Search Results for: Congo

The Great Lakes region in cenztral and eastern Africa is exceedingly resource rich, and being beset by instability and conflict, it is highly attractive for illicit trade and financial crime fuelling money laundering. A new European Union (EU) Great Lakes Strategy is trying to promote the rule of law in the region – notably Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – but faces major challenges.…

The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has shelved investigations into two major mining companies on the eve of a new director’s arrival. Current Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Nick Ephgrave takes over at the end of September.

As the term of predecessor Lisa Osofsky expires, the agency (on Aug 23) an announced long running corruption investigations into the Anglo-Australian mining major Rio Tinto Group and Kazakhstan-focused mining Eurasian Natural Resources Corp (ENRC) were being scrapped.…

Kenya remains east Africa’s economic powerhouse and its ability to supply and encourage the region’s paint and coatings sector remains strong. Sales in paints, varnishes, pigments and other related coatings are expected to grow by 2.86% annually until 2028, according to insights from Statista (1), a Germany-based provider of market intelligence and business solutions.…

The precious metals and stones sector is increasingly under the spotlight regarding ML and TF, particularly gold. Given the fungibility of precious metals, the complexity of their supply chains and the varying levels of oversight worldwide, they continue to be an attractive means to launder money – especially gold, which remains the precious metal of choice for launderers.…

The European Commission has added the British overseas territory (BOT) of Gibraltar to European Union (EU) list of high-risk countries with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes. This latest update to the EU AML blacklist (1) means that banks and other AML obliged entities will have to apply enhanced due diligence when dealing with transactions with Gibraltar, which was ceded to the UK in 1713, having been seized during the War of the Spanish Succession.…

International solar energy providers are finding business opportunities in Africa as national governments and their development agency partners try to foster growth while targeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG), which encourages access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all by 2030 (1).…

Global progress on tackling the risks posed by money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) is “paralysed” according to the latest annual index report (1) from the Basel Institute on Governance. Over the 11 years since the first report, AML risks “have changed depressingly little”, said Basel AML Index project manager Kateryna Boguslavska on October 4.…

FATF has acted against Russia, further squeezing it from the international AML/CFT system over its invasion of Ukraine, that as of October 17 had killed 6,306 civilians (UN figures). The global AML body’s latest plenary meeting highlighted the “needless loss of life, suffering and destruction” caused by the invasion, with Russia violating “FATF’s core principles [on] the security, safety and the integrity of the financial system”.…

Zimbabwe was taken off FATF’s grey list in March, but serious issues still abound claim critics of the move – from corruption to large scale gold smuggling, while a controversial law on NGOs may be misused to go after political opponents, they argue.…

INTRODUCTION 

ACCOUNTING used to be restricted to financially measurable matters of profit and loss; expenditure and revenue; taxes and subsidies; investment and liabilities. But the mathematical and statistical skills underpinning a solid set of books and filed accounts are today increasingly being used to measure the environmental and social sustainability of a product, input, production process and supply chain.…