Third Round Detailed Assessment Report on Moldova 1
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Strasbourg, 2 October 2007 MONEYVAL (2007) 18 EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON CRIME PROBLEMS (CDPC) EXPERT COMMITTEE ON THE EVALUATION OF ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING MEASURES (MONEYVAL) THIRD ROUND DETAILED ASSESSMENT REPORT ON MOLDOVA 1 ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND COMBATING THE FINANCING OF TERRORISM Memorandum prepared by the Secretariat Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs (DG-HL) 1 Adopted by MONEYVAL at its 24 th Plenary meeting (Strasbourg, 10-14 September 2007). All rights reserved. Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged, save where otherwise stated. For any use for commercial purposes, no part of this publication may be translated, reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic (CD-Rom, Internet, etc) or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the MONEYVAL Secretariat, Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs, Council of Europe (F-67075 Strasbourg or [email protected]). 2 TATATABLETA BLE OFOFOF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 6 II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................. 8 III. MUTUAL EVALUATION REPORT ............................................................................. 17 1 General information ................................................................................................... 17 1.1 General information on the Republic of Moldova and its economy.................... 17 1.2 General situation regarding money laundering and the financing of terrorism.... 22 1.3 Overview of the financial sector and designated non-financial businesses and professions.................................................................................................................... 25 1.4 Overview of commercial laws and mechanisms governing legal persons and arrangements................................................................................................................. 29 1.5 Overview of strategy to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing......... 31 2 Legal System and Related Institutional Measures..................................................... 37 Laws and regulations.......................................................................................................... 37 2.1 Criminalisation of Money Laundering (R.1 & 2) ............................................... 37 2.2 Criminalisation of Terrorist Financing (SR.II) ................................................... 42 2.3 Confiscation, freezing and seizure of proceeds of crime (R.3)............................ 48 2.4 Freezing of funds used for terrorist financing (SR.III) ....................................... 56 Authorities .......................................................................................................................... 60 2.5 The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and its functions (R.26, 30 & 32)............ 60 2.6 Law enforcement, prosecution and other competent authorities - the framework for the investigation and prosecution of offences and for confiscation and freezing (R.27, 28, 30 & 32)....................................................................................................... 67 3 Preventive Measures - Financial Institutions............................................................. 73 Customer due diligence and record-keeping ..................................................................... 73 3.1 Risk of money laundering or terrorist financing................................................. 73 3.2 Customer due diligence, including enhanced or reduced measures (R. 5 to 8).... 74 3.3 Third parties and introduced business (R.9)....................................................... 87 3.4 Financial institution secrecy or confidentiality (R.4).......................................... 88 3.5 Record keeping and wire transfer rules (R.10 & SR.VII) ................................... 90 Unusual or suspicious transactions.................................................................................... 94 3.6 Monitoring of transactions and business relationships (R.11 & 21).................... 94 3.7 Suspicious transaction and other reporting (R.13-14, 19, 25, SR.IV and SR IX) 97 Internal controls and other measures .............................................................................. 105 3.8 Internal controls, compliance and foreign branches (R.15 & 22)...................... 105 3.9 Shell banks (R.18)........................................................................................... 107 Regulation, supervision, follow up and penalties ............................................................ 108 3.10 The supervisory and oversight system - competent authorities and self- regulating organisations - Role, functions, obligations and powers (including sanctions) (R.17, 23, 29 & 30) .................................................................................... 108 3.11 Financial institutions - market entry and ownership/control (R.23) .................. 116 3.12 AML/CFT Guidelines (R.25)........................................................................... 118 3 3.13 Ongoing supervision and monitoring (R.23, 29 & 32)...................................... 120 3.14 Money or securities transfer services (alternative remittances - SR.VI)............ 121 4 Preventive Measures – Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions ..... 123 4.1 Customer due diligence and record-keeping (R.12).......................................... 123 4.2 Monitoring of transactions and business relationships (R12 & 16)................... 125 4.3 Suspicious transaction reporting (R.16) ........................................................... 126 4.4 Internal controls, compliance & audit (R.16) ................................................... 127 4.5 Regulation, supervision and monitoring (R.17, 24, 25) .................................... 128 4.6 Other non-financial businesses and professions - Modern and secure techniques of money management (R. 20)................................................................... 129 5 Legal Persons and Arrangements and non-profit organisations ............................ 131 5.1 Legal Persons – Access to beneficial ownership and control information (R.33)131 5.2 Legal Arrangements – Access to information on beneficial ownership and control (R.34) ............................................................................................................. 132 5.3 Non-profit organisations (SR.VIII).................................................................. 133 6 National and International Co-operation ................................................................ 136 6.1 National co-operation and coordination (R.31) ................................................ 136 6.2 Special UN conventions and resolutions (R. 35 & RS. I) ................................. 138 6.3 Mutual legal assistance (R. 32, 36-38, RS. V).................................................. 139 6.4 Extradition (R. 32, 37 & 39, RS. V)................................................................. 142 6.5 Other forms of international co-operation (R. 32 & 40, RS.V)......................... 145 7 Other issues............................................................................................................... 147 7.1 Other relevant AML/CFT measures and issues................................................ 147 7.2 General structure of the AML/CFT system (see also 1.1)................................. 147 TABLES................................................................................................................................ 149 8 Table 1: Assessment of compliance with FATF Recommendations........................ 149 9 Table 2: Recommended action plan to improve the AML/CFT system ................. 160 ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................ 174 10 Annex I: Details of all bodies met on the on-site missions : Ministries, other government authorities bodies, private sector representatives and other...................... 174 11 Annex II: List of all laws, regulations and other material received....................... 175 12 Annex III: Copies of key laws, regulations and other measures............................. 178 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AML Law Law on the Prevention and Repression of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism AML anti-money laundering CCCEC Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption CC Criminal Code CDD Customer Due Diligence CFT Combating the financing of terrorism CPC Criminal Procedure Code of Moldova CSCE Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe CTR Cash transaction report DNFBPs Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions ETS European Treaty Series (since 1 January 2004, CETS - Council of Europe Treaty Series) EU European Union FATF Financial Action Task Force FIU Financial Intelligence Unit GDP Gross domestic product HDI Human Development Index IN Interpretative Note ISSA State Inspectorate for the Supervision of the Insurance Industry and Pension Funds KYC Know your customer MDL Moldovan Leu ML Money laundering NBM National Bank of Moldova NBML Law on the National Bank of Moldova NSC National Securities Commission NGO Non-governmental organisations