BANK JOINS BID TO HIT MONEY LAUNDERING

A joint public/private initiative is set to turn the screws tighter on
gangland's high flyers and drug lords who launder their money through
legitimate business transactions.

Community safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane announced that Standard Bank has
agreed to bankroll the training of 25 specialist investigators and
prosecutors in all aspects of money laundering and the new legislation
governing financial transactions.

Ramatlakane said the 25 would be drawn from the police, receiver of
revenue, Scorpions, assets forfeiture unit and national prosecuting authority.

"We are developing and building the capacity of the various agencies and
will use an integrated approach to fight organised crime and their high
flying bosses.

"This partnership with Standard Bank is just the beginning. We are looking
at long-term projects like the bank sponsoring victim support centres and
adopting police stations."

Anina Borman, Standard Bank's provincial human resources manager, said the
training was a springboard from which other projects would emanate.

"The training will focus on money laundering and we will look at enhancing
the skills of investigators and prosecutors," said Borman.

She said it was also an opportunity for Standard Bank to establish stronger
ties with the police.

"We are also looking at service issues where we can help out
administratively at police stations, which would enable officers to be free
to patrol the streets."

She said the public/private partnership was vital as financial institutions
could be the weakest link in the criminal activity chain if they did not
equip themselves with the necessary training.

Ramatlakane said in terms of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act there
was an obligation on businesses to run a thorough background check on where
monies, especially large sums, came from.

The act was designed to combat money laundering while encouraging banks to
know their clients.

It requires customers opening new bank accounts to provide additional
personal information to comply with new anti-money laundering legislation.

It also imposes strict duties on institutions and their employees where
they encounter incidents of money laundering.

Additional information includes proof of a residential address, a utility
bill, a bank statement, municipal rates/tax invoice or a Telkom account,
and no cellphone numbers are allowed.

One of the methods used by criminals to clean dirty money, was to purchase
immovable property and then sell it again, often at a suspiciously lower price.

Provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros said the training was in
line with police philosophy of not only working harder, but also working
smarter.

"There is a high drug consumption in the province and this means there are
large sums of money that comes from this.

"But the high flyers rarely touch drugs, but we know that they are dealing
(in drugs)."

He said the training meant investigators would look beyond traditional drug
"routes" in trying to bring down the druglords.

"The money and property is usually linked to the high flyers. If we find
that somebody is dirty we will bring them down.