(Trinidad Guardian) – If the government fails to begin prosecuting people under the money laundering laws, T&T runs the risk of being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The warning was issued by former director designate of Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) David West who pleaded with parliamentarians to work together to ensure the legislation is enforced.
He was speaking at the launch of the first local Chapter of Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (Gopac) at Soongs Great Wall Restaurant in San Fernando on Saturday. West said the fourth round of FATF evaluation was in 2015 and the country was not ready because there had been no prosecutions and no convictions for money laundering. In an interview afterwards, West explained that if T&T was not compliant in enough of the standards or recommendations of the FATF it would go on the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) list. If that happens, he said T&T would be regularly evaluated and monitored. “We don’t have any convictions. We don’t have any prosecutions on money laundering and that is what they are looking at now.
“Previously, we were getting all the legislation in place and we have legislation but now it’s time to get the investigations and prosecutions going. “It is highly likely that we could be back on the ICRG list and if nothing happen in the near future we could be blacklisted.” He said the FATF would issue a bulletin saying T&T had failed to comply with certain standards and advise countries not to do business here. “It hits the man on the street,” he added.
“We don’t want a situation to happen like in Guyana, where the Caribbean FATF based in Trinidad has warned countries not to do business with that country. In Trinidad this can easily happen because the opposition may not support the legislation and we may end up in a situation like Guyana. I am imploring parliamentarians on both sides to be sensible when dealing with this legislation.”
