The Cambodian agency charged with fighting money laundering in that Southeast Asian country has pronounced itself impotent to fight the practice.
According to a senior official of the Financial Intelligence Unit (CAFIU) of Cambodia, the unit has so few agents and is so underfunded that it is unable to effectively combat the crime. The unit has not successfully investigated money laundering activity since its founding in 2008. It only has 10 people to investigate 38 banks and 37 micro-finance institutions, not to mention many casinos in the country.
Last year the international Financial Action Task Force, which fights money laundering and the financing of terrorism, downgraded Cambodia to a “dark-gray list” for its inability to fight money laundering.
Money laundering in the country appears to center on Cambodia’s gaming industry, which are legally required to report suspicious transactions to the government, but have failed to report even one. Most of the casinos in Cambodia are foreign owned, but a regulatory agency has recently been formed, which some expect to institute minimum internal control standards to combat the crime.
