A whopping $638,844,310 in alleged “dirty money” transactions have reportedly passed through the country’s financial system over the past year, the 2012 Report of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (FIUTT) has stated.
For the period October 2011 to September 2012, 258 Suspicious Transfer Reports (STRs) and Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) were flagged by “supervised entities” and “banking institutions” which reported the highest alleged money laundering activity for the period under review, with 154 reports.
The report also noted the highest suspicious activities took place between April and June 2012 when the highest amount of suspicious money totalling $2,393,548 entered the system.
There was also an increase in suspicious reports from 2010 and 2011, through co-operative societies, motor vehicle sales, security dealers and insurance companies, according to the report.
In 2010, there were 111 suspicious activity while in 2011 there were 303 as reported by the financial sector.
And in terms of money value, in 2010, $263 million was red-flagged to the FIUTT while in 2011 that figure rose to $569 million.
But despite the high presence of questionable activity reported to the FIUTT of people misusing the financial systems to launder money, only one person has been arrested and charged for engaging in fraudulent behaviour over the past year, according to expert in the field of extradition and money laundering laws, attorney David West.
West, who is based at El Dorado Chambers, Port of Spain, told the Sunday Express that except for the case of travel agent Vicki Boodram of Boodram’s Travel and Ship Ahoy Cruises Ltd, who was arrested and now faces multiple fraud charges, white collar crime is continuing unchecked in Trinidad and Tobago.
Pointing to a correlation between street crime and white-collar crime, West believes money laundering is fuelling the increase in crime and that the battle against the escalating violence on the streets and in communities must also include prosecutions of white-collar crime.
He urged: “The increase in criminality must be looked at from the perspectives of white-collar crime as well. It is not just about the poor man in Laventille with a gun but about the money laundering which is taking place.
“It is as simple as this … whenever a gun is bought the money from that sale is then sent to the financial institutions to be cleaned up and legitimised.”
West, a former interim head of the FIUTT and former head of the Central Authority for Extradition and Mutual Assistance at the Office of the Attorney General, was particularly critical of the Financial Investigations Bureau (FIB)—the body responsible for charging and prosecuting white-collar crimes.
He said the FIB has been unusually dormant in the fight against white-collar crime.
West said: “The FIB’s number of prosecutions has diminished; the only case is Vicky Boodram’s.”
He questioned if the Bureau headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Mervyn Richardson had sufficient manpower and was sufficiently trained to handle the extent of the “dirty money” circulating in the country.
“They need to do a better job. They need to be more vigilant and effective in addressing this issue,” West said.