Canadian Senate Report on Money Laundering
Yesterday, the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce released its interim report on Canada's effort to fight money laundering by organized crime and terrorist networks.
The Senate report is part of the mandated review of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (S.C. 2000, c. 17).
The Senate committee estimates that the amount of dirty money laundered each year in Canada far exceeds what the federal government anti-money-laundering authorities at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) of Canada have found. FINTRAC, which filed its 2005-06 annual report in Parliament today, estimates the dollar value of suspect transactions for the year was slightly over $5 billion. The Senate report feels the figure could be in the tens of billions of dollars.
The committee is calling on the federal government to expand the scope of the Act to monitor jewellers, generic bank/cash machine operators and lawyers.
It wants Ottawa to require that jewellers be obliged to report cash transactions above $10,000 and that lawyers be required to meet record-keeping and reporting requirements in a way that respects solicitor-client privilege.
Both the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the Department of Finance told the Senate committee that negotiations are ongoing in an effort to determine a mutually acceptable regime. The committee was told by the Justice Department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other groups such as the General Accountants Association of Canada that the exclusion of lawyers from the provisions of the Act had created a major loophole in the legislation.
The Senate report is part of the mandated review of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (S.C. 2000, c. 17).
The Senate committee estimates that the amount of dirty money laundered each year in Canada far exceeds what the federal government anti-money-laundering authorities at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) of Canada have found. FINTRAC, which filed its 2005-06 annual report in Parliament today, estimates the dollar value of suspect transactions for the year was slightly over $5 billion. The Senate report feels the figure could be in the tens of billions of dollars.
The committee is calling on the federal government to expand the scope of the Act to monitor jewellers, generic bank/cash machine operators and lawyers.
It wants Ottawa to require that jewellers be obliged to report cash transactions above $10,000 and that lawyers be required to meet record-keeping and reporting requirements in a way that respects solicitor-client privilege.
Both the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the Department of Finance told the Senate committee that negotiations are ongoing in an effort to determine a mutually acceptable regime. The committee was told by the Justice Department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other groups such as the General Accountants Association of Canada that the exclusion of lawyers from the provisions of the Act had created a major loophole in the legislation.
Labels: annual reports, criminal law, government of Canada, terrorism
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