ABOUT ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING (AMLU)

Introduction

CICAD’s Anti-Money Laundering Unit (AMLU) was established in late 1999, due to CICAD's increased activities of training and assisting member states in the control of money laundering.  The Unit focuses its efforts on providing technical assistance and training on judicial and financial measures and also to law enforcement agencies. It also act as the technical secretariat of CICAD’s Experts Group on Money Laundering Control.

The CICAD Experts Group on Money Laundering Control is the hemispheric forum to debate, analyze and provide conclusions regarding the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.  Through this Group of Experts, the Model Regulations on Money Laundering Offenses related to Drug Trafficking and other criminal offenses were developed. These regulations serve as permanent legal documents to provide a legal framework to member states.

In the past few years, CICAD-AMLU and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) established a partnership to develop programs and projects to be undertaken in the region. In 1999 IADB-CICAD program started to train employees from the banks and from the financial supervision institutions responsible for controling asset laundering in eight South American countries. In 2001 another program was developed for judges and prosecutors in the eight South American countries. In 2002 a long-term project was started to established and developed financial intelligence units (FIUs) in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Similar links were established with the governments of Canada, the United States of America and with the National Drug Plan of Spain (PND) for joint efforts for training programs in the region.

In addition, the AMLU has the capacity to develop, supervise and undertake technical assistance and training courses related to the legal framework of money laundering control, be it through the analysis or development of laws, or their implementation (law enforcement).

The most noteworthy programs carreid out by the Unit are:

- Bankers and Regulators: Awarded by the IADB in 1999, it was developed to provide training and technical assistance to financial entities on the typologies of money laundering offenses used in financial institutions.

- Judges and Prosecutors: Developed in partnership with the PND of Spain and complemented with the IADB, it seeks to train each country’s judiciary on money laundering techniques and their criminalization.

- Financial Intelligence Units: Coordinated by CICAD and the IADB, this program seeks to develop and create institutions to control and analyze tendencies in organized crime to launder assets.  Training and assistance is provided in the legal, institutional, training and technological areas.

- Law Enforcement Training on Money Laundering: law enforcement agencies are being trained in 1) strategic techniques to facilitate financial investigations that reduce the proceeds of all serious crimes and improve prosecutions of money laundering/terrorist financing offences and 2) the seizure of property related to these criminal activities. Through the implementation of this project, the law enforcement agents will have the capacity to enhance their operations and build an effective response to those criminal activities.