US Takes Aim At British Dependent Territories Over Money Laundering

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

15 March 2005

The US authorities have suggested that six of the UK's dependent territories are vulnerable to money laundering activity, it emerged earlier this month.

In its 2005 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs argued that Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos and Montserrat all need to improve their anti-money laundering regulations.

The report suggested that Anguilla's vulnerability lay in the online registration of companies and the continued use of bearer shares, whilst Bermuda was urged to improve its monitoring of the cross-border movement of cash and other financial instruments.

Cayman was called upon by the Bureau to continue its anti-money laundering efforts, and to criminalize terrorist financing, whilst Turks and Caicos was found to be a transshipment point for drug trafficking, in addition to being vulnerable to money laundering on several fronts.

Montserrat, meanwhile, was found by the US authorities to suffer from a relative lack of regulatory resources. The tiny jurisdiction's government was urged to increase supervision of the financial services sector, and criminalize money laundering related to domestic drug-trafficking.

Recommended