ARMENIAN FINANCIAL MONITORING CENTER FREEZES $800,000 WORTH FUNDS FOR 6 JOBBERY CASES IN 2008

ARKA
March 26, 2009

YEREVAN, March 26. /ARKA/. In 2008, Financial Monitoring Center of the
Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) analyzed 46 cases on which 11 reports
were sent to the law-enforcement bodies, says the annual report of the
Center on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism measures for 2008.

Based on 6 cases of jobbery established, the Center froze funds form
a total of about $800,000.

In the period under review, number of mandatory reports on transactions
for over 20-50mln Drams and more (real estate transactions) was 93,396
in the Center’s database against 77,730 in 2007.

Number of reports on doubtful deals received from financial
organizations was 37 last year (including 36 reports from Armenian
commercial banks and one report from a currency trader) as compared
to 24 in 2007.

Over the reporting period, the Financial Monitoring Center received
17 requests from the foreign financial investigative bodies, 25
requests from the local investigation agencies and 19 requests from
the law-enforcement bodies.

In its turn, the Center sent 17 requests to the foreign financial
investigative bodies and 59 requests to the local investigative
agencies.

Total number of reports in the Center’s database was around 224,500
at the end of 2008.

The Financial Monitoring Center of Armenia was established on December
14 2004 as per the country’s law about anti-money laundering and
anti-terrorism measures.