Compliance Commission addresses terrorism funding

By JASMIN BONIMY, Guardian Staff Reporter

Jasmin@nasguard.com

The country's watchdog for money laundering is now being challenged by terrorism financing.

Speaking exclusively to The Nassau Guardian, Stephen Thompson, inspector of the Compliance Commission said his department has been mandated to address the financing of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

"When we talk about anti-money laundering we have to recognise that very recently the combating of terrorist financing has also been added to that initiative," said Inspector Thompson. "Therefore now you would find that most persons would hear the terminology being used along with anti-terrorist financing.

"I say that to say right now our challenge is not only money laundering; it is also terrorist financing," he continued. "So whatever we do moves in that direction."

Insp. Thompson added that detection of terrorism financing has proven to be more difficult than money laundering.

"Many people use those terminologies interchangeably but money laundering is very different from terrorist financing," Insp. Thompson explained. "Money laundering is really the process by which a person actually tries to clean up ill-gotten funds. This means that they get it into the financial service sector and they take it back out clean.

"Terrorist financing on the other hand is much more challenging in that persons even use legitimate funds to finance terrorist activities," he continued. "So you're not talking about looking at terrorist behaviour because it may not show up in the first point. So terrorist financing is very challenging."

The Compliance Com-mission Inspector also claimed that there have been no cases of terrorism financing in The Bahamas. He credited this to the strict regulations put in place by the government over the past two years.

"We have the Anti-Terrorism Act which was passed in 2004 and that is specifically geared towards combating terrorism so the law is working with us," he said. "We would think that certainly with the regulatory framework in place persons will be discouraged from supporting terrorist activities."

But Inspector Thompson insisted the Commission must remain up-to-date on international terrorist activities if it plans to remain successful. "I feel as though once we are working towards strengthening the regulatory framework and we have persons in there who are keeping abreast of what is happening globally we will be successful," he said.

© 2006 The Freeport News