Gold transactions to soon come under money laundering laws

Guyana has embarked on a five year strategy to review its Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Laws, with a view to ensuring compliance with all international standardsrequirements.

To this end, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC has signaled that the sale of the precious mineral gold, to the Guyana Board, will sooncomeundertheambitof the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as a reporting entity

The FIU was first established in 2004 under the

M o n e y L a u n d e r i n g Prevention Act of 2000, whichwassincerepealedand replaced by the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Act in 2009 with its core functions including requesting, receiving, analyzing, and disseminating information on suspicious transaction reportsandotherinformation relatingtomoneylaundering, terrorist financing, or the proceedsofcrime.

Listed among the strategic objectives of the government's National Policy and Strategy, to strengthen the anti-money laundering framework, is the inclusionoftheGuyanaGold Board which is required to buy all gold produced in Guyana as a Reporting Entity

Gold smuggling in Guyana has over the years been a source of concern for the authorities with hundreds of pounds of the precious metal found to have been illegally transported out of thecountryovertime.

In 2016, the country made international headlines when a vessel was found in Curacao with some 476 pounds of gold that had allegedly been smuggled fromGuyana.

Additionally, there are numerous reports of gold being smuggled across Guyana'sporousbordersinto neighbouring Suriname, Brazil and even further afield.

The Guyana Gold Board is the regulator and AML/CFT supervisor for 'Dealers in Precious Metals' and as such, under the new framework, government is also looking to revise theTax Act and mining laws and regulations to bring greater clarity and practicality to the licensing procedures and regulation of gold and diamonddealers.

Additionally, the Gold

Gold transactions to soon come under money laundering laws

BoardAct is expected to also be amended, to provide for first time offenders to be penalized.

Importantly, the National Policy and Strategy also proposestorevisetheTaxAct and Mining Laws and regulations to bring greater clarity and practicality to the licensing procedures and regulation of gold and diamonddealers.

Other proposed changes to Guyana's AML/CFT regime include drafting asset sharing legislation to govern the management of seized, confiscated and forfeited assets in compliance with internationalstandards.

Taking into account evolving technology, the administration will also be drafting legislation for the regulation andsupervision of Virtual Assets and that Virtual AssetsService Providers (VASPs) will be developed.

This, to ensure the proper framework is in place tomanage and mitigate the Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing as well as the Proliferation of Financingof weapons of mass destruction risks, associated with the new technologies, inkeeping with the international Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) standards.

Asset recovery and forfeiture is also expected to feature prominently in the new regime, with the new policy codifying its support of asset recovery provisions in theAML/CFT Act, and to develop or strengthen legislationwhich also provide for civil confiscation andcivil forfeiture, as an additional measure within Guyana's existing sanctions regime.

Additionally,aspartofits establishing anational c o u n t e r - t e r r o r i s m department withexplicit counter-terrorism portfolio, adequatehuman, financial and other resources andongoing specialized trainingforemployees.

The newly adopted National Policy and Strategy for Combating Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing, and the Financing of Proliferation' of weapons of mass destruction, was compiledhavingassessedthe risks to the country over the years, seeking to ascertain the threats of money laundering, terrorist financing and the financing of proliferation of weapons ofmassdestruction.

Having assessed these risks by conducting two National Risk Assessments (NRAs), Cabinet recently adopted the comprehensive 'NationalPolicy.'

According to the document, the Policy and Strategy, is a five-year plan that aims to further enhance and improve Guyana's AML/CFT/PF regime by addressing the risks identified in second NRA Report and implement the strategy in conjunction with Guyana's Risk Based Action Plan.

Guyana is a member of FATF under which falls the Caribbean Financial Action Taskforce (CFATF) of which the country is a member, and as such, would have to subscribe to set criteria prescribedbytheinstitutions.

With this in mind, government said its new policy seeks to ensure that Guyana achieves a high level of compliance with the FATF Standards on combating ML, TF and PF; “and to effectively meet the key objectives of Guyana's AML/CFT system in practice.”

Tothisend,theNational (Continued on page 24)