-Caveat Lector- CRIMINAL LAW [01/27] France seek sanctions on hot money havens PARIS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday he had proposed an international plan against money-laundering including the option of cutting financial links with renegade offshore tax havens. Strauss-Kahn said he had submitted his plan to the Financial Action Task Force, a forum coordinating efforts by 26 countries on money laundering under instructions from a summit of the Group of Seven in 1998. Under this plan, banks and other offshore financial firms would have to report all suspect transactions or face a freeze on their offshore business. ``The final step -- if it proved necessary and we believe it could be avoided -- would be the atomic bomb in the operation,'' he told a news conference. ``Financial relations would simply be severed -- partially or entirely -- between financial institutions of these countries and those based in offshore centres which fail to comply with the transparency recommendations put to them,'' he said. ``These is a step-by-step process that would be followed and we can obviously hope that there would be no need to resort to the ultimate sanction,'' he said. Strauss-Kahn said he had sent the proposals a few weeks ago to the international task force, whose members include most of the 29 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a grouping of mainly industrialised nations. Agreement on France's plan would mark an significant advance in the regulation of ``offshore centres, which everyone knows are at least in part directly linked to money laundering and financial delinquancy,'' he said. The minister avoided naming names, but the proposals would put pressure on several countries including Britain, with links to offshore centres including the nearby Channel Islands and the more far-flung Cayman Islands, or the Dutch Antilles. He said the Financial Action Task Force had already produced a sort of condu ct code for offshore financial institutions and that the first step would be to ensure these were respected. If pressure to comply failed, the next step would be to make it obligatory for offshore institutions to report all doubtful transactions to an international agency called TRACFIN. This body had received 648 reports of dubious transactions in 1993 and that the number of annual tip-offs had now mounted to around 1,200, which illustrated the scale of the problem. The ultimate sanction of severed financial ties would only kick in where these other steps failed to bear fruit, he said. Strauss-Kahn unveiled the proposals at a news conference with Justice Minister Elizabeth Guigou on France's attempts to combat corruption in business and the laundering of ``hot money'' generated by organised crime. Guigou also presented draft legislation which would allow France to ratify an OECD convention against payment of bribes and commissions to public officials when firms compete for business contracts. The pact signed in 1997 by the 29 members of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is due to go into force at the end of this year, as long as a sufficient number ratify in time. Last Updated: 01/27/99 14:43 EST Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. http://legalnews.findlaw.com Copyright © 1994-1998 FindLaw Inc. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
