New report warns of severe risks of money laundering in Sudan
April 2, 2019 (WASHINGTON) + The U.S. group Sentry Tuesday released a report about the existence of the severe risks for money laundering, terrorist financing, and other criminal activity in the Sudanese financial system.
The alert report compares the Sudanese law and policies with the international and U.S. anti-corruption standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) charged with regulating and monitoring anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.
The Sentry said that the comparison shows that the Sudanese government’s efforts to counter money laundering and terrorist financing are vastly inadequate.
“This inadequacy creates tremendous risk for international financial institutions and businesses operating in Sudan, and the regime’s reluctance to implement sufficient anti-money laundering measures demonstrates an unwillingness to tackle its own rampant corruption”.
The report comes as the Sudanese government despite the brutal crackdown on peaceful protests continues to call for Sudan removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Khartoum and Washington reached a deal on this respect last November but several sources say the removal of the designation has been compromised by the Sudanese government recent violations of human rights and freedoms.
The White House is expected to issue a decision on Sudan’s removal from the terror list in the upcoming months.
“Sudan’s weak anti-money laundering controls leave the entire country open to abuse by Bashir’s inner circle in Khartoum, but also to exploitation by criminal and terrorist networks operating in the country and region,” said John Prendergast, Founding Director of the Enough Project and Co-Founder of The Sentry.
Prendergast said that the Sentry’s report exposes how dangerous the illicit finance situation in Sudan as the government has failed to implement international anti-money laundering standards.
He further went to call on the United States administration to impose individual sanctions on those responsible for “grand corruption, grave human rights abuses, and threats to global security and the integrity of the international financial system.”
Also, Suliman Baldo, Senior Advisor to the Enough Project said to the widely spread corruption in Sudan has driven the nation’s economy to near collapse.
“Rather than killing and torturing citizens who rise up peacefully and call for an end to corruption and repression, the Bashir regime should take accountability for its own economic mismanagement and system-wide criminality,” he added.
(ST)