MONEY LAUNDERING EXPERIENCES Edited by CHARLES GOREDEMA ISS MONOGRAPH SERIES • NO 124, JUNE 2006 ii Tackling money laundering in East and Southern Africa CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii ABOUT THE AUTHORS viii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY x CHAPTER 1 Challenges of combating money laundering in bureaux de change 1 CHAPTER 2 Money laundering in the South African real estate market today 21 CHAPTER 3 Challenges of establishing financial intelligence units 39 CHAPTER 4 Detecting and investigating money laundering in Kenya 55 CHAPTER 5 Legal professional privilege/intermediary confidentiality: The challenge for anti-money laundering 73 CHAPTER 6 Flogging a dead horse: The incongruity of measures against terrorist financing in Southern Africa 91 CHAPTER 7 Tracing the proceeds of crime in Southern Africa 121 iv Money laundering experiences ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CHAPTER 1: ABCZ Association of Bureaux de Change in Zambia AMLDs Anti-Money Laundering Directives AMLIU Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit BFSA Banking and Financial Services Act BoZ Bank of Zambia BWP Botswana Pula CED Customs and Excise Department FBCL Fastrack Bureau de Change Limited N/A Not applicable OTC Over-the-counter PoS Point of Sale PPMLA Prohibition and Prevention of Money Laundering Act STR Suspicious Transactions Report TC Traveller’s cheque ZPS Zambia Police Service CHAPTER 2: AFU Asset Forfeiture Unit ANC African National Congress FATF Financial Action Task Force FIC Financial Intelligence Centre FICA Financial Intelligence Centre Act KYC Know your client NPA National Prosecuting Authority POCA Prevention of Organised Crime Act SAPS South African Police Service SARS South African Revenue Service SCCU Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit STR Suspicious Transaction Reports Acronyms and abbreviations v CHAPTER 3: AMLIU Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit AUSTRAC Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre DCEC Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime FATF Financial Action Task Force FIAMLA Financial Intelligence and Anti-Money Laundering Act FIC Financial Intelligence Centre FIIEU Financial Intelligence Inspectorate and Evaluation Unit FinCEN Financial Crimes Enforcement Network FIU financial intelligence unit NCIS National Crime Intelligence Service SIU Special Investigations Unit CHAPTER 4: CBK Central Bank of Kenya FATF Financial Action Task Force FIU Financial Intelligence Unit KACC Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission NARC National Rainbow Coalition US United States CHAPTER 5: EU European Union FATF Financial Action Task Force FICA Financial Intelligence Centre Act CHAPTER 6: CTC Counter Terrorism Committee DRC Democratic Republic of Congo FATF Financial Action Task Force FIC Financial Intelligence Centre FICA Financial Intelligence Centre Act FIU Financial Intelligence Unit IMF International Monetary Fund OAU Organisation of African Unity POCA Prevention of Organised Crime Act SADC Southern African Development Community STR Suspicious Transaction Reports vi Money laundering experiences UN United Nations UNITA União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola UNSC United Nations Security Council US United States CHAPTER 7: UNCAC United Nations Convention Against Corruption Executive summary vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This monograph is part of a project which strives to enhance capacity to com- bat money laundering in East and Southern Africa. It is the product of work put together by commissioned authors and researchers within the Organised Crime and Money Laundering programme of the Institute for Security Studies. In pre- paring it, the authors relied extensively on information provided by regulatory and law enforcement agencies in East and Southern Africa. They are too nu- merous to mention. Their role is recognised in the individual contributions. The funding was generously provided by the Royal Norwegian government. viii Money laundering experiences ABOUT THE AUTHORS Joseph Munyoro holds a Bachelor of Accountancy Degree from the Copperbelt University of Zambia and an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of the United Kingdom. After working for the international audit firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers from 1994 to 1997, Joseph joined the Bank Supervision Department of the Central Bank of Zambia, where he was involved in developing customer dili- gence directives in 1998. Since 2001, Joseph has been working in the Non- Bank Financial Institutions Department, developing and enforcing appropriate regulatory frameworks for various classes of non-bank financial institutions. Gregory Mthembu-Salter is a freelance investigative journalist with a keen interest to probe unrecorded patterns of trade and trade-related money laun- dering in Southern Africa. Greg periodically writes for the Economist Intelli- gence Unit. Nomzi Gwintsa is a researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, focusing on money laundering in East and Southern Africa. Peter Warutere works for the World Bank in Nairobi. Between 1992 and 1998 he was the Managing Editor of the Economic Review, an authoritative weekly news magazine which was a frontline crusader for anti-corruption and good governance. Having committed many hours to tracking serious corruption cases committed in Kenya, involving exports, commercial bank transactions, public contracts and the property market, Peter has accumulated invaluable expertise in anti-corruption research and analysis. He has participated in many national, regional and international economic forums and a number of study programmes. He was an economist in the Office of the President of Kenya from July 2004 to January 2006. Peter holds a B.Ed. (Economics & Business Studies) from the University of Nairobi, and an M.A. in Development Economics from the Uni- versity of Manchester (UK). About the authors ix Prof. Angela Itzikowitz is a professor of law and Director at Edward Nathan attorneys in South Africa. She is an expert in the field of money laundering. She was a member of the South African Law Commission’s Money Laundering Project. She was also a member of a special task team appointed by govern- ment to consider civil forfeiture of property, racketeering, and organised crime. The Prevention of Organized Crime Act of 1998 emanated from the recom- mendations of this task team. Prof Itzikowitz also has extensive experience regarding regulatory reform throughout the SADC and in Uganda and Kenya. She has also been involved in aspects of financial market regulation in Asia and is a member of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law in Hong Kong. Annette Hübschle is a researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, focus- ing on money laundering and the financing of terrorism in East and Southern Africa. She writes regularly and presents papers on these aspects at regional seminars. Charles Goredema is a senior research fellow with the Institute for Security Studies. He heads the Organised Crime and Money Laundering programme in Cape Town. x Tackling money laundering in East and Southern Africa EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This monograph not only examines recurrent trends in dealings with the pro- ceeds of crime in East and Southern Africa. It goes further to probe the strengths and weaknesses of the critical agencies set up to check the abuse of the legiti- mate entry points to the economy in infusing such proceeds. The monograph comprises seven chapters. An experienced financial services regulator, Joseph Munyoro considers the ubiquitous bureaux de change. In terms of numbers, bureaux have been the fastest growing sector in the Zambian financial services industry over the last decade. As at 31 August 2005, the Bank of Zambia had licensed 32 bureaux de change compared with 13 banks and nine leasing companies. In every country in which they exist, bureaux are attractive to money launder- ers as they can be used to convert cash from a weak to a stronger currency. Relationships are casual and most bureaux are positioned in locations frequented by non-residents and, in many cases, far away from regulators. Many countries are conscious of the risks involved in permitting bureaux and have taken meas- ures to minimise their abuse for laundering the proceeds of crime. Chapter 1 presents an insight into the challenges that still exist in combating money laundering through bureaux de change despite the legal and institu- tional framework for the detection and prevention of money laundering. Joseph also makes recommendations for addressing the identified challenges. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which was established in 1989 to give impetus to measures against money laundering and has since taken on addi- tional responsibilities to co-ordinate initiatives against terrorist financing, has observed the role of real estate in laundering the proceeds of crime. The Finan- cial Intelligence Centre in South Africa has also noted that house purchases Executive summary xi may be used, either to cover the tracks of criminals by introducing intermediar- ies into the picture (in the case of bogus sales that are subsequently cancelled), or as a method to invest proceeds of crime. The resort by money launderers to real estate, which is relatively more tightly regulated and more likely to yield a paper trail for investigators, is ironic. In Chapter 2 of this monograph Greg Salter critically examines the emerging picture regarding South Africa, to determine whether there is any basis for implicating the property market in money laundering typologies. Greg makes