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11 September 2020, 17:22

Belarus shares anti-corruption, anti-money laundering experience in Prague

MINSK, 11 September (BelTA) – Belarus' delegation presented the country's experience in combating corruption and money laundering at the final meeting of the 28th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum that was running in Prague on 10-11 September, BelTA learned from the Financial Monitoring Department of the State Control Committee of Belarus.

The meeting focused on increasing transparency and the supremacy of law in preventing and fighting corruption. Deputy Head of the Financial Monitoring Department Aleksandr Prokopenko addressed the meeting. He noted that taking the possibility to use illegal income from corrupt officials is an effective method to combat corruption and shared an example from Belarus' experience.

According to Aleksandr Prokopenko, a man opened an account in one of Belarusian banks under power of attorney on behalf of a foreign national. Within a month, a total of $3.6 million was transferred to the account from a foreign bank in tranches. The man withdrew the money under power of attorney and immediately put it into his wife's account in the same bank.

“These operations aroused suspicion in the bank. Moreover, thanks to special software that automatically checks whether clients are on various lists, the bank found out that the man's surname coincided with that of a high-ranking official of the country the money came from. The bank sent a report about the suspicious operation to the Financial Monitoring Department,” Aleksandr Prokopenko said.

After exchanging information with other appropriate agencies, the department found out that the high-ranking official was detained on suspicion of stealing $5 million from the public funds.

After collecting additional data and getting confirmation from Interpol that the money transferred to Belarus was obtained illegally, the department opened a criminal case of money laundering.

This way, the foreign official who stole public funds using his position was prevented from using these money.

Photos courtesy of the Financial Monitoring Department

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