Legislative changes have been approved which will help to boost the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing in Cayman.
The Proceeds of Crime (Amendment) Act, 2023, which was passed in Parliament during the latest session, updated several sections of the Proceeds of Crime Act (2020 revision).
On presenting the bill, Attorney General Samuel Bulgin said it is part of the government’s efforts to fine tune anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing frameworks.
The law will make sure relevant authorities have the legal powers and protections to support that effort, he said.
“In recent years, the Cayman Islands has made significant improvements to its national anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing framework,” Bulgin told Parliament.
He said these reforms were a result of deficiencies identified in part by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s mutual evaluation process in 2017.
Some were also based on gaps identified from Cayman’s own self-evaluation exercises, he added.
“Despite the strides we have made in enhancing our anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing safety there is still some remnant work to be done,” Bulgin said.
He said the act will enable the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution and investigative authorities to prosecute money laundering and terrorist financing offences effectively.
Secondly, it will provide for the sharing and exchange of information between relevant, competent supervisory authorities.
And it will give protection to designated non-financial businesses and professions against liability in carrying out money laundering and counter terrorism financing functions.
Legal changes
Among the significant changes include the clarification that a person is protected against disclosing suspicion of terrorism or terrorist financing to the Financial Reporting Authority.
“This understanding is not quite clear in the current language,” the attorney general said when he presented the bill.
Another change is that with respect to civil recovery proceedings, property can be proven to be criminal through circumstantial evidence.
“The amendment is intended to close the gap and align it with more international best practices relating to civil recovery matters,” Bulgin said.
Another replacement clause clarifies the requirements a court must satisfy to make a property freezing order, and mirrors provisions in the UK’s Proceeds of Crime Act.
The are also several more clarifications to correct “unhappily worded” sections as part of the amendment act.
“It’s a relatively short bill, but it’s a very important bill,” the attorney general said before it was passed in Parliament.
“It has a lot to do with the government of the Cayman Islands and the Cayman Islands as a jurisdiction being able to persuade and satisfy the FATF that the reforms that we have put in place to fight the scourge of money laundering and terrorist financing are being sustained.”
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