Financial Crime World

Moldovan Authorities Urged to Boost Effectiveness in Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

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The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body, MONEYVAL, has called on Moldova’s authorities to strengthen their efforts in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. According to a recent report, the country needs to fully utilize its legislative framework to combat these financial crimes.

Report Highlights

  • The report assesses the effectiveness of Moldova’s anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system, evaluating its compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.
  • MONEYVAL found that while Moldova faces various money laundering threats, including corruption, tax evasion, smuggling, drug trafficking, and human trafficking, the country has a comprehensive national risk assessment (NRA) in place.

Weaknesses Identified

  • The NRA does not separately address the risks associated with organized crime groups, non-profit organizations, and financing of terrorism.
  • MONEYVAL recommends enhancing communication between non-financial supervisors and their reporting entities to improve the effectiveness of the AML/CFT system.

Investigations and Prosecutions

  • Moldova’s authorities have investigated numerous money laundering cases, including autonomous and foreign predicate cases, but only a limited number have led to prosecutions.
  • The country has also adopted several strategic documents aimed at depriving criminals of the proceeds of crime, but the figures on confiscated assets remain low.

Terrorist Financing

  • Moldova recognizes the terrorist financing threat as low and has conducted two investigations, but no evidence could be found to support prosecution or conviction for this specific offense.
  • The country has not made any targeted financial sanctions designations under United Nations Security Council Resolutions and has not requested other countries to freeze assets.

Supervision and Licencing

  • Moldova’s licencing framework is robust, with supervisors having a good understanding of money laundering risks.
  • However, MONEYVAL identifies room for improvement in the supervision of designated non-financial businesses and professions.

International Cooperation

  • The report concludes that Moldova has a sound legal and procedural framework for exchanging information with foreign partners and actively seeks international cooperation to combat financial crimes.
  • As a result, MONEYVAL has decided to apply its enhanced follow-up procedure and invited Moldova to report back in 2021.