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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 42 - Wednesday May 07, 2003 |
Financial Crimes Advisory Withdrawn Thomson Fontaine
Director James Sloan of the United States Department of the Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) has withdrawn an advisory against Dominica in which financial institutions in the US were warned against conducting business with suspicious offshore banks operating out of Dominica.
Advisory 16 as it was known at the time was issued by FinCen following the blacklisting of Dominica by the Financial Action Task Force of the Organization of Economic Development (OECD). Dominica along with several Caribbean Islands was accused of providing safe haven for money launderers under relaxed offshore banking laws.
In withdrawing its advisory, Sloan noted that �since the issuance of Advisory 16, Dominica has enacted significant reforms to its counter-money laundering system, addressing the points noted in advisory 16, and has taken concrete steps to bring these reform into effect�.
He went on �Because of the enactment of new laws and the beginning of effective implementation, enhanced scrutiny with respect to transactions involving Dominica, as called for in Advisory 16, is no longer necessary. Dominica now has, in place, a counter-money laundering system that generally meets international standards, as reflected in the October 11, 2002 decision of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering to remove Dominica from its list of countries that are non-cooperative in the fight against money laundering.
Over the past several months, Dominica has moved aggressively to enact legislation and put other measures in place to combat money laundering. A special financial monitoring group was set up within the Ministry of Finance, headed by Ronald Lander to actively pursue cases of money laundering. Several offshore banks have been closed including the Caribbean Bank of Commerce. More recently, Bank Caraibe was put into receivership following the arrest of one of its directors in the United States on money laundering charges.
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