Member for

3 years 11 months
Submitted by ctv_en_4 on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 05:00
According to anti-crime experts, there are many gaps in Vietnam’s anti-money laundering legal system. Moreover, cash is used in most of transactions, so the country is likely to become a fertile ground for money laundering.

Ric Power, advisor to the Vietnam-based UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has affirmed said that ineffective anti-money laundering efforts will have a negative impact on Vietnam.


Addressing a recent  seminar in Hanoi, Ric Power also said if money laundering is not strictly controlled, it will directly affect Vietnam’s world prestige and foreign investments in the country. If Vietnam’s anti-money laundering system is ineffective, illegal money will flow into the country. The “dirty” money will be transferred to Vietnam’s financial institutions and credit organisations and then be quickly moved to another country. Then Vietnam will become an intermediary for money transfers to other countries. In many cases, large amounts of money coming in and going out quickly can make the whole result in the whole financial system collapsing.

 

Anti-money laundering – a tough task

The State Bank of Vietnam’s (SBV) anti-money laundering centre was established in March 2007. Up to now, it has investigated 20 transactions suspected of laundering money but found no trace of the crime in those activities.


The Anti-money Laundering Decree issued by the Government in June 2005 says that financial institutions are obligated to report to the centre any suspicious transactions, deals in cash or foreign currencies and gold worth more than VND200 million and savings deposits of VND500 million upwards.


Pham Mai Phương from
the SBV’s anti-money laundering centre stated that the country would deal with the crime in a more sophisticated manner in the future as its World Trade Organisation membership provides a fertile ground for this activity.


Commenting on the transactions that the centre investigated last year, Mr. Ric said this number was too small compared to about 6 million transactions reported in a year.

Vietnam has taken many positive steps to define and combat money laundering activities and has received technical and financial assistance to build its anti-money laundering capacity from international organisations and more advanced executive bodies.


Vietnam’s Government has been very concerned about money laundering. It
has adopted regulations on the fight against money laundering, notably Article 251 of the 1999 Penal Code, Article 19 of the 1997 Law on Credit Organisations and the Governmental decree on money laundering issued in 2005. However, Vietnam’s law enforcement agencies have not yet incorporated the regulations into their operations and have failed to perform effectively in the fight against money laundering.

 

What to do to prevent money laundering?

Ric Power held that it was very difficult to identify traces of money laundering because the transactors used different approaches. First of all, it is necessary to find out any unusual signs in people’s files. For example, Government officials have a bank account and their salaries are paid regularly into it. If they had an unusual transaction with a big amount of money being deposited in their account, it could be corruption money or money obtained from unusual activities. 


Ric said the SBV has also developed an anti-money laundering decree which identifies the telltale signs of money laundering. This was a base from where the detection of money laundering activities could begin activities.


Ric mentioned two effective anti-money laundering measures, namely the enforcement of the anti-money laundering Decree and establishment of an anti-money laundering centre. Besides, Vietnam can use the police force to gather and analyse intelligence from activities suspected as money laundering. He also recommended more effective measures against money laundering. The Ministry of Justice should reassess the Criminal Code to define the crimes associated with money laundering and also introduce an anti-money laundering law to become more successful in this fight.


In November, experts from the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) will come to Vietnam to enquire into and assess the country’s anti-money laundering activities.

The UNODC official recommended the nationwide deployment of measures to combat money laundering in line with international standards. He outlined the need to formulate an anti-money laundering system to aid the fight against corruption and crime, thus safeguarding international financial institutions in Vietnam and solidifying investors’ confidence in the country.


He said that Vietnam has been very active in building its anti-money laundering capacity and providing the relevant training. Vietnam has also joined the
Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and is building an anti-money laundering system to meet with international standards.


Anti-money laundering experts also suggested that the Government should develop a strategy to change cash into non-cash payments to prevent money laundering.
Meanwhile, the relevant agencies should provide further money laundering information and knowledge for socio-economic organisations and the public to join forces to combat this crime./.

 

Add new comment

Đăng ẩn
Tắt