South Africa establishes forensic unit to fight financial crimes
has established a forensic unit to help the government fight corruption and prosecute complex financial crimes, part of an effort to have South Africa removed from a global watchdog’s dirty-money watchlist.existing structures, the centre’s executive manager, Christopher Malan, said. It’s expected to help expedite asset forfeiture and prosecutions, he said.
The Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based agency, placed South Africa on its so-called grey list in February because of the state’s shortcomings in tackling illicit financial flows and the financing of terrorism. The decision followed an era of endemic government corruption under former President Jacob Zuma that his successor Cyril Ramaphosa estimates cost the economy at least R500-billion.
The national treasury has allocated R265.3-million to the FIC, which the agency will use to hire staff for the forensic unit and its expanded supervisory role, Malan said. “The lion’s share of the funding is going to go to increasing the supervision capacity,” he said. “We are looking at close to 60 000 entities we would have to bring into the net,” a 10-fold increase, and the aim is to have them all registered by December, Malan said. “The FATF needs us to account on this early next year.”
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