Yesterday the Dutch government announced that the FATF-evaluation of the Netherlands on crime-fighting (‘anti-money laundering’, ‘AML’, and anti terrorist financing) has been made definitive. The Dutch government later this year will comment on FATFs findings.

FATF is an undemocratic and unsupervised vehicle that is created and upheld by the U.S. and other large countries, that creates anti-crime legislation for the whole world that violates fundamental human rights. Simon Lelieveldt describes FATF as follows:

The FATF could be seen as the extended enforcement / intelligence arm of the US, geopolitically. It has succeeded to the extend that no one criticises their existence and legitimacy. But that doesn’t make things legitimate. See the longread here.

For the real picture on FATF read the twitter thread that Simon Lelieveldt published today (see also threadreader):

All right. I need to state something on the FATF mutual evaluation of the Netherlands anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist
financing measures.

First, here is the report.https://t.co/RsXpAcu2cj

— Simon Lelieveldt (@finhstamsterdam) August 25, 2022

Information on the FATF-evaluation of the Netherlands

• Announcement by the Dutch government: FATF beoordeelt Nederland positief in evaluatie aanpak witwassen, 24 August 2022.
• Letter of the Minister of Finance to the Dutch parliament (Dutch), 24 August 2022.
• FATF evaluation report, rijksoverheid.nl.
• Dutch translation of the summary and the most important recommendations of FATF, rijksoverheid.nl, 24 August 2022.

After having read the evaluation, I will comment on it on this blog.

Background information

For background information on FATF look at the sources Lelieveldt mentions in his twitter thread, e.g.:

• Chapter 8 Non-State Actors as Invisible Law Makers?—Domestic Implementation of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards, from: Changing Actors in International Law, 2020.
• The Making of Neoliberal Globalization: Norm Substitution and the Politics of Clandestine Institutional Change, 2019
• Becoming a Monster – Analysing the Necessity and Proportionality of Subjecting VASPs to the Ever-Growing Scope of the European Anti-Money Laundering Directive, thesis B.J.G. Loew, 2019/2020.
• Paper by Ben Hayes, 2012, explaining that in essence the US succeeded setting up an international structure to suit their geopolitical and imperial needs for surveillance and control, with critical words on disproportionality and overkill of the FATF approach against terrorism.
• Article by Todd Doyle, 2002, written shortly after 9/11 that explains how the FATF structure has grown out of US policy developments and how the FATF as such violates a range of international treaties.

Lelieveldt has a blog, with many articles discussing FATF.

On this blog I pay attention to anti-money laundering in general and the role of FATF.

Niets over de grote schade die de door @FATFNews aanbevolen systemen toebrengen aan burgers en organisaties; niets over de disproportionele kosten; niets over de ongeschiktheid van vele #Wwft plichtigen voor misdaadbestrijdingstaken

— Ellen Timmer (@Ellen_Timmer) August 30, 2022

Amendment 25 August 2022
Threadreader source added.

Amendment 29 August 2022
Most articles on the evaluation follow the news by the Dutch government. Of course sectoral organisations do not dare to be critical.
Some sectoral organisations: notaries (KNB), accountants (NBA).

Amendment 30 August 2022
I added my twitter comment in Dutch.