Israel Ramps Up Campaign For FATF Blacklist Removal

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

08 January 2002

The Israeli campaign to have the country removed from the Financial Action Task Force's list of countries deemed uncooperative in the fight against money laundering stepped up a notch yesterday with the arrival in Washington of the Minister of Justice, Meir Sheetrit, and the Justice Ministry's newly appointed anti-money laundering director, Yehuda Shefer.

The officials will outline to the US authorities the moves which have been made in order to combat money laundering in Israel - focusing in particular the establishment of an anti-money laundering authority due for launch on February 16th- before making a tour of several European capitals.

Officials hope that, in light of the FATF's expression of 'particular satisfaction' with the new anti-money laundering legislation recently implemented, there is a good chance that Israel will be removed from the blacklist some time this year. However, no-one is holding out much hope that this will take place when the FATF meets later in January.

'There's hardly any chance it will happen at the next meeting in January,' Boaz Raday, the Israeli Minister for Economic Affairs, confirmed to journalists recently. 'If we do everything that needs to be done, there's a possibility of Israel being moved from the list at the June session. If this doesn't happen, the likelihood is high that we'll be removed from the list at the October session.'

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