Financial Crime World

Title: Papua New Guinea Police Force Battles Record-Breaking Money Laundering Cases

Overwhelming Caseload at Papua New Guinea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FASU)

  • The Papua New Guinea police force is grappling with a record-breaking backlog of over 5000 money laundering cases, according to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FASU) of the Bank of Papua New Guinea.
  • The National Fraud and Anti-Corruption Director, Chief Inspector Pare Kuiap, disclosed the extent of the issue to the Post Courier.

Concerns Over resources and manpower

  • Kuiap expressed concern about the lack of resources and manpower to efficiently address such a vast caseload.
  • His team, consisting of only three officers, is not well-equipped to handle intricate money laundering cases.

Challenges in Investigations

  • Money laundering investigations require substantial resources, time, and tenacity.
  • Previously reported cases have piled up over the years, leaving at least 15 detectives needed to manage the existing caseload and new cases.
  • FASU, which records these cases, lacks the legal authority to prosecute them. So, the cases are sent to the Ombudsmen Commission and the Royal Papua New Guinea Police Force for adjudication.
  • There has been little progress reported on previously reported cases.

Increasing crimes and investigations

  • In other related news, the head of the police illicit and narcotics investigation team, Donald Yamasombi, expressed concern over the rising number of crimes nationwide not correlating with the number of arrests or investigations initiated.

Post-National General Elections investigations

  • Assistant Commissioner Police (Crimes) Hodges Ette reported that the National Anti-Fraud and Corruption office had resumed investigations following the 2022 National General Elections.
  • They would face an additional workload due to the increased volume of election-related complaints.

Complexities and challenges

  • The complexities associated with these cases and the growing backlog present a significant challenge for the Papua New Guinea police force.