By AML Intelligence Correspondents
THE WORLD’s FIUs are meeting in Paris next week where they will also elect a new chair.
The Egmont Group (EG) represents 174 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and has been without a full-time chair since Xolisile Khanyile stepped down as head of South Africa’s unit.
“Xolisile has been a huge loss. She was very highly regarded and had done great work in South Africa. In the world of fincrime it is acknowledged that South Africa could do with someone like her leading their battle against financial crime and corruption. Her leadership right now would be invaluable in getting Pretoria off the FATF grey list,” said one well placed source.
Egmont insiders believe Elżbieta Franków-Jaśkiewicz, current interim chair of the EG and Deputy Director of the Department of Financial Information of the Polish Ministry of Finance (Polish FIU) is the frontrunner to become the new chair.
She was formerly chair of Moneyval – itself now being chaired by the head of San Marino’s FIU.
Moneyval was engulfed in controversy last year when Bild newspaper reported that its executive secretary was linked to a Kremlin insider.
Igor Nebyvaev (39) moved to another position within the Council of Europe in Strasbourg following the Bild article.
The paper revealed how Nebyvaev is the son of a high-ranking officer of the Russian secret service SWR. Ukraine had expelled his father Vladimir Nebyvaev in 2018 as a result of the poison attacks on the intelligence lead Sergei Skripal.
As head of Moneyval, Igov Nebyvaev had insights into the anti-money laundering measures of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. He also participated in an evaluation of the German measures in June 2022.
Meanwhile, Egmont itself came under much focus last year when it held its annual plenary in Abu Dhabi and later announced UAE as a major funder.
Some 400 delegates, “international partners, and observers” will gather next week at EG’s plenary in Paris, being hosted by Tracfin, France’s Financial Intelligence Unit.
“As a global organisation, the EG both facilitates and prompts the exchange of information, knowledge, and cooperation amongst member FIUs. It offers a secure platform for sharing expertise and financial intelligence to combat money laundering (ML), associated predicate offences, and terrorist financing (TF),” the organisation said.
This year’s theme, ‘The Next Generation FIU’ looks at how officers keep up with new or emerging ML/TF, crime typologies and trends.
“The annual Plenary serves as a crucial platform for international collaboration, empowering the Egmont Group to harness the collective expertise, knowledge, and resources of its members to pursue shared goals,” said Mrs Franków-Jaśkiewicz, interim chair.
Attending will be Bruno Le Maire, Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, as well as Thomas Cazenave, Minister for Public Accounts and Raja Kumar, president of the FATF.
Mr Kumar will open the 2024 EG Plenary’s thematic discussion, followed by remarks from Antoine Magnant, Head of Tracfin. Mr Magnant was one of the keynote speakers at ‘European Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2024’ in Dublin earlier this month.
“As France is ready to welcome athletes and sports fans from all around the world for the 33rd Olympics Games, Tracfin is thrilled to welcome the Egmont community in Paris for the 30th Plenary, our AML-CFT Olympics,” Mr Magnant said.
“We look forward to a week of enlightening discussions and engaging efforts to continuously adapt to todays and tomorrow’s challenges,” he added.
The conference will be divided into three sessions:
- Developing the future workforce of the FIU.
- How will the future FIU use technology?
- Future FIU’s role in addressing emerging crime types.
During the week, the EG will also host the annual Best Egmont Case Award (BECA) Competition.
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