Thailand On Money-Laundering Blacklist

[webfact]

FATF

Thailand on money-laundering blacklist

The Nation

PARIS: -- The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), an international money-laundering watchdog, on Thursday added Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ghana and Tanzaniato its blacklist of nations that fail to meet international standards.

According to www.wisegeek.com, being on this list can have serious consequences, as financial transactions originating in or traveling to those countries are subject to more intense scrutiny and can make it difficult to do business internationally for those governments and their citizens.

Founded in 1989 on the initiative of the Group of 7 (G7), the FATF aims to develop policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the headquarters of the OECD in Paris.

The body can make recommendations to any of the 36 countries that have signed a membership charter, as well as other nations, but it has no power to carry out sanctions.

A Reuters report on Feb 17 quotes executive secretary, Rick McDonell, told journalists, as saying that FATF has found that those five countries were flaunting recommendations made to them toward fighting money-laundering and financing terrorism.

In this round, no countries were taken off the blacklist, but Honduras and Paraguay were removed from an intermediary "gray-list" of countries found to be falling behind on international standards despite having committed to them.

"We are looking exclusively at the implementation of the standards," McDonell told journalists at a FATF meeting in Paris. "Countries that we look at wind up on the list because they have not implemented them."

The FATF blacklist now includes 17 countries. Aside from the five new ones, they are: Bolivia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Sao Tome and Principe, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkey.

The gray-list includes 22 countries: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Sudan, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

-- The Nation 2012-02-17

[WyattEarp]

Why am I not surprised, seeing the amount of property being bought at inflated prices and left empty.

[Oberkommando]

Thailand, Hub of money laundry.

[bigbamboo]

Why am I not surprised, seeing the amount of property being bought at inflated prices and left empty.

And why else would anyone buy an overpriced, imported car?

[supaprik]

I wonder how the powers that be will respond to this....Probably more of same like We in Thailand do not need to implement anything in the West as it may well corrupt our society!

[AngryParent]

I wonder how the powers that be will respond to this....Probably more of same like We in Thailand do not need to implement anything in the West as it may well corrupt our society!

Time for the west to ban everything from Thailand as it will corrupt the inocent and cultural rich West! YES!

[bobl]

I wonder how the powers that be will respond to this....Probably more of same like We in Thailand do not need to implement anything in the West as it may well corrupt our society!

Ah, yes - because stuff couldn't possibly be abused if they force Thailand and others to bow to their controls.

Try looking up Enron, Lehmans, Northern Rock, Bear Sterns, Black Monday, Black Wednesday, Turkey, Greece, Iceland, Argentina.

Isn't it great how since 9/11 they've managed to warp perception such that nobody even blinks any more when they see "money laundering" and "terrorism" in the same sentence...

[AngryParent]

Does this mean that I will get more bang for my FX i.e. the Baht will get weaker?

[laurentbkk]

thats a sad news for Thailand , lets hope this government will act in a serious way . ( yeah I know I can dream on this) But knowing the country I already hear the comments ... There are no terrorism in Thailand , no money laundering , no prostitution , no corruption ( did I forget anything ?)

[Asianrider]

thats a sad news for Thailand , lets hope this government will act in a serious way . ( yeah I know I can dream on this) But knowing the country I already hear the comments ... There are no terrorism in Thailand , no money laundering , no prostitution , no corruption ( did I forget anything ?)

spot on with all these "no's"

[PingManDan]

Is this really any shock to anybody reading this? I would say Thailand is the grease on the main hub to launder money, there are huge big bucks here in Thailand.

[nurgut73]

Another chance of creating a hub: Thailand, the SAE hub for money laundering!

[Darbar]

thats a sad news for Thailand , lets hope this government will act in a serious way . ( yeah I know I can dream on this) But knowing the country I already hear the comments ... There are no terrorism in Thailand , no money laundering , no prostitution , no corruption ( did I forget anything ?)

You're kidding right? The government acting seriously... thats funny

[JurgenG]

More b.s. from the Nation.

For those interested, here is the link to the FATF last report http://www.fatf-gafi.org/document/18/0,3746,en_32250379_32236992_49694738_1_1_1_1,00.html

I post it in full, I believe it's a much better starting point for a debate. I don't think the FATF will mind but the mods are of course free to edit if they disagree.

[JurgenG]

FATF Public Statement - 16 February 2012

Paris, 16 February 2012 -

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the global standard setting body for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) . In order to protect the international financial system from money laundering and financing of terrorism (ML/FT) risks and to encourage greater compliance with the AML/CFT standards, the FATF identified jurisdictions that have strategic deficiencies and works with them to address those deficiencies that pose a risk to the international financial system.

Thailand

Despite Thailand’s high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies, Thailand has not made sufficient progress in implementing its action plan, and certain strategic AML/CFT deficiencies remain, although Thailand has faced external difficulties from 2009 to 2011 which significantly impacted the legislative process for the necessary laws and regulations. Thailand has taken steps towards improving its AML/CFT regime, including by substantially completing an AML/CFT risk assessment for its financial sector. Thailand should work on implementing its action plan to address the remaining deficiencies, including by: (1) adequately criminalising terrorist financing (Special Recommendation II); (2) establishing and implementing adequate procedures to identify and freeze terrorist assets (Special Recommendation III); and (3) further strengthening AML/CFT supervision (Recommendation 23). The FATF encourages Thailand to address its remaining deficiencies and continue the process of implementing its action plan.

http://www.fatf-gafi...1_1_1_1,00.html

Edited February 17, 2012 by JurgenG

[unanimosity]

Why am I not surprised, seeing the amount of property being bought at inflated prices and left empty.

Property purchase has historically been used, typically by proxy, for placing a large cash deposit with a 15-20% cancellation fee, then canceling and writing off the fee as a cost of cleaning the loot, with the fee being shared by the property owner and proxy.

[Misterwhisper]

thats a sad news for Thailand , lets hope this government will act in a serious way . ( yeah I know I can dream on this) But knowing the country I already hear the comments ... There are no terrorism in Thailand , no money laundering , no prostitution , no corruption ( did I forget anything ?)

...no hypocrisy, no ineptitude, no racism, no double standards, no cronyism, no social disparagies, no anal retentiveness, no holier-than-thou attitudes, no taxi mafia, no jet ski scams, no gem scams, no red-tape bureaucracy (did I forget anything?).

Edited February 17, 2012 by Misterwhisper

[manarak]

If this has any incidence on Western Union fund reception, you can be sure there will be swift action.

[JurgenG]

The so called "black list" includes only two countries Iran and North Korea..

The anti drug task force should seriously consider investigating the Nation employees because whatever there are on, it's really strong stuff !

Edited February 17, 2012 by JurgenG

[whybother]

More b.s. from the Nation.

For those interested, here is the link to the FATF last report http://www.fatf-gafi...1_1_1_1,00.html

I post it in full, I believe it's a much better starting point for a debate. I don't think the FATF will mind but the mods are of course free to edit if they disagree.

Which part is BS?

btw, here's wisegeek's description: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-financial-action-task-force-on-money-laundering.htm

[SlumdogMillionaire]

thats a sad news for Thailand , lets hope this government will act in a serious way . ( yeah I know I can dream on this) But knowing the country I already hear the comments ... There are no terrorism in Thailand , no money laundering , no prostitution , no corruption ( did I forget anything ?)

No fake goods!

[whybother]

The so called "black list" includes only two countries Iran and North Korea..

The anti drug task force should seriously consider investigating the Nation employees because whatever there are on, it's really strong stuff !

FATF has two lists. It doesn't name either of them a "black list". The Nation seems to refer to the second list of nations as the "black list".

[billybobthedog]

The money laundering laws that are already in place by the UK/US are really only lip service anyway as far as the average person is concerned (They require a statement of what the money is for if you transfer over 10K USD out of the country)

Basically, you transfer the cash from say UK to Thailand, you go to the bank, the money is on hold - the bank telephones the head office in Bangkok, they ask you what the money is for, as long as you say "new car" and not make the mistake of saying "Ya Ba" the money is released there and then - waste of time really. Just bureacracy and arse covering. (The UK/US is probably paying a load of civil servants to file pages of documents from the banks stating "new car".

Edited February 17, 2012 by billybobthedog

[ratcatcher]

thats a sad news for Thailand , lets hope this government will act in a serious way . ( yeah I know I can dream on this) But knowing the country I already hear the comments ... There are no terrorism in Thailand , no money laundering , no prostitution , no corruption ( did I forget anything ?)

No fake goods!

No good fakes too.

[Reasonableman]

Really, who gives a "flying FATF..."?

[pointoffew]

The headline and story are not correct. Thailand is NOT on the blacklist, only Iran and North Korea are, but on another list, known as the grey list.

[CBinParadise]

The FATF, along with FinCen and OECD and friends have gone batshit crazy, using the overblown threats of terrorism and money laundering to hoover up immense amounts of info on perfectly honest individuals --- while the banks and regulatory agencies get away with breathtaking felonies.  Witness MF Global vs JP Morgan and Madoff v the SEC.  How was it possible that M. Ghadaffi passed the KYC tests, and got his billions into Goldman, Pictet, and other banks worldwide?

The result of this regulatory putresence is that honest little guys are greatly tropubled (try setting up a trust for your kids in Singapore) to no effect.  Also, the jerks at FATF etc keep demanding more info, but they have zero ability to protect the privacy of what they already have.  The Inland Revenue or IRS or BIR etc, whichever applies, offer  by far the largest of all common attack surfaces to identity thieves.  Security experts say there are only two kinds of organizations in the world: those that know they've already been penetrated, and those that don't know yet.  Think about that then reflect on the fact that your friendly neighborhood tax authority knows more about you than your family does.

[janverbeem]

I wonder how the powers that be will respond to this....Probably more of same like We in Thailand do not need to implement anything in the West as it may well corrupt our society!

What would you think about something in the line of The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), is not my father?

[julemanden]

Why am I not surprised, seeing the amount of property being bought at inflated prices and left empty.

And why else would anyone buy an overpriced, imported car?

Cause they need a ride ?

[frankiebaby]

How do you get those little faces (yellow heads) on your posts?