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Anti-Money Laundering…Government establishes Special Organized Crime Unit after CFATF recommendations – Luncheon
Cabinet on Tuesday approved the creation and the operationalization of a Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU). The unit is dedicated to investigating suspected financial transactions suggestive of money laundering and financing of terrorism.
The unit will be under the Commissioner of Police and will have a close relationship to the Finance Intelligence Unit (FIU), said Head of Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon at his weekly press conference at Office of the President.
“SOCU is intended to be Guyana’s response to its treaty obligations to investigate suspicious financial transactions that are suggestive of money laundering.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon.
“SOCU’s creation is in response to non parliamentary recommendations from Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF),” said Luncheon.
The Head of the Presidential Secretariat said that approval was given by Cabinet to recruit investigators who would make up the “compliment of SOCU”.
The investigators, he said, would be taken from the joint services and the security sector. He anticipates that SOCU would be “up and running” by the end of 2013.
According to Dr Luncheon in order to properly facilitate the recommendations of CFATF as it pertains to suspected financial transitions, support is needed from “bilateral and multilateral partners”, who he said, have been approached and many of which have shown interest in supporting SOCU in addressing Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. Dr. Luncheon did say that the intention is to have a “fairly professional and competent capacity in Guyana” to investigate such offences as soon as possible.
“My ideal position that has been communicated to our bilateral and multilateral associates is that a long term engagement of specifically trained, skilled investigators to act as a counterpart to the Guyanese head of SOCU.
“I estimate a minimum of three years, a period of time over which inline investigations will be conducted. There will be the external investigator, who would also be formally tasked with training of our local investigators. “
Dr. Luncheon said that the FIU which is the statutory body monitoring the financial sector, will in its mandate obtain information about suspicious financial transactions, compile the information and make it available to the SOCU.
“SOCU, armed with the information, will then conduct investigations to establish whether these transactions are indeed money laundering transactions or financing terrorism transactions”.
Once an offence has been uncovered the necessary steps would be taken to have offenders prosecuted.
According to Dr. Luncheon the procedure before the advent of SOCU was that the FIU would provide the necessary information that it received pertaining to illegalities of money laundering to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).
Now that the SOCU will be in place that information will be directed to it Dr. Luncheon mentioned.
According to Dr. Luncheon, “We also are looking at support to access technology, investigations are not what they used to be many years ago.
“It is cutting edge technology that is applicable to the investigations not only of money laundering and financing of terrorism’s in general.”
He said that this can be achieved with the aid of a foreign skilled investigator in money laundering who would incorporate the necessary technical skills to local personnel to build “national Capacity”.
“So all of these are aspects of what we would be seeking in our engagements with our bilateral and multilateral partners but the big thing is technical assistance.”
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