Koker, Louis de --- "Applying Anti-money Laundering Laws to Fight Corruption" [2011] ELECD 1005; in Graycar, Adam; Smith, G. Russell (eds), "Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Handbook of Global Research and Practice in Corruption

Editor(s): Graycar, Adam; Smith, G. Russell

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849805018

Section: Chapter 18

Section Title: Applying Anti-money Laundering Laws to Fight Corruption

Author(s): Koker, Louis de

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

18 Applying anti-money laundering laws to
fight corruption
Louis de Koker


INTRODUCTION

In July 1989 the G7 meeting in Paris, joined by the President of the
Commission of European Communities, expressed concern about the
devastating proportions of the drug problem and urged all countries to
support the fight against drug trafficking and the laundering of its pro-
ceeds. To assist in that regard, they convened a financial action task force.
This task force was mandated to (1) assess the results of co-operation
already undertaken in order to prevent the abuse of the banking system
and other financial institutions for money laundering and (2) to consider
additional preventive efforts in this field, including adapting legal and reg-
ulatory systems to enhance multilateral judicial assistance (G7, 1989, par.
52­53). The task team's report (Financial Action Task Force, 1990) con-
tained 40 recommendations on preventive steps and these were endorsed
by the G7 meeting in Houston in July 1990 as part of its narcotics strategy.
The participants in that meeting also committed their countries to a full
implementation of all the recommendations without delay and invited
other countries to do the same (G7, 1990, p. 78; Pieth, 1999, p. 531; Shams,
2001, pp. 111­112; Gilmore, 2004, pp. 89­98).
Two decades later this task force (generally known as the Financial
Action Task Force or FATF) and its Forty Recommendations, since
supplemented by Special Recommendations on Terrorist Financing, lie
at the core of an international framework that combats the ...