Key Laws On Money-Laundering And Funds For Terrorism Set To Be Passed: Thailand

[webfact]

Key laws on money-laundering and funds for terrorism set to be passed

Piyanut Tumnukasetchai,

Olan Lertrattanadamrongkul

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Anti Money Laundering Office remains optimistic that it can push for the passage of two draft bills on money laundering and financial support for terrorism this year.

"One draft is already due for parliamentary deliberation and another is being vetted for some wording changes," AMLO secretary general Sihanart Prayoonrat said yesterday.

Sihanart said the draft on money laundering would be debated in Parliament soon while the bill on financial support for terrorists was going through the vetting process in order to meet the requirements of the international community.

He said the government and parliamentarians understood why the country must conform to international standards to fight money laundering and terrorism.

"The AMLO expects the two draft laws to be enacted no later than February," he said.

Once the country has enforced the laws, the AMLO will proceed to remove a blacklist enforced by Europe's Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is seen as an impediment to international financial transactions in Thailand, he said.

He said Justice Minister Pracha Promnok had informed the International Monetary Fund last week about progress to enact the two laws.

The House committee in charge of drafting the two laws had done its work and the bills were now being reviewed by the whips prior to House deliberation, Democrat MP Theerarat Samrejvanich said.

Theerarat said lawmakers were aware of the importance to prioritise the two laws, but at the same time they wanted the provisions to be fair and to not exploit or violate people's rights.

One contentious issue is which court should rule on people accused of being terrorists.

She said the coalition and opposition lawmakers had agreed on the two drafts and wanted to fine-tune certain provisions at this juncture in order to save time during the deliberation process.

Democrat MP Atavit Suwannapakdee said he understood the coalition whips were trying to schedule House deliberation on the two laws as soon as possible.

He said drafting of the two laws had complied with the FATF requirements and that several related laws pertaining to terrorism would be upgraded to ensure this compliance.

-- The Nation 2012-10-03

[noitom]

Compliance with FATF is "drafting" or actual enactment, compliance, and enforcement of laws? Boy oh boy - these Thais they sure can walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Maybe we can now expect to see more Raoul Saxena type folks being extradited and wheeled back through Suvarnhibhumi. Boy oh boy - these Thais! Round em up - the usual suspects. Those Thais are on the AML case.

[asiawatcher]

What's the point of passing laws when the courts do not uphold the law? Yongyuth, Jutaporn and Thaksin for starters.

[GentlemanJim]

What's the point of passing laws when the courts do not uphold the law? Yongyuth, Jutaporn and Thaksin for starters.

Because passing these laws will allow Thailand to get money, grants and loans from other sources that would normally be off limits. And where will all that money go.......?

[Roadman]

When i first read the lead paragraph with "and financial support for terrorism this year", I thought Pheu thai were putting forward funds to reimbursement Thaksin for his terrorism attacks on Bangkok 2010.

[Pimay1]

When i first read the lead paragraph with "and financial support for terrorism this year", I thought Pheu thai were putting forward funds to reimbursement Thaksin for his terrorism attacks on Bangkok 2010.

I know you jest but it is not all that far fetched. After all they did pay out millions of Baht to the red shirt terrorists.....uuuh sorry victims....of the peaceful burn Bangkok campaign.

[jambodave]

Read yesterdayTHREAT OF BLACKLIST LOOMS LARGE ."NO AGENCIES ARE WILLING TO SUBMIT THE NAMES OF THOSE LIKELY TO BE INVOLVED IN MONEY LAUNDERING SINCE MOST OF THEM ARE POLITICIANS".

[Arkady]

Obviously unpopular for politicians and senators whose main source of income and reason for "public" service is graft. Things will be a bit more inconvenient but that was also the case when the current set of anti-money laundering regulations came into force years ago. Before that it was very easy to make a substantial overseas remittance ostensibly to repay a loan by submitting fake loan documents without evidence that the money had ever come into the country. Also banks didn't have to report transactions over Bt 2 million. But where there's a will there's a way. They will just have to get more creative about making and receiving payments.

Due to carefully programmed deficiencies in the education system virtually the whole country believes that graft is good and will somehow benefit them, as if it were not really a zero sum game that only benefits the rich and powerful. It is not going to go away.

[h90]

What's the point of passing laws when the courts do not uphold the law? Yongyuth, Jutaporn and Thaksin for starters.

Because passing these laws will allow Thailand to get money, grants and loans from other sources that would normally be off limits. And where will all that money go.......?

And anyway if an other country wants some guy, Thailand will send him if there is a law or if there is no law.

(Victor Bout for example)

[DocN]

is it just me, or is this another gem among The Nations headlines???

[Ludacris]

I recently had a frustrating experience as a result of Thailand not being a full member of the international task-force on money laundering.

I wanted to open an account in Hong Kong, and to do so I had to show proof of my address from previous financial statements. The problem is, the financial statements have to be from a country that is a full member of that anti-money laundering organization. To get around this, I figured I could just use financial statements from my home country (which of course is a full member), but HK wouldn't even accept those just because I live in Thailand!

I had to go through an alternative process of address verification which was a lot more involved.

This example just shows how the outside world doesn't trust Thailand at all when it comes to anything financial!

[Samedeepwaterasyou]

Just go to any Thai bank, on any given day, and witness numerous deposits and withdrawals of several million THB in cash .

No questions asked .

[Dap]

I recently had a frustrating experience as a result of Thailand not being a full member of the international task-force on money laundering.

I wanted to open an account in Hong Kong, and to do so I had to show proof of my address from previous financial statements. The problem is, the financial statements have to be from a country that is a full member of that anti-money laundering organization. To get around this, I figured I could just use financial statements from my home country (which of course is a full member), but HK wouldn't even accept those just because I live in Thailand!

I had to go through an alternative process of address verification which was a lot more involved.

This example just shows how the outside world doesn't trust Thailand at all when it comes to anything financial!

And certainly with good reason.