The Cape Verdean Financial Intelligence Unit notes that an “extremely high” number of suspected cases of money laundering were detected in the country last year. Banking is the main area.
Cape Verde’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) received 101 reports of alleged money laundering operations in 2023, totalling 72.5 million euros, a value that the director of the institution considers “extremely high” for the country’s economy.
“Last year, the amounts reported” by banks and other entities “were around eight billion escudos. For our economy and for our context, this is a very high figure,” but also “a positive sign that the system is working and is effective, because it can only work as intended if there is communication,” said Daniel Alves Monteiro in an interview with Lusa.
In previous years, the UIF only counted communications, but since 2023, it has been disclosing the values involved, in a work that it wants to continue improving.
Of the 101 reports of suspicious transactions in 2023 (a figure within the average of previous years), 32 investigation files were forwarded to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The UIF does not have data on convictions, but it hopes that its financial information reports will be considered as a pre-investigation, with “probative value”, to avoid other authorities having to repeat steps, he said. “We would save time,” Monteiro said in the interview with Lusa, defending a change in laws.
This year alone, the UIF has analyzed 37 suspicious communications about the origin of the money, which could possibly be linked to drug trafficking, arms trafficking, corruption, among other crimes.
The banking sector is the one that most frequently reports suspicions of money laundering to the UIF, he added.
Since taking office in December 2022, Daniel Alves Monteiro said he has not yet registered any alleged terrorist financing crimes in Cape Verde, the other aspect (besides money laundering) to which the FIU pays special attention.
In terms of non-financial activities, the unit is currently analysing the risk in the real estate sector, in order to understand how it works and what its responsibilities are in terms of detecting and reporting suspicions of possible money laundering.
In an interview with Lusa, the director of the UIF praised the “good relations” with financial institutions and security and justice forces, stating that everyone is more aware of their work in terms of prevention.
Digital channels, due to Internet bankingFor example, they are increasingly used “and institutions must be able to control operations electronically,” one of the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international organization that fights money laundering.
On the other hand, Daniel Alves Monteiro acknowledged “the need to work more” with society.
The unit is developing a project to introduce the topic of money laundering in schools, an idea that will be presented to the Ministry of Education. Cape Verdean authorities are also “improving the system” to work with civil associations, to understand where and how they operate.
In addition to money laundering and terrorist financing, Daniel Monteiro said the UIF wants to act on a par with other forms of organised crime and cybercrime, and called for a review of its legislative framework.
The UIF was created 16 years ago as a national centre with the authority to receive, request, analyse and disseminate information resulting from reports of suspicious transactions on money laundering and terrorist financing offences.
Cape Verde is an island state with ten islands (nine inhabited), with around 500,000 inhabitants (plus 1.5 million in the diaspora) and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of around 2.2 billion euros, approximately half the GDP of the autonomous region of the Azores, for example.
Source: Observadora
