FIC EXPOSES K13.58 BILLION ILLICIT DEALINGS
According to the FIC the 9th Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Trends Report 2023, illicit financial activities among which are corruption, money laundering and tax evasion have hit an astronomical 133 percent in the last one and half years.
Clement Kapalu, the Director General of FIC in his message as recorded in the ninth money laundering and terrorism financing trends report 2023 says the report was released in consistence with previous years.
Mr Kapalu said the FIC had analysed 15,696 suspicious transaction reports in 2023, out of which 923 intelligence reports were disseminated to Law Enforcement Agencies ( LEAs)
He noted that the majority of intelligence reports disseminated were on suspected money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.
This trend, he explained, is consistent with previous years.
“The abuse of corporate vehicles was a continuing trend in 2023. This was done by masking of beneficial ownership through various schemes such as usage of fronts and falsified documents,” Mr Kapalu said.
“In majority of the cases, corporate vehicles had either not disclosed their beneficial owners with the Patents and Companies Registration Agency ( PACRA) as required by the Companies Act No. 10 of 2017 or disclosed ‘ strawmen’ as beneficial owners,” he said.
Mr Kapalu stated that the FIC had continued to observe the trend in the use of cash to conceal the source of illicit funds and creation of some level of anonymity in the transactions.
He regretted that despite the increase in the availability of electronic payment channels, the FIC through its analysis observed an upward trend in the use of cash.
“The casino sector had also experienced heightened levels of vulnerability to money laundering and other financial crimes. Through its analysis and supervision activities, the FIC observed that casinos would deliberately adopt an operating business model that was heavily reliant on cash transactions and as a consequence leave no audit trail.
“In this cash environment, some casinos facilitated the payment of bribes and possible understatement of their income. Further, intelligence gathered indicated that some casinos engaged in illegal cross border cash courier business,” Mr Kapalu said.