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Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism in Liechtenstein

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Money Laundering Typologies in Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein’s anti-money laundering (AML) efforts have identified several money laundering (ML) typologies, including:

  • Self-laundering: a prevailing typology where individuals attempt to conceal the origin of their illicit proceeds.
  • Third-party laundering: infrequently encountered, where an individual uses a third party to launder their funds.
  • Autonomous ML prosecutions: rare, indicating that cases involving self-directed money laundering are not commonly prosecuted.

Confiscation of Proceeds in Liechtenstein

The policy objective of confiscating the proceeds of crime is pursued as part of AML efforts in Liechtenstein. The country has introduced a comprehensive framework for financial investigations and inter-institutional cooperation to ensure effective seizure and confiscation of assets.

  • Key features:
    • Comprehensive framework introduced and continuously strengthened.
    • Financial investigations regularly conducted in parallel with crime investigations.
    • Effective inter-institutional cooperation throughout the seizure/confiscation process.

Terrorist Financing (TF) in Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein’s efforts to combat terrorist financing have yielded the following results:

  • Prosecutions/convictions: none so far, indicating a lack of TF cases prosecuted in the country.
  • Risk assessment: medium risk of TF, suggesting that the country is vulnerable to potential TF activities.
  • No MLA requests: received from foreign counterparts on terrorism or TF cases.
  • Investigations: one investigation was conducted, but no evidence of TF was found.

Proportionality and Dissuasiveness of Sanctions

The report evaluates the proportionality and dissuasiveness of sanctions imposed for ML and TF offenses in Liechtenstein. The results are as follows:

  • ML sanctions:
    • Not proportionate and dissuasive, according to the report.
  • TF sanctions:
    • Appear proportionate and dissuasive, according to the report.

Note: MLA stands for Mutual Legal Assistance, a process where countries cooperate in gathering evidence or information related to crimes.