Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with foreign FIUs, with the most recent being with the superintendency of banks in Guatemala in 2022.

The Minister indicated that the FIUTT reported higher levels of compliance with anti-money laundering, counter terrorism financing and counter proliferation financing. However, based on Quarterly Property Terrorist Reports (QTRs) which continued to be implemented during its reporting period, he added that “there is a need for improved compliance by the credit union sector.” There were 457 new entities were registered with the FIUTT, with the highest number of new registrants coming from the real estate and attorney-at-law sectors.

Minister Imbert said that the FIU will improve its internal operations and “place priority on matters relating to increasing the number of intelligence products to a wider section of stakeholders.”

The Government of Guyana conducted a Civil Asset Recovery workshop on July 19^th and 20^th, 2022 at the Guyana Marriott Hotel in Kingston. The workshop was an initiative of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) Anti-Crime Program. The Government of Guyana also collaborated with the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the National Centre for State Courts (NCSC) for the workshop. The United States Ambassador to Guyana, Ms. Sarah-Ann Lynch, noted that the workshop aimed to “forge and strengthen partnerships, share best practices, and strengthen our response to serious, transnational and financial crimes”. The Ambassador went on to say that the program adopted a regional approach to tackling narcotics, trafficking, and other forms of serious organized crimes through asset recovery and robust anti-money laundering (AML) measures.

There were multiple agencies represented at the workshop. These included the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, Criminal Investigation Department and Special Organized Crime Unit, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Attorney General’s Chambers, the Guyana Revenue Authority as well as agencies that manage Guyana’s petroleum reserves. Expert speakers from across the Caribbean, Canada, and the United Kingdom facilitated the workshop.

Ambassador Lynch noted that asset forfeiture is an essential tool in the country’s efforts to combat financial crimes as it removes the profit from crime and acts as a deterrent to future crimes. She further stated that while Guyana has various laws regarding asset recovery, “there is a need to build capacity on how to effectively implement and use these laws. We come together to enhance our knowledge of the law and share regional and international best practices.  This will build expertise in conviction-based and non-conviction-based asset recovery in Guyana”. Ambassador Lynch expressed hope that the workshop will encourage “a shared sense of purpose, a vested interest in asset recovery, and an understanding of how to use the tools available to successfully prosecute financial crimes”.

At the opening ceremony, the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, the Honourable Mohabir Anil Nandlall SC, remarked that the objectives of the workshop were to increase knowledge and build confidence in civil asset recovery through legislative overview, practical case identification exercises, cross-agency team building, case studies and interactive table-top exercises. He emphasised that it is important for State agencies in Guyana to constantly enhance their capacity to punish and deter criminal activity by depriving criminals of property used in or acquired through criminal activities. Therefore, it is critical for law enforcement agencies to be cognizant of the powers contained in legislation as well as the challenges in investigating and prosecuting assets recovery cases.

The Bahamas was removed from the European Commission’s List of Third-country Jurisdictions which have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT Regimes (AML Blacklist). This decision was finalized on January 7^th, 2022, after The Bahamas was assessed under the European Commission’s revised methodology for identifying high-risk third countries in the last quarter of 2021.

 The FATF de-listed The Bahamas from the list of Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring in December 2020 after the country addressed the strategic deficiencies identified by the FATF. However, in April 2021, the European Commission identified deficiencies that the jurisdiction needed to address to meet the Commission’s required standards. According to a release by the Council of the European Union on January 10^th, 2022, “The Bahamas has implemented measures which are sufficiently comprehensive and that meet the necessary requirements to consider that strategic deficiencies identified under article 9 of the Directive (EU) 2015/849 have been removed”. The measures taken by The Bahamas have strengthened its AML/CFT framework and focused on the transparency of its beneficial ownership regime. The European Commission stated that it will continue to work in collaboration with the FATF and CFATF to monitor the development of The Bahamas’ AML/CFT regime.

In addition to The Bahamas, The European Commission concluded that Botswana, Ghana, Iraq and Mauritius no longer have strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regime. In its Official Journal on February 21^st, 2022, the EU noted that these countries have “strengthened the effectiveness of their AML/CFT regimes and addressed related technical deficiencies to meet the commitments in their action plans regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified as well as the Commission’s additional benchmarks or concerns”.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) adopted amendments to Recommendation 24 and its Interpretive Note on March 4^th, 2022. These changes will require countries to prevent the misuse of legal persons for money laundering (ML) or terrorist financing (TF) and to ensure that there is adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on the beneficial ownership (BO) and control of legal persons.

The FATF stated that the amendments were necessary as legal persons were significantly misused for ML, TF, and for proliferation financing (PF) in several jurisdictions. Generally, Mutual Evaluations by the FATF have indicated that there are insufficient levels of effectiveness in combating the misuse of legal persons for ML and TF purposes in the global network. FATF further noted that these improved standards are a critical initial step that must be done in tandem with constructive and sustained efforts to effectively implement the new standards and respond to risks relating to the abuse of legal persons.

Recommendation 24 now requires a multi-pronged approach where a combination of different mechanisms can be utilized for the collection of BO information to ensure it is available to competent authorities (CAs) in a timely manner. Countries should require companies to obtain and hold adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on their own BO and make such information available to CAs in a timely manner. Countries should also require BO information to be held by a public authority or body functioning as BO registry or may use an alternative mechanism if such a mechanism also provides efficient access to adequate, accurate and up-to-date BO information by CAs. Furthermore, jurisdictions should apply any additional supplementary measures that are necessary to ensure the determination of BO of a company. Such measures include holding BO information obtained by regulated financial institutions and professionals or held by regulators or in stock exchanges.

The revisions to Recommendation 24 will require countries to follow a risk-based approach and consider the risks of legal persons in their countries. They must assess and address the risks posed by legal persons, both created in their countries and foreign-created legal persons which have sufficient links with their country. Moreover, the amendments specify that access to information by CAs should be timely, and information should be adequate for identifying the beneficial owner, accurate (based on verification) and up-to-date. Jurisdictions must ensure that public authorities have access to the BO information of legal persons in the course of public procurement. Finally, the changes include stronger controls to prevent the misuse of bearer shares and nominee arrangements, including prohibiting the issuance of new bearer shares and bearer share warrants, conversion or immobilisation of the existing ones, and more robust transparency requirements for nominee arrangements.

The FATF is conducting a parallel review of Recommendation 25 (beneficial ownership of legal arrangements) to ensure consistent and suitably tailored BO standards and efficient implementation. As part of a phased approach, the FATF will begin assessing jurisdictions for implementation of the revised requirements at the start of the Fifth Round of Mutual Evaluations. This would give countries adequate time to put the necessary domestic measures in place. The FATF stated that it will continue to work with the global network to provide the necessary technical assistance and training to assist countries to meet the current standards, raise awareness of the new obligations, enhance understanding of registries and alternative mechanisms, and improve effectiveness of their implementation. More information on the revision process and amendments to Recommendation 24 are available on the FATF website.