Despite the governmentﾴs best efforts, The Bahamas continues to be regarded as a ﾓmajorﾒ money laundering territory, ﾓwhose financial institutions engage in currency transactions involving significant amounts of proceeds from international drug trafficking.ﾒ
The assessment was made in a new report published by the independent, anti-corruption group, Transparency International, which also accused Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica of the same unscrupulous practice.
ﾓIt is no exaggeration to suggest that drug trafficking, official corruption (and) violent intimidation have the potential to threaten the stability of the small, democratic countries of the Eastern Caribbean and to varying degrees have damaged civil society in all of these countries,ﾒ the report said.
Police officials have recently pointed to ongoing concerns relating to money laundering in The Bahamas.
Police have said that during 2004 money laundered into The Bahamasﾴ financial institutions from international jurisdictions were derived from various sources of crime like fraud, extortion and other financial crimes, as opposed to that of drug trafficking.
But money laundering linked to drug activity is also a concern for authorities.
According to police, the cash proceeds are often invested into real estate through the construction of multiplexes, homes, as well as the purchase of expensive vehicles and jewelry.
Authorities have explained that this is particularly the case considering that it has become a challenge for most drug traffickers to deposit large sums of cash into financial institutions.
The difficulties money launderers face in ﾓcleaningﾒ their proceeds of crime came about as a result of the package of anti-money laundering bills parliament passed in 2000.
But Minister of Financial Services and Investments Allyson Maynard-Gibson admitted during an earlier interview with the Bahama Journal that despite the governmentﾴs efforts to minimize the risk of money laundering, ﾓperhaps no centre can say it has closed off money laundering completely.ﾒ
She added that while the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will continue to watch The Bahamas, it has indicated its satisfaction in the countryﾴs progress thus far.
The Minister also pointed out that Transparency International used 2002 data to complete its report and she indicated that The Bahamas has made significant strides since then in the fight against money laundering.
In its report, the organization also acknowledged the advancements countries like The Bahamas have made in fighting money laundering.
ﾓOn the positive side, the eight micro-states, studied in the report ﾖ The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines perform relatively better than most countries,ﾒ the organization noted.
ﾓThe reason for this is because they have free and independent media, effective superior courts, a civil society with latent anti-corruption potential, and most recently, have established more stringent regimes against money laundering and financial crimes,ﾒ according to the report entitled ﾑThe National Integrity Systems TI Caribbean Composite Study 2004ﾴ.
Transparency International, which is based in Berlin, also noted in its report that The Bahamas was in the top 21 countries in the world in terms of cocaine interceptions in 2002.
Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) Superintendent Raymond Gibson said his department seized ﾓquite an enormous amountﾒ of cocaine during that period.
ﾓWe have caused a great impact,ﾒ he said. ﾓWe worked with quite a bit of intelligence and because of the fact that we dismantled some of the big organizations this could have accounted for the decrease in 2004.
ﾒIntelligence suggests that we did not have the same amount of drugs moving through the region at that time.ﾒ
In 2004, DEU launched its covert ﾓOperation Tidal Waveﾒ, which targeted drug trafficking groups believed to be responsible for importing significant quantities of marijuana and cocaine into The Bahamas and the United States.
As a result of the operation, authorities arrested more than one dozen suspects.
Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
