AML-CFT ESCAY Project

We held our very last training activity under the AML CFT ESCAY Project in South Africa🇿🇦 last week. And what a way to end the project! Together with the Financial Intelligence Centre, we organised a week-long national training for South Africa's officials on investigation and prosecution of complex Money laundering and terrorist financing. With the South Africa placed on the grey list in 2023 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), our training last week contributed to supporting the country in her effort to exit the grey list; and to strengthening and equipping South Africa’s key stakeholders with necessary knowledge, skills, and tools on effective investigation and prosecution of ML/TF offences. On day 4, we were privileged to have Mr. Ismail Momoniat, Special Advisor to the Department of Justice and Head of South Africa’s Delegation for ICRG Matters, and Adv. Rodney de Cock, Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions, along with Muluken Yirga Dubale, esaamlg org’s focal person to South Africa’s ICRG matters. Both senior officials spoke to the training participants, and provided guidance focusing on the ICRG process and the critical need of strengthening operational capacity on how to investigate and prosecute ML/TF and related matters to comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and to ensure a robust AML/CFT system. The workshop's closing ceremony was colourful as trainees dressed up in traditional attire. We were privileged to be joined by Mr. Ngoni Mangoyi, Director of Financial Stability of the National Treasury, Ms. Julia Tloubatla, Senior Manager of Operations of the FIC and Mr. Jyrki Tomi, Head of Governance, Infrastructure and Green Section at the European Union's Delegation to South Africa, along with Frédéric Bayard, AML-CFT ESCAY Project's Director. Our senior technical advisor Tuemay Aregawi was in the lead of this training. #europeanunion #southafrica #training #moneylaundering #greylist #followthemoney #financialintelligence #investigations #prosecution #lawenforcement

Our senior technical advisor Alma Wanyama recently attended Zambia's National Annual Prosecutors' Conference, in Lusaka. This year’s conference, centred around the Pursuit of Prosecutorial Excellence-Inter-Agency Cooperation and Global Alliances. The guest of honour at the opening ceremony of this high level conference was Zambia's Vice President, Her Excellency Mutale Nalumango. In his speech, the host and Director of Public Prosecutions, Gilbert A. Phiri said, 'The complex challenges we confront cannot be effectively addressed by any single agency or nation acting in isolation. In our increasingly interconnected world, the significance of inter-agency cooperation and global alliances cannot be emphasized enough. By uniting our expertise, resources, and experiences, we can truly elevate the standard of prosecutorial excellence. I am delighted to witness such a diverse gathering of representatives from various agencies and countries here today'. In her speech, Alma Wanyama said, 'Following Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s recommendation - to have an in-country coordinated approach in the fight against AML/CFT - it is obvious and of utmost importance that countries place their Prosecution departments at the center of AML-CFT-CPF investigations. This facilitates inter-agency coordination, collaboration and cooperation, first at the national level, but subsequently at the regional and inter-regional level. Zambia has already made a bold step in this regard. Earlier this year, our project supported Zambia – together with Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, in the development of a national training curriculum on Financial Investigation' #europeanunion #zambia #training #prosecution #financialinvestigation #curriculumdevelopment #interagency #cooperation #FATF

This week, we are in Pretoria, South Africa🇿🇦, at the invitation of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre, for a week-long national training on investigation and prosecution of complex Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing offences.   The background of our presence here this week is to support South Africa’s efforts to exit from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s grey-list, which took effect in February last year. The FATF placed South Africa under increased monitoring for its strategic deficiencies in complying with international standards and requirements. By mid this year, South Africa had largely addressed a good number of the action items within the specified deadlines and is expected to implement the remaining action items within the agreed time-frame before mid-next year, to exit the Grey List. South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) requested support from EU-funded AML CFT ESCAY Project to organise some trainings. In line with this, and after consultations with the FIC, the EU Delegation to South Africa, and with Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), we organised a national training on investigation and prosecution of complex Money laundering and terrorist financing offences.    This training is hands-on, practice oriented and designed in line with FATF action plan, to ensure South Africa's “sustained increase in investigations and prosecutions of serious and complex money laundering and the full range of TF activities”.   We opened this training workshop in Pretoria on Monday. We were privileged to have Ms Julia Tloubatla, the Acting Senior Operations Manager at South Africa’s FIC and Mr Jyrki Tomi, the head of governance, infrastructure and the green Section at the EU Delegation to South Africa.   Leading the AML CFT ESCAY Project team in Pretoria is our team leader Frederic Bayard and senior technical advisor, Tuemay Aregawi. We are also joined by very experienced trainers from the esaamlg org including Muluken Yirga Dubale and Phineas Rameshovo MOLOTO; as well as experienced analysts, investigators and prosecutors from the Republic including Willem Venter, Tazi Nemaorani Nemaorani, Coleen Brown, luckson mgiba and Tshepang Moagi.   Participating institutions include various units from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigation (DPCI) of South Africa Police Service (SAPS), National Prosecution Authority (NPA), the Investigative Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) of the NPA, South African Revenue Service (SARS) among others.   Our objective is to strengthen and equip South Africa’s key stakeholders with necessary knowledge, skills, and tools on effective investigation and prosecution of ML/TF offences. #training #europeanunion #southafrica #moneylaundering #investigations #followthemoney CIVIPOL

We just concluded a week-long training in Kigali, Rwanda 🇷🇼, organised for officers from the Central Bank of Rwanda, also known as Banki Nkuru Y’u Rwanda. This virtual training was possible thanks to support from the European Union. After assessment on its AML-CFT system by the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), Rwanda was found to have some deficiencies, especially in having its application of risk-based supervision across both financial and non-financial sectors; the absence of ML/TF risk assessment on virtual asset service providers (VASPs, limited understanding of Terrorist Financing risks and a low level of Beneficial Ownership identification, among others. In its effort to implement key recommendations outlined by the esaamlg's Mutual Evaluation Report, the Central Bank of Rwanda requested the AML CFT ESCAY Project for technical assistance to strengthen its risk-based AML/CFT supervision of the financial sector. The bank supervises wide range of institutions, in addition to the emerging demand to inspect VASPs. In collaboration and supervision of the Central Bank, we took up the request, developing an AML/CFT supervision manual and a risk-matrix manual which will guide the Central Bank and other relevant officials in the financial sector. We also organised a virtual workshop for Central Bank's staff, to build their capacity in utilising the risk matrix/model and on risk-based AML/CFT supervision.   The technical assistance sought to improve the Central Bank’s risk-based AML/CFT supervision capabilities and thereby improve Rwanda's compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards and requirements. This training and the technical assistance was led and coordinated by our Senior Technical Advisor, Tuemay Aregawi, with the support of Filomena Bispo #training #rwanda #europeanunion #civipol #esaamlg #centralbank #followthemoney #mutualevaluation Nina Thècle Paul Gitobu Michael Black

It was a great pleasure for heads of CIVIPOL projects based in Nairobi to pay a courtesy call to the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Ms Susan Koech, PhD The three CIVIPOL projects represented at the meeting were - AML CFT ESCAY Project, Regional Operational Centre in support of Khartoum, ROCK and Better Migration Management programme, BMM. The heads of projects included Frédéric BAYARD, Marco Bufo and herve jamet. At the meeting, the CIVIPOL team expressed gratitude for the cooperation and support received from the Central Bank of Kenya over the years, including the signing of an MoU between the two parties. On her part, Ms Susan Koech, PhD also thanked the team for the partnership, including trainings offered by the AML CFT ESCAY Project which have benefited the Bank's teams and Kenya's banking sector at large. She urged the team to continue working with the Central Bank to enhance the areas of AML-CFT, especially in the banking sector. #collaborating #banking #financialintegrity #financialintelligence #kenya #civipol #partnerships Frédéric BAYARD Tuemay Aregawi Alma Wanyama Paul Gitobu Michael Black Vincent Dubois and Antoine Triffaux

We are in Juba, South Sudan🇸🇸! At the request of the South Sudan Financial Intelligence Unit, and working hand-in-hand with Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), we have jointly organised an in-country AML/CFT/CPF assessors training for South Sudanese officials. The week-long training, which the European Union is fully supporting to the benefit of South Sudan, will be guided by Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s and ESAAMLG’s training standards. At the opening ceremony yesterday morning, we were very honoured to have Hon Garang Majok Bol, the first undersecretary in South Sudan's ministry of Finance and Planning, Hon John Daniel Kipa, the Commissioner of the FIU in South Sudan and Lothar Jaschke, the Acting Head of the EU Delegation to South Sudan.   The objective of the training is to train and equip potential AML/CFT/CPF assessors with necessary knowledge and skills to plan and undertake mutual evaluations and assessments of their country's compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF)'s technical and effectiveness standards. We were also joined by the esaamlg's trainers and representatives, including Muluken Yirga Dubale, Tirivafi Nhundu, Chris Likomwa, Valdane Jorge Joao, and Tom Kennie Malikebu. The AML-CFT ESCAY Project team is represented by Tuemay Aregawi, the senior technical advisor, Paul Gitobu, the project Coordinator and Ruth Watetu, Project Liaison officer. In his opening remarks, Lothar Jaschke said,'The European Union has a long record of supporting the government's efforts to tackle money laundering and counter terrorist financing. The South Sudanese FIU was set up with EU funding and we stand ready to support the Unit's capacity building. We acknowledge South Sudan's efforts towards fulfilling the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and implementing the Action Plan as a sign of the country's determination and commitment to combat money laundering and terrorist financing' By the end of this week, the participating trainees are expected to acquire the theoretical and practical knowledge, skills and tools to objectively assess national AML/CFT/CPF compliance and recommend actions to take in line with the updated FATF methodology and standards. #southsudan #europeanunion #fatf #followthemoney #esaamlg #compliance #fatfrecommendations #moneylaundering #terroristfinancing #financialintelligence #effectiveness Tuemay Aregawi Paul Gitobu Muluken Yirga Dubale Michael Black Ruth Watetu

We wrapped up our training in Windhoek, Namibia🇳🇦 on Friday. It's was an intense 5 days of immersive learning for over 40 Namibian officials. We are very grateful to the Namibia Financial Intelligence Centre, for their incredible support and organisation, and without whom this training workshop would not have been possible.   Ian Dupont, the Deputy ambassador at the EU Delegation to Namibia, officiated the closing ceremony and the awarding of certificates to the participants.   The participating officials were drawn from the Namibia Financial Intelligence Centre, Namibia Police Force, Namibia's Anti Corruption Commission, Namibia Central Intelligence service, Office of the Prosecutor General, Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority, and the Namibia Revenue Agency. This assistance provided by the European Union through the AML CFT ESCAY Project is expected to assist Namibia to sufficiently implement relevant action plans and to enhance Namibia’s compliance with the relevant Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards and thereby exit the grey list as quickly as possible. #namibia #greylist #fatf #europeanunion #training #followthemoney #moneylaundering #crossbordercrime #organisedcrime #financialinvestigations #financialintelligence Frederic Bayard Tuemay Aregawi Jacinta Oduor Muluken Yirga Dubale Nina Thècle Ruth Watetu  

We are back to Windhoek, Namibia for another week-long training for Namibian officials on money laundering and terrorist financing investigation, prosecution and asset recovery. With support from the European Union, through its Delegation to Namibia, we are honoured to be part of this second week of training. The first week of training was held in July, here in Windhoek. The backdrop for the first and this second round of Training is the grey listing of Namibia by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in February. This assistance provided by the European Union through the AML CFT ESCAY Project is expected to assist Namibia to sufficiently implement relevant action plans and to enhance Namibia’s compliance with the relevant Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards and thereby exit the grey list as quickly as possible. This week's round of training will build on the foundation laid by the first in July. In July, the participants learnt about the Concepts and process of financial intelligence analysis, Information evaluation, strategic analysis, Effective use of intelligence – that is, converting intelligence into evidence and on esaamlg good practices and guidelines on financial intelligence analysis. This week, the training will focus on Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards and requirements on Money laundering and terrorist financing investigation and prosecution; the Techniques and tools of Money laundering and terrorist financing investigation; Parallel financial investigation, Asset tracing, freezing and confiscation, Multiagency cooperation and information sharing among many other relevant topics. We are thankful to all the support provided by the Namibian Financial Intelligence Centre in jointly organising this training. Silke Höfs , programme officer at the EU Delegation to Namibia graced the opening ceremony this morning, together with Gerrit C Eiman, the Deputy Director of Namibia's Financial Intelligence Centre. Leading our project in Windhoek this week is Frederic Bayard, the project team leader and Tuemay Aregawi. We are also very lucky to have highly experienced trainers for the week, Jacinta Oduor and Muluken Yirga Dubale #training #FATF #moneylaundering #investigations #namibia #eu #followthemoney #prosecution #assetrecovery #esaamlg

Our project team leader Frédéric Bayard and senior technical advisor, Alma Wanyama, are in Zimbabwe to hold high level meetings with Zimbabwe's officials. Yesterday, they met representatives from Zimbabwe's National Prosecution Service, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the National Police. Among other issues, they discussed support in the development of a Handbook on National Inter-agency Guidelines on the Investigation and Prosecution of Money Laundering, Terrorism and Terrorist Financing. They also discussed the development of a national Training Curriculum on Financial Investigations. The Director General of the Zimbabwe FIU, Oliver Chiperesa stated that with Zimbabwe first in line to be assessed in the upcoming 3rd round of mutual evaluations by esaamlg org, there was an urgent need for the country to address gaps in its AML-CFT regime, including improving inter-agency cooperation and coordination. The development of the Guidelines Handbook and the training curriculum on Financial Investigations would help the country achieve this goal. The Zimbabwean officials expressed that they were fully committed to the process and were ready to start the development of these two documents as soon as possible. #zimbabwe #europeanunion #civipol #financialinvestigations #curriculumdevelopment #training #fatf #greylist #esaamlg #followthemoney Tuemay Aregawi Michael Black Paul Gitobu

Yesterday, at the ongoing esaamlg's 48th Task Force Meeting of the Senior Officials meeting, CIVIPOL and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH shared a podium to present to member states the upcoming European Union-led action for Africa, dubbed SECFIN. SECFIN will contribute to the fight against IFFs linked to transnational organised crime, money laundering and terrorism financing with the goal of increasing domestic resources mobilisation, stabilisation and security in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project, funded by the European Union, Germany🇩🇪 and France🇫🇷 for 4 years, will work in 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The SECFIN project is slated to start activities in the last quarter of this year. Kathinka Kurz, representing Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, also presented a new regional programme, in partnership with the Africa Union, which will strengthen development financing by combating illicit financial flows and effective debt management in Africa. This project is commissioned by the German government. Paul Gitobu spoke on behalf of CIVIPOL and the AML CFT ESCAY Project. #cooperation #Africa #TeamEurope #IFFs #financialintelligence #organisedcrime #development #security #esaamlgat25 Frederic BAYARD Alma Wanyama Tuemay Aregawi Paul Gitobu Michael Black Juliet M. Quentin Sagot