JAKARTA (Reuters) - A global money-laundering watchdog placed Cambodia on its watchlist on Friday because of concern the country, which has never prosecuted a money-laundering case, is vulnerable to the concealment of illegally acquired money.

 

Cambodia inclusion on a “grey list” drawn up by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) could curtail international financial, investment and trade flows to and from the Southeast Asian country.

 

The FATF is an inter-governmental organisation that underpins the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

A spokesman for Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance said he could not comment on the FATF issue and referred questions to the National Bank of Cambodia, which did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.

 

FATF president Marshall Billingslea said Cambodia had “significant deficiencies”.

“It really runs the gamut,” he told reporters, though added that Cambodia had made a “high-level political commitment” to address the problem.

The FATF listing comes as Cambodia faces the loss of preferential trade treatment from the European Union due to concerns over its human rights record.

 

Cambodia’s inclusion on the list follows an FATF “mutual evaluation report” on its policies to counter money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF) conducted in 2017.

 

The report contained several damning findings and observations, including that no money-laundering case had ever been prosecuted in Cambodia.

Cambodia’s judicial system had “high levels of corruption”, the FATF said in the report, adding:

“Cambodia has made minimal use of financial intelligence in investigating ML/TF.”

 

The Cambodian Financial Intelligence Unit did not supervise its booming casino and real estate sectors, long identified by organisations such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as highly exposed to money laundering by organised crime groups.

Cambodia had been removed from the FATF “grey list” in 2015.

 

CRITICISM

A more restricted financial environment comes as Cambodia is also facing the prospect of tougher trade conditions.

This month, the EU began a formal, 18-month process that could result in Cambodia losing its access to the EU’s “everything but arms” trade regime, which allows the world’s poor countries to sell goods, other than weapons, tariff-free into the 28-member bloc.

 

The EU warned Cambodia that it could lose the special status last year after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party won all of the seats in parliament in a general election.

 

The main opposition party was outlawed and its leader arrested before the vote.

Hun Sen’s government, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985, has also faced criticism for muzzling the media and free speech.

 

The EU is Cambodia’s largest trading partner, accounting for 45 percent of its exports in 2018. Clothing factories there employ about 700,000 workers, and garments are a large share of exports to the bloc worth some 4.9 billion euros.

 

According to the FATF, there are 12 countries on the list.

 

North Korea and Iran are listed under a tougher regime, known as the “black list”, which calls on states to take active countermeasures against them, including in the case of North Korea limiting or prohibiting financial transactions.

 

Reporting by Tom Allard, additional reporting by Prak Chan Thul in PHNOM PENH; Editing by Robert Birsel

 

Reuters

Well good news then for the Junta, Elite and  all there supporters who use the laundromats.  Won't now need to use Panama or BVI,  get all their work done just next door perhaps. ????  Mind you on another issue is that the PM won't like his big pal Hun Sen getting all the publicity when Thailand usually likes to be the hub of everything