papali ’ i t scanlan : preventing money laundering and financing of terrorism in samoa speech by mr papali ’ i t scanlan, governor of the central bank of samoa, at the anti - money laundering and countering terrorist financing activities workshop for non - profit organizations in samoa, apia, 13 may 2009. * * * dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. at the outset, i would like to welcome all of you to this anti money laundering and countering terrorist financing activities workshop, which is specifically designed for nonprofit organizations ( or npos ). thank you for accepting our invitation, and especially for sparing the time to be with us this morning. the main objective of this one day workshop is to promote and enhance your individual organization ’ s awareness and understanding of the important aspects involved in fighting the offences of money laundering and the financing of terrorism in samoa. i understand that there are more than four hundred ( 400 ) npos registered with the ministry of commerce, industry and labor ( mcil ). however, we have adopted a selective approach with the assistance of mcil in identifying yourselves, as being the important entities to kick start this “ awareness raising program. ” on that note, i would like to thank the mcil for the support provided to the central bank in coordinating this important event. let me also thank several representatives of the various government ministries who are here with us today. we appreciate your accepting of our request to share with the participants your knowledge and experience in this field of your ministry ’ s work, which reflects your regulatory role towards preventing and / or detecting criminals offences, including money laundering. this is the first workshop of its kind on this important topic, with emphasis on the role of the npos to detect and prevent the offences of money laundering or terrorist financing activities. money laundering and the financing of terrorists are problems that should concern us all. they are not problems for only the government and the law enforcement agencies to worry about. rather, the public sector, the business community, the private sector and even ordinary citizens must play a role in combating these illegal activities. this workshop is therefore opportune, as it covers one of the important sectors, other than financial institutions. i am referring of course to yourselves, the non - profit organization sector. non - profit organization sector there is a strong belief internationally that the non - profit organizations sector is one of the more vulnerable sectors, which criminals would try and exploit to conduct their illegal activities without attracting much

set out the measures national governments should take to implement effective anti - money laundering programs. the fatf works closely with other international bodies involved in fight against money laundering. and, one of those international organizations is the asia pacific group on money laundering ( the apg ) in which samoa is a member. the apg was officially established as an autonomous regional anti - money laundering body in february 1997 for asia and the pacific region at the fourth asia / pacific money laundering symposium in bangkok, thailand. this was the culmination of a process of “ awareness raising ” in the asia pacific region initiated by the fatf as part of its global strategy. to date, the apg has 39 member countries and a number of international and regional observers, including the united nations, the imf and the world bank. as a member of the apg, samoa is required to undertake a domestic review of its npo sector to determine the degree of vulnerability to money laundering and terrorist financing activities. i should stress that this workshop is part and parcel of such a review. under the conditions of membership, all apg members have committed to implement the fatf forty recommendations and nine special recommendations. special recommendation viii relates to non - profit organizations. srviii calls on all countries to “ review the adequacy of laws and regulations that relate to entities that can be abused for money laundering and financing of terrorism. non - profit organizations are particularly vulnerable and countries should ensure that they cannot be misused : i ) by terrorist organizations posing as legitimate entities ; ii ) to exploit legitimate entities as conduits for terrorist financing, including for the purpose of escaping asset freezing measures ; and iii ) to conceal or obscure the illegal diversion of funds intended for legitimate purposes to terrorist organizations. ” what is the scale of the problem? by its very nature, money laundering occurs outside of the normal range of economic statistics. nevertheless, as with other aspects of underground economic activity, rough estimates have been put forward to give some sense of the scale to the problem. the international monetary fund ( imf ), for example, has stated that the aggregate size of money laundering in the world could be somewhere between two to five percent of the world ’ s gross domestic products ( gdp ). and using latest statistics, these percentages would indicate that money laundering range between 2 to 3 trillion us dollars. the program a quick look at today ’ s workshop agenda indicates that you have an intensive program ahead of you. you will be covering a lot