Russia perpetrator and victim at money-laundering conference SAINT PETERSBURG, June 3 (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin opens an international conference on money-laundering Tuesday aiming to crack down on a global industry in which Russia is both a leading player and principal casualty. Officials from more than 20 countries are attending the two-day gathering in Saint Petersburg organised jointly by the Russian government and the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, along with representatives of Interpol, the 28-member Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. As a prominent member of the FATF's "black list" of nations whose legislation in the sphere of money-laundering does not meet international standards, Russia stands in the dock both as a perpetrator and a victim. Illegal financial activities, many involving the flight of capital to be laundered abroad, were officially estimated at equivalent to 40 percent of Russia's gross national product in 2000, or more than 100 billion dollars. More than 25 billion dollars are believed to have been sent abroad last year, some resulting from criminal activities but much of it motivated by tax evasion. The Saint Petersburg conference commencing Tuesday will attempt to make a more precise assessment of the impact of money-laundering on economic activity than hitherto available, but few doubt that it is one of the most debilitating factors hindering the development of the Russian economy. Russia ratified the 1990 international convention on money-laundering last April, having signed it as late as 1999, and the country's first anti-money laundering bill was signed into law by Putin only last Tuesday. Experts say stringent legislation on money laundering is necessary if the international convention is to have any effect on Russian territory. Apart from the loss of potential investment, capital flight and criminal activities have seriously damaged Russia's reputation as a serious business prospect for entrepreneurs. A series of financial scandals in the late 1990s involving the alleged money-laundering by Russians of billions of dollars through the Bank of New York implicated several leading figures, and this year a prominent former Kremlin aide, Pavel Borodin, was charged with the same offence by Swiss prosecutors. Officials in Moscow are hoping that the steps taken in the past few weeks will be sufficient to persuade the FATF to strike Russia off the "black list" at their meeting in Paris on June 20-22. But independent analysts were dubious. "The FATF is likely to want more than just a statement of intention," one western expert said. And Yury Korgonyuk of the Indem Foundation said the fight against money laundering could not be said to have begun "until normal, corruption-free relations are established between the state and the economic sector." However Russia is only one of many actors in an illicit industry estimated by the IMF as amounting to at least 600 billion dollars a year, or two percent of world gross domestic product, and possibly twice that amount. Offshore tax havens and states such as Israel, Lebanon, Liechtenstein and the Philippines also feature on the FATF "black list", while money-laundering is seen as a lucrative trade for unscrupulous financial institutions including some otherwise reputable banks. The June 5-6 conference will be devoted largely to examining ways of increasing international cooperation in combating money laundering and enforcing international agreements and mutual legal assistance treaties. Drawing up a list of 25 criteria for identifying offending jurisdictions last year, the FATF said it was prepared to take action against its own members if necessary, threatening for example to suspend Austria if it did not end its system of anonymous savings accounts. Miroslav Antic, http://www.antic.org/ STOP NOVOM SVETSKOM PORETKU ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrBE8.bVKZIq Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
