March 16, 2011

http://www.iloubnan.info/business/actualite/id/58113/titre/Central-Bank-lifts-secrecy-on-23-cases-suspected-of-money-laundering%60

The Special Investigation Commission (SIC) against money laundering issued its 10th annual report detailing its activities in tracing dirty money in Lebanon in 2010. Established by the Central Bank of Lebanon as an independent legal entity, the commission's mandate is to investigate suspected money-laundering operations and to monitor compliance with the rules and procedures of the antimony laundering law, Law 318, passed in April 2001 by the Lebanese Parliament. The report indicated that the SIC received 245 suspected cases in 2010, of which 160 cases, or 65.3%, were local cases and 85 cases, or 34.7%, were referred from abroad. The SIC referred to judicial authorities 119 suspected cases of money laundering, while 56 cases are still pending and the remaining 70 cases did not fall within the framework of Law 318. As a result, authorities lifted the banking secrecy on 23 cases, of which two cases were referred from foreign governments and organizations and 21 cases from domestic sources. The SIC investigated a total of 77 out of 202 suspected cases in 2009, 67 out of 226 cases in 2008, 54 out of 234 cases in 2007 and 70 out of 185 cases in 2006.

Counterfeiting and forgery accounted for 21.3% of reported cases, followed by terrorism & transfer of funds with 12.8%, narcotics trade with 4.3%, embezzlement of private funds with 3.2%, organized crimes with 1.6%, and embezzlement of public funds and illegal weapons trafficking with 0.5% each, while the remaining 55.8% of cases were not categorized. In cases related to terrorism, local sources provided 21 names (12 cases), the United Nations supplied 61 names (4 cases), foreign embassies forwarded 15 names (3 cases), and financial investigative units provided 6 names (3 cases).The SIC also examined a number of institutions to ensure compliance with Law 318. It covered 23 commercial banks, equivalent to 34.3% of the total, 34 insurance companies (63%), six brokerage firms (54.5%), 18 financial institutions (36%), and 73 currency exchanges (17.9%). Further, Europe was the main source of requests to Lebanese authorities, as it accounted for 51 requests, equivalent to 46.4% of the total, followed by North America and Latin America with 17.3%, the United Nations with 15.5%, the Middle East & the Arabian Gulf with 10%, Australia with 5.4%, Asia with 3.6% and Africa with 1.8% each.