Cashing In.INTERNATIONAL LAW OFFICERS ON THE TRAIL OF MONEY launderers face new setbacks a proliferation of casinos in Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. and the spread of Internet gambling, especially in the Caribbean. Both promise easy outlets for drug traffickers and others who launder Launder To move illegally acquired cash through financial systems so that it appears to be legally acquired. an estimated US$600 billion in criminal funds annually. The debate heated up recently when a task force for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), (in French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques; OCDE) is an international organisation of thirty countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market released a list of 15 countries--including Panama and several Caribbean nations--it says tolerates money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. . "They are being given the opportunity over the next 12 months to determine whether or not they wish to work with the OECD OECD: see Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. to eliminate harmful features of their regime." OECD statement threatening trade sanctions Trade sanctions are trade penalties imposed by one or more countries on one or more other countries. Typically the sanctions take the form of import tariffs (duties), licensing schemes or other administrative hurdles. . "Small as we are, we are a sovereign nation and we're not going to permit some official sitting in Washington or Paris or London to tell us how we'll provide economic opportunities for our people." Dwyer Astaphan, minister of Tourism, International Telecommunications, Commerce and Consumer Affairs for St. Kitts & Nevis. "It's possible to decrease money laundering. But it's impossible to stop it." Gary Peters, U.S. Department of Treasury. "We make no apologies." Gary Collins, Antigua Gaming Committee. "Gambling is an activity where the only product that changes hands is money. And it's done with very little paper trail." Alonzo Butler, Bahamas Gaming Board. "A casino can be a huge washing machine designed only for the laundering of money." Pierre Lapaque, deputy director of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. SOURCE: LATIN TRADE |
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