Proposed new laws to toughen anti money laundering, close loopholes

[Pelican Press 0]

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Proposed new laws to toughen anti money laundering, close loopholes

New laws aimed at strengthening laws which have allowed ***** traffickers, organised ****** groups, people smugglers and terrorists to launder ****** money through real estate, dodgy accounting and luxury goods will be introduced in parliament on Tuesday.

The reform measures, which were first flagged by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in July and will be introduced into parliament on Wednesday, will put extra pressure on “gatekeeper professions” like lawyers, accountants, real estate professionals and dealers in precious stones and metals to proactively spot and report ******.

Mr Dreyfus said the overdue laws will tackle a “key resource stream for organised ******,” which had been flagged as lacking by the global watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 2015.

“Each year billions of dollars are generated from ******** activities such as ***** trafficking, tax evasion, cybercrime, human trafficking and arms trafficking,” he said.

“The proceeds from these ******* are used to fund further serious ******* such as terrorism and child ******.”

Camera IconAttorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the overdue laws would aid in cutting off a ‘key resource stream’ for **********. NewsWire/ Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia

As it stands, Australia is just one of five countries, alongside the US, China, Haiti and Madagascar, which have resisted the laws, with Mr Dreyfus stating it could put Australia’s “international reputation” at risk.

“Australia is now one of only five jurisdictions out of more than 200 that do not regulate these tranche-two entities or ‘gatekeeper’ professions,” he said.

“It means Australia is at serious risk of being ‘grey-listed’ by the FATF, which would not only be damaging to our international reputation but could result in significant economic harm to Australians and businesses.”

On Monday, a report from the *********** Institute of Criminology and the *********** Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre found ********* syndicates involved in money laundering were responsibly for 2.5 times the amount of ******-related harms as groups not involved in money laundering.

The study also found an increase in money laundering was also a warning sign of increases in ******-related harm, with the research suggesting this was “due to the reinvestment of illicit funds in future ********* enterprises”.

The involvement of “professional facilitators” were likely to result in higher sums of money being cleaned, with the real estate and gambling sectors processing larger amounts of ********* proceeds compared to other sectors.

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