Cape Town - The Financial Intelligence Centre’s (FIC’s) collaboration with law enforcement, revenue authorities, intelligence services and supervisory bodies has resulted in the recovery of more than R5 billion in criminal assets during the 2021/22 financial year.
The FIC plays a pivotal role in providing financial intelligence to law enforcement and other authorities for their investigations and applications for asset forfeiture as the FIC does not conduct investigations.
In a foreword to the FIC’s latest annual report, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the FIC’s partnerships and collaborative efforts were central to its mandate of identifying proceeds of crime and assisting in combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
According to the report, 45 555 institutions registered with the FIC at year-end and filed more than 5 million regulatory reports, including 533277 suspicious and unusual transaction reports.
The banking sector was the largest contributor of regulatory reports, having filed close to 4 million cash threshold reports and 379363 suspicious and unusual transaction reports in 2021/22.
Using the regulatory reports it received from accountable and reporting institutions and other data, the FIC produced 3 114 financial intelligence reports during the financial year under review, for use by law enforcement and other authorities in their investigations, prosecutions and applications for forfeiture of assets.
According to the reports, the FIC and supervisory bodies were authorised to conduct inspections to ascertain whether Schedule 1 and 3 institutions were meeting their compliance obligations. A total of 1 143 such inspections were conducted by the FIC and supervisory bodies in the financial year.
Following their inspections, the FIC, the Prudential Authority (PA) of the SA Reserve Bank (SARB) and Financial Sector Conduct Authority imposed financial penalties for non-compliance to the value of more than R41.6 million.
The FIC also published risk assessment reports on seven sectors, including property practitioners, legal practitioners and gambling institutions to assist in identifying, mitigating and managing the inherent money laundering and terrorist financing risks they faced.
Meanwhile, the SA Anti-Money Laundering Integrated Task Force (Samlit) gained fresh impetus during the year under review. This was as a result of the NPA’s Investigative Directorate and Asset Forfeiture Unit, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, SA Revenue Service and the Special Investigating Unit all joining the organisation.
According to a report on Samlit’s activities between January 2021 and March 2022, Samlit’s tactical operations groups assisted in addressing specific financial crime investigations by providing details for analysis to the FIC and the Fusion Centre.
Samlit is chaired by the FIC’s director, Xolisile Khanyile, who said: “The various expert working groups in Samlit are assisting in identifying financial crime trends and associated money flows.”
Important insights on criminal behaviour were being revealed, he said. Over the past few years, there had been a noticeable increase in the uptake and use of the FIC’s financial intelligence.
“The focus on following the money flow is critical in uncovering individual and syndicated crimes.”