Isle of Man Seminar Hears "Know Your Employee And Prevent Money Laundering"

Robert Lee, Tax-news.com, London

15 November 2000

The Isle of Man has been praised for its endeavours in countering money laundering and related criminal activities. The island has a pro-active approach to the problem, which was reinforced last week with a special seminar held in Douglas that focused on the ongoing fight against international money laundering.

The event was hosted by Mr Bob Blunden of Corporate Security International and featured representatives from a number of companies specialising in techniques for detecting illegal activity within financial organisations. The audience comprised representatives of the Isle of Man's finance sector.

Mr Blunden said that there was no such thing as dirty money, only "dirty people", referring not only to global money-launderers but to the potential threat from employees. He said the know-your-customer regulations were only half of what was needed - 'the other half is know your employee,' he stated, stressing the importance of pre-employment screening as most money laundering cases involved dishonest staff.

He continued: 'Money launderers have money to spare to launder their dirty money and if they can bribe an employee they will do.' He said it was important to check staff because the finance industry by its very nature employs a large number of transient staff.

Mr Blunden also raised the issue of the Financial Action Task Force's blacklist of 15 countries deemed to have inadequate counter-money laundering procedures, but said that in his opinion politics came into play as countries such as Spain never appeared on lists despite being the chosen refuge - 'Costa del Crime' -for a number of serious villains.

Other features covered during the day-long seminar included specialist software to alert finance houses on possible money laundering activities, forged documents and the identification of suspicious funds.

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