KATHMANDU, AUG 19 -
The government finalising the Prevention of Money Laundering Act- 2010 in line with the international standard has forwarded it to the Legislative-Parliament for endorsement.

Nepal had assured international panels like Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental organisation of G-20, that the Act will be as per the international standard.

Nepal has already signed a pact with Thailand, Magnolia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Sri Lanka to share information about money laundering and funding of terrorist activities. After the deal, Nepal can freeze the assets of terror suspects and seize as well as transfer assets of the person involved in money laundering to the authorities of other countries if found guilty.

According to the provision of the Act, those, any nationals either Nepali or foreign, found funding terrorists or

terrorism related activities inside Nepal will be sent for life imprisonment and their property will be seized. All illegal investment from foreign countries will be prohibited once the Act comes into effect.

“For this reason, some legal binding should be in place such as Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA),” said an official involved in preparing the Act. Nepal is among the 20 countries listed by the FATF as seriously deficient in anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing of terrorism (CFT) efforts.

Earlier, Nepal could not meet the criteria of adequately criminalising money laundering and terrorism financing, establishing, and implementing adequate procedures to identify and freeze terrorist assets, implementing adequate procedures for confiscation of funds related to money laundering, and enacting and implementing appropriate mutual legal assistance legislation.

After the Act, Nepal needs to ratify some international treaties like transnational organised crimes, convention against corruption, terrorism financing. Nepal also needs to prepare the framework of MLA, which will recognise the evidence obtained from abroad to present at the court. The necessity of such an act was sought as criminals involved in money laundering and terrorism financing may go abroad after committing a crime.

Nepal has also pledged to establish a web-based national network connection among the government agencies that look into money laundering activities.

Posted on: 2010-08-20 08:13

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