Trinidad and Tobago's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has received 13,400 reports of "suspicious activity" and 200 of them are under investigation. Attorney General John Jeremie told Parliament Friday the FIU has ruled out the majority of the thousands of reports as being unrelated to criminal activity.
He was addressing the House of Representatives on amendments to two pieces of anti-money laundering legislation, which have been passed and sent to the president for proclamation by midnight Saturday.
The bills expand and establish the FIU within the Finance Ministry and clamp down on money laundering and other suspicious transactions.
The government rushed the legislation to meet a deadline of Friday imposed by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body whose purpose is the development and promotion of national and international policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
The 'policy-making body' created in 1989 to bring about legislative and regulatory reforms in these areas had given the Trinidad and Tobago government until Friday to pass the legislation in time for the FATF to conduct an audit of Trinidad and at a meeting in Paris on Monday.
Read the 9 special recommendations of the task force
The bills only required a simple majority, which enable their easy passage. However the opposition had some serious concerns during debate on the pieces of legislation.
UNC MP Subhas Panday said he had serious concerns about a $250,000 fine and three years jail for persons who knew of "suspicious activity" and remained silent. He was also critical of the failure of the state to have an effective witness protection program for police informers.
Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj was unhappy that the bills were rushed through Parliament without giving MPs enough time to examine the regulations to the bills.
Maharaj cited his Tabaquite constituency as an example where people are afraid to report crime since criminals would retaliate against them.
PNM House leader Imbert told Maharaj he had his chance to speak during debate but didn't.
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