By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Legalising the web shop industry removes a “serious flaw” in the Bahamas’ anti-money laundering regime just prior to an inspection by international watchdogs, one of its key legal advisers said yesterday.
Alfred Sears QC told Tribune Business he understood that web shop gaming would have “figured very prominently” in the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) upcoming assessment of the Bahamas’ anti-money laundering defences had the sector not been legalised and regulated.
The former attorney general said an unregulated domestic gaming industry, and the hundreds of millions of dollars moved around it annually, would have been a “considerable danger” to the Bahamas’ reputation as a well-regulated financial services centre.
But, with the anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer (KYC) provisions contained in the newly-passed Gaming Act, Mr Sears said the web shop gaming industry’s regulatory standards were equal to those of Las Vegas’s casino sector.
He described the industry’s previous situation as “untenable, because it exposed the Bahamas to weakness in its anti-money laundering regime”.
“I think it was a serious flaw in the anti-money laundering regime,” Mr Sears told Tribune Business on the absence of regulatory measures, “and as we know, the Bahamas is subject to a review later this year by the CFATF.
“It is certainly my understanding that this issue would have figured very prominently in that review. Fortunately for the Bahamas, that issue has been satisfactorily resolved because that [anti-money laundering] standard is equivalent to international standards to ensure the source of funds and KYC.
“This is an excellent beginning in rectifying an arrangement which posed considerable danger to the Bahamas as a well-regulated financial centre.”
Mr Sears said the Gaming Act “very effectively” deals with the anti-money laundering concerns by treating domestic web shop operators as financial institutions, making them liable - and with obligations - under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act and Proceeds of Crime Act.
“The gaming house operators are required to observe the same KYC and anti-money laundering standards as any other financial institution, bank and trust company, lawyer and accountant,” he told Tribune Business.
“I think the regulatory standard is the same for gaming house operators as it would be in Las Vegas and other international gaming locations.”
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 1 month ago
The pocket book of Mr. Sears has been well stuffed by the racketeering numbers bosses for the role he has gingerly played in representing the interests of these criminals. In his youth Mr. Sears showed a great penchant for venturing on very misguided paths of one kind or another and it seems he has had a serious relapse in that regard. This relapse was no doubt caused by a faulty moral compass that was never truly fixed notwithstanding all the help he has received in life to try keep him on the right track. They say only a thug ever truly understands and appreciates another thug as this demands a very convoluted and warped rationalization process ....something like birds of a feather tend to flock together.
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