Montego Bay, September 24, 2019 – Jamaica – The Government is moving to sign the CARICOM Agreement on the Sharing of Recovered Assets, which is intended to strengthen regional cooperation in this area by establishing a framework for the return or sharing of illicitly acquired proceeds that have been confiscated.
Chief
Technical Director (CTD) in the Ministry, Rohan Richards, said the Agreement
will also facilitate the provision of assistance to victims of money laundering
and increased financing for regional security institutions. He was speaking during the recent Asset Recovery
Inter-Agency Network of the Caribbean (ARIN-CARIB) Annual General Meeting at
the Hilton Rose Hall Resort in St. James.
Jamaica’s
signing of the regional agreement is expected to complement legislation that
Mr. Richards said the Ministry is pursuing to implement an asset recovery
incentivisation scheme.
“This
scheme will allow those agencies that work to combat money laundering to be
able to utilise a portion of the funds recovered in order to improve their capacity
and operational effectiveness,” he explained.
The
CTD said this is expected to go a far way in enabling agencies, such as the
Financial Investigations Division (FID), “to successfully pursue more criminals
under the Proceeds of Crime Act”.
Meanwhile,
Mr. Richards said the Ministry will be seeking to introduce legislation to address
illegally acquired finances and assets. This,
he indicated, will target persons in possession of assets deemed
disproportionate to their financial standing, who are unable to reasonably
explain the source of such gains.
“The
introduction of these provisions will signal to criminals and facilitators of
criminal activity that the Government of Jamaica is serious about taking away
illicitly acquired wealth,” the CTD pointed out.
Additionally,
Mr. Richards said it is expected that these measures will be a “significant
deterrent to criminal activity, as there is a greater risk of losing the wealth
criminals would have gained through illicit enrichment”.
Representatives
from more than 25 member countries attended the two-day ARIN-CARIB conference,
which featured presentations on several topics.
These included ‘Gold Smuggling Typologies’; ‘Best Practices in the
Seizure of Cryptocurrencies’; and ‘Unexplained Wealth Orders’.
Mr.
Richards said organisations such as ARIN provide a platform for stakeholder
dialogue on matters encountered by financial investigators, members of the
judiciary, prosecutors, and lawmakers alike.
The
forum, he added, enables law-enforcement officers to “remain ahead of the curve
on matters that are current and allow for the development of appropriate
counter-measures to limit the actions of criminals”.
The
ARIN networks are globally recognised as a judicial and law-enforcement tool
used in targeting persons involved in organised crime, with particular focus on
financial and asset deprivation.
There
are eight ARIN networks currently in operation around the world.
Contact: Garwin Davis
Release: JIS
Photo Captions:
Header: Representatives from 25 member countries who
attended the recent Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network of the Caribbean
(ARIN-CARIB) Annual General Meeting at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort in St.
James.
Insert:Chief Technical Director in the Ministry of
National Security, Rohan Richards, speaking at the recent Asset Recovery
Inter-Agency Network of the Caribbean (ARIN-CARIB) Annual General Meeting at
the Hilton Rose Hall Resort in St. James.
Photos – Garwin Davis