U.S. urges Guyana to go after assets of money launderers

Jul 20, 2022 News

---

– launches two-day workshop on asset recovery

Kaieteur News – When it comes to tackling transnational, financial crimes and assets derived from criminal activities Guyana is in grave need of capacity building.

That need was underscored at the opening ceremony of a two-day Civil Asset Recovery workshop held at the Guyana Marriott Hotel in Kingston. The workshop is an initiative under the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) Anti-Crime Program, which Guyana has been a signatory since 2010. The workshop came also as a result of a partnership with the United States, Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). The PPP/C Government back in 2020 disbanded the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) saying that the body was not fulfilling its purpose. However, almost two years after, the administration has not taken any steps to put in place a replacement agency. Observers believe this US-led workshop is aimed at pushing the government back into the direction of having a state asset recovery body.

$200B stolen

Back in 2018 the then SARA had said that it was working tirelessly with the Ministry of Legal Affairs to retrieve over $200B in state assets lost through corruption between 2010 to 2014. SARA Chief Executive Officer at the time, Aubrey Heath-Retemyer had said: “We have been losing between $28B and $35B every year between 2010 and 2014 by procurement fraud, in illicit capital flights-$90 billion and in the underground economy (drugs) – about $100 billion. Corruption allows people to steal and if we reduce it much of the friction around election time will stop because everybody will get their fair share of the pie.”

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann Lynch told the gathering that through the programme the United States aims to help strengthen the capacity of the justice sector to respond effectively to criminal activity and ensure citizen security.  According to Lynch, the programme takes a regional approach to tackle narcotics, trafficking, and other forms of serious organised crimes through asset recovery and robust anti-money laundering measures.

She explained: “The aim of criminals, especially of complex, organized crime networks, is the pursuit of financial profit.” To this end, Lynch cited the 2017 report released by Global Financial Integrity, the global business of transnational crime is valued at an around $2 trillion USD annually.

“These staggering figures highlight the scale of the economic cost of crime, but we know that the social cost is equally significant. The social and economic cost of crime is magnified further in smaller countries like Guyana.” Lynch continued that “by depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains and ensuring that in the long run ‘crime doesn’t pay’, we can disrupt their criminal activities.”  To do so effectively, the US ambassador stressed “we must also adapt, deploy our resources carefully, and work together on investigations and prosecutions… Forfeiture takes the profit out of crime.  It also serves as a deterrent to future crimes, allowing the Government to deprive wrongdoers of the tools of their trade.”

“We can formulate the most effective response to financial crimes by sharing challenges and best practices, exchanging new techniques and ideas, and building partnerships and networks,” she added.

The US diplomat noted that Guyana has a mélange of legislation that provides for asset recovery, but there is a need to build capacity on how to effectively implement and use these laws. “The purpose of this workshop is to do just that.  We come together to enhance our knowledge of the law and share regional and international best practices.   This will build expertise in conviction-based and non-conviction-based asset recovery in Guyana. We hope that participants will leave the workshop with a shared sense of purpose, a vested interest in asset recovery, and an understanding of how to use the tools available to successfully prosecute financial crimes,” she surmised.

Facilitators of the training, the INL/NCSC Regional Financial Crimes Team have been working to support regional partners, from law enforcement to the judiciary, in the area of financial crimes and asset recovery, since 2012.  Their assistance spans from legislative drafting, legal texts and guides, training and institution-building to mentoring live cases.

Those present at the opening ceremony on Tuesday included law enforcement agents representing the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, Criminal Investigation Department and Special Organized Crime Unit, and Prosecutors representing the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and Attorney General’s Chambers.

For his part, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall SC, noted in  Guyana, it is crucial that State agencies continually build capacity to further efforts to punish and deter criminal activity by depriving criminals of property used in or acquired through unlawful conduct. To do so, he said, it is vital that law enforcement agents understand the powers contained in the legislation and the challenges in investigating and prosecuting assets recovery cases.

The focus of the two -day workshop, the Attorney General said will be for facilitators to aim to increase knowledge and build confidence in civil asset recovery through legislative overview; practical case identification exercises; cross-agency team-building; case studies and interactive table-top exercises.

---

---