Poland cracks down on ill-gotten booty

Poland stepped up efforts to combat money laundering and the funding of international terrorism by gaining full membership in the Egmont Group (EG), an international forum of financial intelligence organizations, according to Jacek Uczkiewicz, the group's general inspector of financial information. Money laundering is a complex financial process used to dissociate crime proceeds from their source, allowing criminals to spend or further profit through legitimate investments. The terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center last year highlighted the use of money laundering in the funding of terrorist organizations and reinforced EG's efforts to combat the problem. "This is a great achievement for Poland, Polish legislation and the Polish financial system because acceptance into the EG is a form of certification for countries and financial intelligence units," Uczkiewicz said. "This certification enables full international collaboration with other units of this type around the world."

"Tip of the iceberg" Since the passing of legislation aimed at combating money laundering in Poland in June 2001, Poland's General Financial Information Inspectorate (GIIF) has received reports of 360 suspect financial transactions totaling zł. 1.3 billion ($325 million), leading to 81 investigations and 37 prosecutions involving a total of zł. 400 million ($100 million), a result that Uczkiewicz branded as positive. "This is just the tip of the iceberg because the law is formally in force but its adoption by the finance sector will take many years, but this is the case in all countries," Uczkiewicz said. "This initial period has been a good start for us." Members of EG or financial intelligence units such as GIIF prosecute offenders based on reports of suspicious transactions from financial organizations, such as banks, investment funds, law enforcement agencies and foreign financial intelligence units. EG was established in 1995 as an informal group aimed at supporting the financial intelligence units of its 69 member states.

Dirty money transit country Poland's role in the international money-laundering system is still marginal since its financial institutions do not offer "many complex financial tools that render transactions anonymous," Uczkiewicz said. "More dirty money is generated than laundered here, but it is a market where money is invested," he said. But experts on money laundering disagree, arguing that Poland's money-laundering countermeasures are relatively new, and the staff of financial and security organizations are still inexperienced. "Poland is an interesting country for money launderers since we have a relatively stable financial system, but we do not have staff in these organizations who can immediately identify and report suspicious transactions," said Marzena Bożelska, a consultant on money laundering for the anti-corruption organization Transparency International. "I would say that Poland is a transit country where cash is converted into various non-cash forms and moved to developed countries …" EG membership will increase the effectiveness of the GIIF by plugging it into the group's computerized monitoring system and databases, bolstering its powers to combat cross-border money-laundering transactions, and paving the way for participation in training and legislative activities, Uczkiewicz said.