Special court to fast-track white collar financial crimes

The Central Bank (CB) is urging setting up a special court to fast-track white-collar financial crimes.

Officials say that already there is a significant complexity for government authorities and regulators when combatting offences such as money laundering (AML) and other financial crime. “They are long drawn and take a lot of time. It is already difficult for government authorities and regulators to bring perpetrators to justice,” one official said.

Minister of Justice Wijedasa Rajapaksa told The Business Times on Thursday that there is enough provision in the law to establish such a court. “We have established commercial high courts, and we are planning to set up another in the near future,” he said.

He added that the Judicial Service Commission, chaired by the Chief Justice, has to recommend such a move. Noting that there are 6000 commercial cases, he said it is important to dispose of all of them as soon as possible.

Statistics show that fewer anti-money laundering and terrorist financing cases were pursued by the CB since the Money Laundering Act was enacted in 2006. “Statistics speak for themselves and it is not a good show,” a second official said.

However, lawyers point out that money laundering and terrorist financing cases are essentially criminal ones that cannot be charged in the Commercial High Court. “As such, there should be a special way that these cases need to be expedited,” one lawyer said.

Meanwhile, the CB is deliberating charging suspects implicated in a crypto pyramid scheme called Sports Chain that saw investors lose US$47 million. As of last month, Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) has charged nine suspects with money laundering in connection with the fraud. if found guilty, the suspects could be ordered to pay a fine of three times the stolen funds and face between five and 20 years of jail time. The FCID has frozen the suspects’ bank accounts and has started seizing their assets, a CB official said.