The Roles and Duties of the F.I.U.

C.F.A.T.F. is an inter-governmental organization made up of twenty-four member countries and is headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago.  It is chaired by Samuel Bulgin, the Attorney-General of Cayman Islands. The task force has a list of requirements for each of the countries that it evaluates. In Belize, the Financial Intelligence Unit is usually tasked with gathering information in circumstances where monies were questionably transacted. The unit’s Deputy Director, Leni Ysaguirre-McGann explained how the office works, after which Andrew Dalip, a consultant supporting Belize explained how he is assisting the country.

Leni Ysaguirre-McGann

Leni Ysaguirre-McGann, Deputy Director, Financial Intelligence Unit

“At the Financial Intelligence Unit we have several functions. One of them is that we are the recipient of information, which we call intelligence reports, suspicious transaction reports that assist investigative authorities in terms of detecting and identifying crime when it happens. At the Financial Intelligence Unit, we also have an investigative limb, so would tend to happen is that we receive intelligence, not only from entities that are obligated to report certain information, but also from other “competent authorities,” so we have law enforcement, supervisory authorities, we receive information and our role as an intelligence body is to develop that information. We look at it, we use our sources of information to try and add value and understand what’s happening, and then from that, we determine if it should be forwarded to someone else, whether outside of the F.I.U. or within the F.I.U. to further investigate. Part of the evaluation is that they will not only check on what the authorities are doing but they will also be interviewing the private sector to also ensure that we say we’re doing is actually trickling.”

Andrew Dalip

Andrew Dalip, Consultant for Belize

“As Belize is preparing for this mutual evaluation, which the folks from CFATF have explained, peers coming from other jurisdictions to examine the country’s position to see where we are in terms of establishing and implementing the anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism and combating the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction systems, I’m supporting the country in terms of its preparations for that examination. Someone trying to get money to buy components for a nuclear weapon, chemical weapon , biological weapon it cam pass through the entire global financial system. Belize is an integral part of that system and in order to protect the entire global community everybody has to do their part, including
Belize.”