Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Matthew Langevine, has warned that the country could face serious consequences if it does not comply with international anti-money laundering standards.
Speaking at a private sector led, Illicit Trade forum on Wednesday, Mr. Langevine said although the country feared relatively well at its last round of mutual evaluation by the Anti-money laundering and Countering Terrorism financing regime, another working group found that the country is still high risk to financial crimes.
He said four offences have been flagged for carrying the highest threats to money-laundering—smuggling, tax evasion, illicit trade in narcotics and fraud.
However, he said lots of work has been done to address the threats and vulnerability highlighted, but more still needs to be done.
“Under no circumstances should none-compliance with international money laundering, countering of financing terrorism standards be an option for Guyana going forward. Compliance would have very far-reaching, adverse implications that Guyana cannot afford to deal with at this time as we progress as a nation,” the FIU Director warns.
Mr. Langevine said if Guyana fails to comply, it can risk international listings and sanctions by international bodies including the Financial Action Task Force, de-risking and the loss of correspondent banks. He noted that the country could be also strained from conducting business both locally and internationally.
“It is therefore imperative that we through these types of public-private partnerships engage and collaborate to ensure that we address the threat of illicit trade—trade-based money laundering and all types of financial crimes using appropriate policies, greater collaboration and stribngent enforcement by the relevant law enforcement agencies to allow legitimate businesses to progress and assist with the development of Guyana,” Mr. Langevine said.
The FIU Head said some of the priority actions established by assessment team for Guyana to implement as the country prepare for follow up reports and a next round of mutual evaluation, are to ensure that there is stronger collaboration among law enforcement agencies and the private sector in ensuring there is greater effectiveness in money laundering investigations, prosecutions and most importantly, confiscation of the proceeds of crime.
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