GUYANA-Guyana crafting legislation for the forfeiture of assets derived from criminal activity.

.GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Guyana government is crafting legislation to allow the freezing of bank accounts, properties, and assets linked to people who may be involved in crime.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, speaking on his weekly “Issues in the News” program on Tuesday night, told viewers that the 27th INTERPOL Americas Regional Conference held here last week highlighted the growing connection between drug trafficking and illicit mining as criminal organizations seek new ways to manage their forces.

“This reflects a shift from isolated criminal groups to diversified transnational criminal enterprises that operate across multiple illegal markets. Interpol emphasized that law enforcement must go beyond seizing drugs and other illegal commodities and focus on following the money and identifying criminal assets.”

Nandlall said he has been speaking about this issue for some time, emphasizing that the new trend in law enforcement is to follow the money and target the assets of criminals and criminal enterprises.

“And this is the very issue that formed the focal point of the Interpol Secretary-General’s address at the conference. At the level of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, at the level of CARICOM Impacts, at the level of the RSS (Regional Security System), at the level of the individual law enforcement agencies of the different Caribbean territories, and the different law enforcement agencies of the Americas, that is the focal point, that is the focus in the future”.

Nandlall said that even at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Academy of Law, the theme has emerged as an important focus for the criminal justice system to pursue and prepare for.

He said the new slant in all Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML-CFT) legislation is in that direction.

“That is why our new AML-CFT Act Bill, which we are currently working on, places great emphasis on those remedial and procedural areas, forfeiture of assets and proceeds of crime.”

Nandlall told viewers that at the various conferences that he has attended regionally and internationally as well as locally, “I have made the point that our magistrates and judges have also to be cognisant of this new dimension, because repeated applications will now be made to the various courts across the judicial spectrum for orders such as freezing orders to freeze bank accounts, detention orders to detain properties, as well as forfeiture orders to confiscate properties that are implicated in or are considered proceeds of crime and criminality”.

He said prosecutors are being trained in this new endeavor and that the legislation to be implemented here “is now being crafted to achieve these new objectives, and therefore, those who are charged with the responsibility of interpreting and applying that legislation must necessarily become part of this machinery.

“The successful combating of crime requires the participation of many organs and agencies. You have the investigative arms, and this would include agencies such as the police force, CANU, the Guyana Revenue Authority, Financial Intelligence Unit, the Special Organized Crime Unit, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, etc”

Nandlall said that within these investigative arms, they now must have qualified persons to do sophisticated types of analysis, ballistics, forensic examinations of evidential materials, financial scrutiny, and analysis of movements of money and voluminous financial records.

“The Financial Intelligence Unit must also collaborate with its counterparts across the globe and international agencies with which it has working relationships. These must all coordinate,” Nandlall said, adding “the prosecutors have to be trained to present these types of evidence, and likewise, the courts have to be attuned to this new dispensation.

Nandlall said that he had argued and must be recognized that these statutory provisions are “sui generis” in nature, adding “they are generally penal.

“They may be considered oppressive, but that is the nature of the statutory framework which governs this new and emerging crime-fighting dimension. So, all the important players have to be in sync if we are to succeed against a very evolving and sophisticated criminal world, because criminals are investing heavily in technology and equipment, and they are exploiting every innovation available.

“Unless, on the other side of the law, these multiple agencies respond with commensurate sophistication and efficiency, then the criminals will continue to win the battle,” Nandlall told viewers.