15 Countries Named as Potential Money-Laundering Havens
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The world’s leading industrial nations named 15 countries and territories today, including Israel, the Philippines and Russia, as potential havens for ill-gotten wealth. The list is the culmination of a decade-long effort to act against money-laundering centers. It was issued after United States and European officials grew concerned that bank secrecy and weak regulation in some nations contributed to the devastating financial turmoil in Asia and Latin America in the late 1990’s. The action does not punish the named countries or cut them from the world financial system. But it effectively warns banks and brokerage houses to scrutinize all financial transactions with customers in those countries as possibly linked to crime or high-risk transactions. The United States and several European nations said they would follow up with bank advisories and criminal sanctions that would have the effect of driving legitimate financial business from the listed centers, depriving them of a lucrative source of tax revenue. Most of the havens were well known in banking circles, but wealthy nations had not agreed to identify them publicly. One concern was diplomatic protocol. Some countries, like Israel and Russia, have long been spared serious scrutiny because of their influence. Some smaller island nations and territories relied on former colonial masters like Britain and France to protect them from criticism. More : query.nytimes.com |