As the spread of the coronavirus grows each day, the government in many nations are releasing funds to curb the further spread. Knowing that there is a possibility of losing some of these funds to corruption, our thirteen national chapters across Latin America have released a set of guidelines to prevent such. Also, last week, we have requested that key anti-corruption safeguards should be included in the package. The main aim of this is to ensure that agencies use funds allocated to fight the virus for its intended purpose and prevent criminals home and abroad from taking advantage of the situation.
Earlier last week, we have called that banks ensure rigorous and consistent supervision for anti-money laundering. Regardless, there has been more evidence supporting the alleged money laundering activity of Swedbank and has revealed that the bank was involved in the laundering of funds from Azerbaijan, Russia and Ukraine. Investigation showed that Swedbank and Baltic branches reportedly validated minimum of US$40 billion transactions noted to be high-risk between 2014 and 2019, without respecting the anti-money laundering obligations. We have therefore proposed ways with our national chapters in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden to help the government and enhance supervision in bank sectors.
