DILI, 26 october 2022 ( TATOLI)– The Asia Pacific Anti Money Laundering Group ( APG), organize a workshop from 25- 27 October for the staff of the National Anti Money Laundering of Financing of Terrorism.
The Minister Justice, Tiago Sarmento Amaral said that Timor – Leste is committed to preventing and combating organized crime.
“We are committed to preventing and combating these crimes. We have laws and institutions that are set up for the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism,” the Minister of Justice, Amaral told TATOLI at the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Pantai Kelapa, Dili.
Question about the existence of Money Laundering in Timor – Leste, Amaral responded that this type of crime exists in every country in the world.
The Executive Director of the Financial Information Unit of the Central Bank of Timor – Leste, Maria José Sarmento, reveals, the workshop aims to prepare an adequate response to the specificity of organized crime. Willingness to hear the opinions or previous knowledge on this topic, the seminar included a moment in which a questionnaire was filled out with the measures that the participants considered relevant in the fight against organized crime.
Sarmento highlighted the importance of this seminar to help the National Commission on Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing ( NCMLTF)to prepare a report with the suggestion for concrete measures and policies to be presented in 2024 to the Police and Investigation Authorities of the police power.
” Between March and April 2023 will issue another questionnaire, this time more extensive and with around 500 questions, aiming to access the level of compliance of Timor – Leste in combating the money laundering and terrorism financing,” she said.
That questionnaire compares the situation of the country used for that purpose. 40 questions that follow the International standard, issued by groups that operate in the context of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorism financing crime.
NCMLTF Secretariat, Nelinho Vital, stressed that by March 2023 Timor- Leste must evaluate its action intern of combating those crimes, and in the following year, the APG Secretariat will visit Timor – Leste to verify the detected situation.
“In September 2024 we will present a report on the mechanism we have adopted in legal and political terms for combating the organizing crime,” he said.
The NCMLTF is composed of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Timor – Leste, the Human Rights and Justice Ombudsman, the Commission of Anti-Corruption, the Public Service Commission and the National Police of Timor- Leste.
Timor- Leste become a member of APG in July 2008 and is now a member of APG has over 40 countries.
Money laundering is the process by which proceeds from criminal activity (corruption, drug trafficking, market manipulation, fraud, tax evasion, etc.) are disguised to conceal their illicit origins to be used in the legal economy.
Money can be laundered in many ways: depositing small cash amounts in unremarkable bank accounts; purchasing and resale luxury items; through a series of complex international financial transactions.
Whereas terrorist financing is the raising of money involving the solicitation, collection, or provision of funds, with the intention that it may be used to support terrorist acts or terrorist organizations.
Journalist : Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Nelia Borges
