FATF to set sights on environmental crime

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 26

The global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), better known for tackling money laundering and terrorist financing, will now turn its attention to ‘environmental crime’, one of the most profitable criminal enterprises, generating around $ 110 – 280 billion in criminal gains each year.  It covers a wide range of unlawful activities such as illegal logging, illegal wildlife trade and waste trafficking.

The FATF has called on all countries to assess their money laundering risks related to the illegal wildlife trade and to ensure that there is a robust legal framework to go after the finances of wildlife traffickers, and to pursue financial investigations.

These activities can have far-reaching implications for the environment, economy, and public health and safety. The FATF is focussing on the link between environmental crime and money laundering.  This work aims to raise awareness about the financial flows that fuel environmental crime and how they are laundered, FATF Chairman Marcus Pleyer said.

The FATF’s work on environmental crime will build on its earlier work on how countries can combat money laundering from the illegal wildlife trade. The illegal wildlife trade is a major transnational organised crime, which generates billions of criminal proceeds each year.

One of the most effective ways to identify the broader criminal networks, and take the profit out of this crime, is to follow the financial trails of wildlife traffickers. 

FATF’s report on environmental crime is expected to be published next month and will inform possible future policy development. The study will identify the common methods used by wildlife traffickers to launder their money.  It will also highlight proposed actions that countries and the private sector can take to combat this trade.