From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Feb 20 2010 - 06:36:57 EST
Ethiopia on money laundering list with Iran
February 20, 2010
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ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The international body fighting money laundering and
terrorist financing on Thursday blacklisted Iran, Angola, North Korea,
Ecuador and Ethiopia as posing risks to the international financial system.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), comprising governments and regional
organizations named the countries after a meeting in The United Arab
Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi.
Publication of the blacklist follows promises by the Group of 20 major
economies last year to crack down on the problem, calling on the FATF to
identify "uncooperative jurisdictions".
Iran has been named as a jurisdiction where risks emanate due to the ongoing
and substantial money laundering and terrorist financing, the FATF said in a
statement, urging member countries to apply counter measures against Iran to
protect the international financial system.
"The FATF remains particularly concerned about Iran's failure to address the
risk of terrorist financing and the serious threat this poses to the
integrity of the international financial system," the statement said.
Angola, the People's Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ecuador and
Ethiopia have been named as jurisdictions that have not committed to the
FATFs action plan and the international anti-money laundering/countering
terrorist financing standards.
Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Sao Tome & Principe are jurisdictions that
continue to have anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing
deficiencies that remain to be addressed, the statement said.
Global Witness, an international NGO welcomed the FATF move of coming out
with such a list but said that majority of countries on the list are poor
countries and not OECD members.
"There are also problems in the world's key financial centres where those
systems allow exposed politicians, terrorists, nuclear proliferators and
organised criminals to access funds they need," Anthea Lawson, a campaigner
for Global Witness told Reuters by phone.
The latest list is based on evaluations by FATF on whether a country has
laws in place. "What is not measured is whether these laws are enforced and
if that is done, many more countries would be on the blacklist," she said,
citing the example of the USA which is not showing signs of what it should
do.
(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Ron Askew)
Copyright C 2008 Reuters
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