FIU protects Seychelles’ reputation
30.07.2009
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is now investigating the laundering of money from illegal activities as wideranging as drug trafficking, fraud and nuclear weapons technology proliferation as it fights to protect Seychelles’ international reputation.
Operating under the recently passed Proceeds of Crime Act and the 2008 amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the FIU follows the financial trail left by criminals seeking to launder money raised through criminal activities.
While most cases pursued by the unit target money obtained by local drug traffickers, other targets include international criminals and criminal organisations involved in theft and fraud and, in one instance, nuclear weapons technology proliferation.
Under the Act, the FIU works to identify assets suspected of coming from the proceeds of crime. Once successfully identified, these can be frozen under the law to enable the unit to complete its investigations and bring the case before the courts.
In Seychelles, there are allegations that money from both domestic and international crime is being invested in land in particular, as well as in other properties and businesses. In other instances, it is also alleged that criminal money from overseas is simply being “hidden” in Seychelles bank accounts or transferred through here in an attempt to disguise its true nature.
By preventing local drug traffickers from enjoying the proceeds of their illegal activities and by preventing international criminals from exploiting Seychelles as a financial jurisdiction through which to launder their funds, the FIU is helping to improve the country’s reputation among international bodies and legitimate international investors.
With the active support of the local banking sector and the Seychelles International Business Authority, the unit is well positioned to provide serious deterrence to international criminals seeking to move funds through Seychelles, while at the same time encouraging investment by legitimate businesses, whose primary concern is that in the best interests of their reputation they only invest in well-regulated, clean jurisdictions.
Although new here, the practice of investigating criminal assets is well-established internationally, and Seychelles can learn from international experience. To successfully hide the proceeds of crime, criminals need the cooperation of a small minority of legal and financial professionals who, for a price, are prepared to help in setting up companies, bank accounts or property transfers to disguise the true nature of criminally-derived money.
The founding of an agency such as the FIU represents a threat to a nexus of criminality linking international criminals with corrupt practices.
International experience has shown that those linked to such criminality will attempt to arouse a concerted negative public response, both through the media and attempts to lobby powerful individuals, in reaction to the threat to their illicit interests.
As well as working alongside other law enforcement agencies such as the police, the Seychelles Revenue Commission and the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA), the FIU also relies on links established with similar organisations worldwide, enabling it to identify criminally obtained assets from both local and international activities.
The unit’s work in combating drug crime has often been required when there is insufficient evidence for the NDEA to make a criminal prosecution.
If substantial assets are discovered, and the suspect is unable to adequately account for how they have been acquired, the FIU is then able to build a case against those assets.
Assets finally seized by the courts can then be handed over to a receiver to be returned to the people of Seychelles via the exchequer, thereby contributing to the country’s development instead of the enrichment of criminals.