In a report published on Thursday 29 October, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body, MONEYVAL, urges the Slovak authorities to systematically track down the funds generated by organised crime. Money laundering and its link to terrorist financing give rise to domestic risks of which Slovakia has not sufficiently taken the measure, experts warn.
The number of convictions for money laundering has risen, they note, but it only concerns simple property offences such as car theft, while investigations into other major criminal cases remain insufficient.
The biggest obstacles identified by MONEYVAL are the lack of a centralised register of bank accounts, the lack of information on beneficial owners, as well as shortcomings in the area of prevention such as logistical and procedural constraints, limitations in the seizure of assets, the high level of proof required for certain interim measures, etc.
There were no convictions for terrorist financing during the period under review, but three relatively complex investigations are ongoing. “This proves the ability of the Slovak authorities to detect potential cases and work with their foreign counterparts”, the report says.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3mtAH80 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)