GOVERNMENTAL CORRUPTION AND LARGE SHADOW ECONOMY MADE ARMENIA POTENTIALLY VULNERABLE TO MONEY LAUNDERING AND TERRORIST FINANCING SCHEMES: US STATE DEPARTMENT’S COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM 2007
arminfo
2008-05-02 15:41:00
ArmInfo. Endemic governmental corruption, a significant organized
crime presence, and a large shadow economy made Armenia potentially
vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing schemes,
say the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2007.
Armenia’s counterterrorism contribution included its continued
commitment to overflight and landing rights of U.S. military aircraft,
additional security support to U.S. facilities in Armenia during times
of terrorist alert, and the renewed deployment of peacekeeping forces
in Iraq. In addition, Armenia joined the Global Initiative to Combat
Nuclear Terrorism, and expressed interest in joining the Convention for
Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. In September, a delegation of
inspectors from the UN Counterterrorism Committee Executive Directorate
visited Armenia to ascertain its progress in complying with UNSCR 1372,
and found that 12 of the 13 legal counterterrorism instruments had
already been implemented or were soon to be implemented. And in July,
the Armenian government succeeded in adapting the EU export control
list of "dual-use" commodities to its own national control list.
The Financial Monitoring Center (FMC), a U.S.-supported financial
intelligence unit within the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), continued
to make investigative strides against money- laundering. During the
first nine months of the year, the FMC received twenty-four suspicious
transaction reports (STRs), compared to twenty-three STRs during the
same period in 2006, and six STRs in 2005. Under its current mandate,
the CBA can freeze temporarily financial assets while referring the
STRs to the competent authorities for further investigation. However,
it must rely on private financial institutions to self-monitor and
lacked an integrated IT system to store information on financial
entities or individuals of concern. At the end of the year, no cases
involving terrorist financing were uncovered or prosecuted. The FMC
received Egmont Group membership this year.
Armenia improved border security by maintaining an automated Border
Management Information System (BMIS) that documented and stored
the names of travelers at nearly all official points of entry, and
contained criminal and terrorist watchlists as updated by the Republic
of Armenia Police (RAP) and National Security Service (NSS). While
Armenia has no bilateral agreement with the United States governing
the sharing of information on travelers, the NSS and RAP shared
information with the U.S. Embassy when they discovered fraudulent
U.S. visas or other documents of interest to the United States.
Although Armenia continued to strengthen its counterterrorism
capabilities and enhanced its counterterrorism cooperation with
the United States and other international security organizations,
its geographic location, porous borders, and loose visa regime still
provided ample opportunities for traffickers of illicit materials,
persons, and finances.