Étiquette : Ouanaminthe

 

Haiti

 

Haitian criminal gangs are engaged in international drug trafficking and other criminal and fraudulent activity, but do not at this time appear to be involved in terrorist financing. While Haiti itself is not a major financial center, regional money laundering enterprises utilize Haitian couriers, especially via air hub routes to Central America. Much of the drug trafficking in Haiti, as well as the related money laundering, is connected to the United States. Further, most of the identified money laundering schemes involve significant amounts of U.S. currency, and all property confiscations involve significant drug traffickers convicted in the United States.

Foreign currencies comprise approximately 57% of Haiti’s bank deposits, according to Haitian Central Bank estimates, likely due to the large influx of remittances, which reached $1.5 billion in 2011.

The weakness of the Haitian judicial system and prosecutorial mechanism continue to leave the country vulnerable to corruption and money laundering, despite improving financial intelligence and enforcement capacity.

Haiti has two operational free trade zones in Ouanaminthe and Carrefour. There are at least 62 casinos in Haiti, the majority unlicensed; however, online gaming is illegal.

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For additional information focusing on terrorist financing, please refer to the Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism, which can be found here: http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/

 

DO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ENGAGE IN CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING THAT INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF US CURRENCY; CURRENCY DERIVED FROM ILLEGAL SALES IN THE U.S.; OR THAT OTHERWISE SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE U.S.:

 

 

NO

 

 

CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING:

 

« All serious crimes » approach or « list » approach to predicate crimes:

 

 

List approach

 

 

Legal persons covered: criminally:

 

YES civilly:

NO

 

 

KNOW-YOUR-CUSTOMER (KYC) RULES:

 

Enhanced due diligence procedures for PEPs: Foreign:

 

NO Domestic:

NO

 

 

KYC covered entities:

 

 

Banks, casinos, securities dealers, insurance companies, notaries and attorneys, dealers in jewelry and precious metals, art dealers, real estate agents, automobile dealers, and money remittance institutions

 

 

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:

 

Number of STRs received and time frame:

 

 

43: January 1 through October 31, 2012

 

 

Number of CTRs received and time frame:

 

 

264,099: January 1 through October 31, 2012

 

 

STR covered entities:

 

 

Banks

 

 

MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS/CONVICTIONS:

 

Prosecutions:

 

 

6: Time frame unknown

 

 

Convictions:

 

 

0

 

 

RECORDS EXCHANGE MECHANISM:

 

With U.S.: MLAT:

 

YES Other mechanism:

NO

 

 

With other governments/jurisdictions:

 

 

YES

Haiti is a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, a Financial Action Task Force-style regional body. Its most recent mutual evaluation can be found here: https://www.cfatf-gafic.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=342&Itemid=418&lang=en

 

 

 

ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND COMMENTS:

 

In the past year, the Government of Haiti (GOH) passed a new banking law that includes provisions relating to anti-money laundering (AML) prevention. The new provisions

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give the Central Bank the authority to issue regulations binding on banks and money service businesses relating to money laundering, and the power to impose penalties for non-compliance. The Central Bank issued guidelines to commercial banks, currency exchange agencies and money transfer companies on customer due diligence obligations. Significantly, there was a 49% decrease in the number of STRs from the previous reporting period. Anti-corruption and AML legislation are currently under consideration in Parliament and are identified as a priority by the executive branch.

The GOH should continue to devote resources to building an effective anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing regime, to include continued support to units to investigate financial crimes and the development of an information technology system. The GOH remains hampered by ineffective and outdated criminal and criminal procedural codes, and by the inability of judges and courts to address cases referred for prosecution. New criminal and criminal procedural codes that address these problems are currently pending in the Council of Ministers. The GOH should pass the long pending anti-terrorism legislation that will criminalize terrorist financing and allow the immediate freezing of terrorist assets without delay. Haiti also should take steps to establish a program to identify the cross-border movement of currency and financial instruments.

Related articles

• Colombia, U.S. help train Haitian women police (miamiherald.com)
• 7 charged in $6B online money-laundering case (miamiherald.com)
• The need for the use of U.S. judges to combat money laundering (oneiraqidinar.com)
• Money Laundering is a made-up crime (chralash.wordpress.com)

 

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