EU-lid Bulgarije staat op de internationale schurkenstatenlijst van FATF (landen die onvoldoende zouden doen aan de geprivatiseerde criminaliteitsbestrijding, ook bekend als ‘witwasbestrijding’).

FAFT schrijft in oktober van dit jaar:

In October 2023, Bulgaria made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and MONEYVAL to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime. Since the adoption of its MER in May 2022, Bulgaria has made progress on its MER’s recommended actions to improve its international cooperation. Bulgaria will work to implement its FATF action plan by: (1) implementing its national AML/CFT Strategy through adopting a comprehensive action plan; (2) addressing the remaining technical compliance deficiencies; (3) demonstrating initial implementation of risk-based supervision for postal money operators, currency exchange providers and real estate agents and establishing market entry controls for VASPs and postal money operators; (4) ensuring that the beneficial ownership information held in the Register is accurate and up-to-date; (5) completing the implementation of the automated system to ensure more automated prioritisation of STRs; (6) improving investigations and prosecutions of different types of money laundering in line with risks, including high-scale corruption and organised crime; (7) ensuring that confiscation is pursued as a policy objective; (8) ensuring the ability to conduct parallel financial investigations in all terrorism investigations; (9) addressing gaps in the TF and PF targeted financial sanctions (TFS) frameworks; and (10) identifying the subset of NPOs most vulnerable to TF abuse and demonstrating initial implementation of risk-based monitoring to prevent abuse for TF purposes.

Meer FATF over Bulgarije: hier.

Ook Kroatië is volgens FATF nalatig op het gebied van de witwasbestrijding (zelfde bericht uit oktober):

(Statement from June 2023)

In June 2023, Croatia made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and MONEYVAL to strengthen the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime. Since the adoption of its MER in December 2021, Croatia has made progress on its MER’s recommended actions to improve its system by licensing and monitoring the registration of VASPs, enhancing and implementing more effective sanctions in supervisory activities and enhancing implementation of preventive measures for high-risk sectors. Croatia will work to implement its FATF action plan by: (1) Completing the national risk assessment, including assessing the ML/TF risk associated with the misuse of legal persons and legal arrangements and the use of cash in the real estate sector; (2) Increasing FIU human resources and improving analytical capabilities; (3) Continuing to improve LEAs detection, investigation and prosecution of different types of ML, including ML involving a foreign predicate offences and the misuse of legal persons; (4) Demonstrating a sustained increase in the application of provisional measures in securing direct/indirect proceeds, as well as foreign proceeds subject to confiscation; (5) Demonstrating the ability to systematically detect and where relevant investigate TF in line with its risk profile; (6) Establishing a national framework for the implementation of UN TFS measures and providing guidance and conducting outreach and training to the reporting entities; and (7) Identifying the subset of NPOs most vulnerable to TF abuse and providing targeted outreach to NPOs and to the donor community on potential vulnerabilities of NPOs to TF abuse.

Meer Kroatië bij FATF: hier.

Verder staat kandidaat-lid Albanië op de schurkenstatenlijst van FATF (bericht oktober, meer Albanië bij FATF):

The FATF welcomes Albania’s significant progress in improving its AML/CFT regime. Albania strengthened the effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime to meet the commitments in its action plan regarding the strategic deficiencies that the FATF identified in February 2020 related to (1) conducting additional in-depth analysis to understand its ML and other risks sufficiently, and enhancing institutional coordination and cooperation; formalising the economy and reducing the ML/TF risks posed by the widespread use of cash; and registering property ownership information across nearly the entire country (2) improving the timely handling of mutual legal assistance requests; (3) establishing effective mechanisms to detect and prevent criminal infiltration of the economy, including by strengthening competent authorities’ powers to take necessary action; (4) ensuring that accurate and up to date basic and beneficial ownership information is available on a timely basis; (5) increasing the number and improving the sophistication of prosecutions and confiscations for ML, especially in cases involving foreign predicate offenses or third-party ML; (6) improving the implementation of targeted financial sanctions, in particular through enhanced supervisory action and targeted, proactive outreach. Albania is therefore no longer subject to the FATF’s increased monitoring process.

The FATF welcomes Albania’s commitment to respect the FATF principles in case Albania introduces a VTC programme in the future.

Albania should continue to work with MONEYVAL to sustain its improvements in its AML/CFT system.