Scanner on casinos for money laundering, terror funding TNN 25 December 2009, 05:55am IST
PANAJI: To prevent money laundering and financing of terrorist activities, the Goa government has made it mandatory for casino owners to put in place a system to check customer identity and report transactions of over Rs 10 lakhs or any 'suspicious' transaction to the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND). The guidelines, notified by the home department on December 17 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Rules, 2005, will have to be complied with by all casinos registered under the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act, 1976. Money laundering involves disguising financial assets so that they can be used without detection of the illegal activity that produced them. There is no one single method of laundering money. Methods can range from the purchase and resale of a luxury item (eg. cars or jewellery) to passing money through a complex web of legitimate businesses and "shell" companies. Now with the government's notification, each registered casino must be able to satisfy itself that the measures taken by it are adequate, appropriate and follow the spirit of the requirements as enshrined in Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). According to section 12 of PMLA, every banking company, financial institution and intermediary has obligations to verify the identity of its clients, maintain certain records and furnish certain information to the director, FIU-IND. PMLA rules require appointment of a person as principal officer by each registered casino and inform his particulars to FIU-IND. He/she would act as a central reference point of the casino for the purpose of interaction with FIU-IND. PMLA rules also require casinos to verify identity of their clients. In case of account-based relationship, verification of identity is required in all cases, but in other cases verification is required only for customers who undertake transactions of an amount equal to or more than Rs 50,000, whether conducted as a single transaction or several transactions that appear to be connected. Every registered casino must report all cash transactions of more than Rs 10 lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency to FIU-IND. All series of cash transactions integrally connected to each other which have been valued below Rs 10 lakhs or its equivalent in foreign currency where such series of transactions take place within one calendar month also have to be reported. The casinos will have to ensure that all customer and transaction records are available on a timely basis to the competent investigating authorities. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Scanner-on-casinos-for-money-laundering-terror-funding/articleshow/5376520.cms
