The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), is the bellwether for the fight against global money laundering and terrorist financing. Its leading role is recognized by U.S. lawmakers in the Bank Secrecy Act at 31 U.S.C. §5311, which states:
“FATF’s Forty Recommendations on Money Laundering and the … Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing are the recognized global standards for fighting money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF has engaged in an assessment process for jurisdictions based on their compliance with these standards.“
By following the FATF’s Forty Recommendations and Special Recommendations, governmental entities try to detect assets hidden by money launderers, identity thieves and other financial fraudsters. Consistent with these Recommendations, the FATF just made its October 30th statement calling for greater transparency. A higher degree of transparency could help uncover assets fraudulently concealed in financial institutions across the globe.
The FATF explained in its statement, that enhanced transparency was needed at financial institutions regarding customer due diligence; beneficial ownership; legal persons / legal arrangements (i.e. nominees); secrecy laws and cross-border exchange of information.
A few “Asset Search Blog” articles exploring these sort of topics are:
- “Concealing Assets By Circumventing Customer Identification Rules“
- “Beneficial Owners Concealing Their Foreign Bank Accounts“
- “Nominees & Hidden Assets“
- “Financial Discovery & Foreign Bank Secrecy Laws“
- “Asset Search News Roundup: September 23, 2009“
Copyright 2009 Fred L. Abrams