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FATF Eyes Push to Make Tax Evasion a Predicate Crime of Money Laundering

By Colby Adams

An influential international anti-money laundering group may request that its members pass legislation tying tax evasion to money laundering as part of an effort to to pierce Swiss bank secrecy. The potential plan by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which would ask that tax evasion be considered a predicate crime of money laundering, is currently in the "technical discussions phase," said Alexandra Wijmenga, a spokesperson for the intergovernmental Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is assisting FATF. The discussions follow a Swiss court's decision to block the turnover by UBS AG of data on 4,450 U.S....

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