Senators concerned about abuse of power, crime

OPPOSITION Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial-Ramdial has expressed concern about possible abuses of power by certain entities during efforts to curb money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Independent Senator Dr Paul Richards has raised concerns about whether such crimes were being facilitated through unregulated gambling.

They made those comments in their respective contributions to debate on the Miscellaneous Provisions [Proceeds of Crime, Anti-Terrorism, Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago, Securities, Insurance, Non-Profit Organisations, Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth and Miscellaneous Provisions (FATF- Financial Action Task Force- Compliance)] Bill, 2024, in the Senate on November 29.

Referring to the earlier contribution by Finance Minister Colm Imbert, when he opened the debate, Lutchmedial-Ramdial said the bill seemed to give greater powers to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to ensure that different entities were compliant with FATF regulations to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism.

While she acknowledged the FIU played an important role in curbing such crimes, Lutchmedial-Ramdial was concerned about any situation where an organisation's powers were expanded and those powers could be abused.

She cited a case in July where some firearm dealers complained their rights were infringed when the FIU sought certain information from them, without providing the dealer with a suspicious transaction report (STR), to support her argument.

Lutchmedial-Ramdial said, "It should never have happened."

She suggested that government examine the bill to ensure that no entity could seek sensitive information from other organisations without some kind of judicial oversight.

Lutchmedial-Ramdial told senators that crime was often classified as being driven by emotion or by money.

She said if the latter could be curbed, it could have a ripple effect on reducing all other types of crime.

Lutchmedial-Ramdial said crimes such as home invasions and robberies often involved items such as jewellery being stolen and the perpetrators converting them into quick cash.

She added if no such avenues were available, it reduced the incentives for people to engage in those types of crimes.

Lutchmedial-Ramdial said the enforcement of laws to curb financial crimes was just as important as having those laws.

She was uncertain of the number of people convicted of money laundering.

Lutchmedial-Ramdial also said it was not uncommon for some countries that want to get off financial black or grey lists, to seek to charge people at the lower levels of a society while leaving people engaging in financial crimes at the upper end, untouched.

Richards asked whether unregulated gambling was posing a problem with respect to providing avenues for money laundering and financing of terrorism.

He told senators of anecdotal stories he heard about illegal gambling taking place in certain establishments in the East-West Corridor, Central and South Trinidad on a level that was in excess of the legal gambling undertaken by the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB).

Richards said, "We can't bury our heads in the sand about this."

He added it should not be a situation where a hole was plugged on one end "while we allow a sluice gate to open on the other side."

Richards said the Parliament and the state would be guilty of dereliction of duty if that happened.

In response to some of Richards' questions, Imbert said the Gambling and Gaming Act should be proclaimed into law either later this month or in January.

He was confident it would help to address the concerns raised by Richards about illegal gambling.