New Delhi, Sep 19:
Open source inputs like media reports, social media comments, tip offs and complaints form the bulk of information that leads the ED to identify potential money laundering cases, the FATF said on Thursday in its latest mutual evaluation report for India.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which steers the combat against money laundering and terrorist financing crimes, also lauded India’s systems and regime created for this battle as it asked the country to bring about “major improvements” to strengthen prosecution in such cases.
“The largest number of money laundering investigations are identified by ED (Enforcement Directorate) from open sources; from the general public, media reporting and information from social networks followed by verification of the information via the CCTNS (crime and criminal tracking network and systems) database and money laundering reports by LEAs (law enforcement agencies),” the report said.
The FATF said the ED uses “seven avenues” to identify potential money laundering cases which were led by open source platforms followed by referrals from LEAs, ED identification through an IT system that monitors predicate cases (the CCTNS), the ED Director’s orders, referrals from ongoing cases, FIU (financial intelligence unit) disseminations and international cooperation.
“A significant proportion of ML (money laundering) investigations are also based on direct referrals from ED nodal officers. Each LEA, both at the central and state level, have one of their own personnel appointed as a nodal officer to the ED.
“The nodal officer is normally a senior official, with a team of supporting officers who engage in day-to-day operations within the respective LEA, monitor daily operations and input data into the case management system (CCTNS),” the report said.
It also gave data in this regard saying open source platforms led to the identification of 84 money laundering cases in 2018-19, 249 in 2019-20, 447 in 2020-21, 548 in 2021-22 and 605 in 2022-October 2023.
The second best avenue for the ED to get information on potential ML cases was through referrals from LEAs that was 78 cases in 2018-19, 227 in 2019-20, 375 during 2020-21, 448 in 2021-22 and 396 during 2022-October 2023.
The rest of the sources had lesser numbers than these two inputs.
A team of FATF experts drawn from agencies belonging to Russia, UAE, USA, Brazil, United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan conducted the ‘on-site’ review as they were in India between November 6-24, 2023. The report for India was reviewed by experts from Portugal, New Zealand and Tajikistan, according to the FATF.
The report also had a word for ED’s manpower.
“Resourcing (for the ED) has increased steadily by about 50 per cent since 2018. Despite this, based on the National Action Plan, ED’s resourcing is projected to increase a further three-fold over the next five years.
“Based on the size and risks of the country and the expected volume and complexity of ML investigations and prosecutions, there is a need to increase the resourcing of ED,” it said.–(PTI)