The Presidency of the Public Ministry organized a meeting to present a scientific guide on research and investigation techniques for money laundering and terrorist financing offences.
The guide provides practitioners in the field of criminal justice with the national and international legal framework for the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, as well as the description of the path of the criminal investigation in this type of crime in accordance with the requirements Financial Action Task Force (FATF), international standards and agreements and Security Council resolutions.
The document, which is part of Morocco’s continued efforts in this area, aims to implement the action plan that was approved by the FATF’s enhanced monitoring team.
Speaking on this occasion, the King’s Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, President of the Public Ministry, El Hassan Daki, recalled the promulgation, a year and a half ago, of Law No. 12-18, which strengthened the system national legal and institutional framework in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, as well as Morocco’s assessment in this area, over the past four years, by FATF experts for North Africa and the Middle East .
Thus, the presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the rest of the services in charge of law enforcement are working to carry out a series of projects aimed at increasing the efficiency and quality of judicial investigations, monitoring, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime, in addition to the activation of parallel financial investigations, the mechanisms of international cooperation and coordination with all the authorities concerned with the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, at their head the National Authority of Financial Intelligence (ANRF), he underlined.
After having raised the agreements signed between the Presidency of the Public Ministry, the Moroccan Capital Markets Authority (AMMC), the Court of Auditors, Bank Al-Maghrib and the ANRF, he noted that cooperation with the Authority in with regard to requests for information, has contributed to enabling public prosecutor’s offices to benefit from the services available to the Autorité, with an immediate and secure exchange of financial information.
Likewise, he said that the cooperation with Bank Al-Maghrib has made it possible to create a support mechanism for parallel financial research and to obtain financial information in a short time, which is reflected in the indicators of performance of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judicial Police, having been the subject of the two circulars issued by the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office on November 19, 2019 and April 30, 2021, thus recording an increase in the number of cases which rose from 55 in 2018 , when Morocco was subject to evaluation by the FATF, to 850 cases in 2022.
And to conclude that this scientific guide provides a set of good practices in the field of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and traces a path of research and investigation in accordance with international standards, in particular those of the FATF .
For his part, the president of the ANRF, Jawhar Nfissi, indicated that the guide is the fruit of the continuous efforts made by the presidency of the Public Ministry, referring to the field visit which will be carried out by a team of experts from the FATF from 16 to 18 January 2023.
And to note the progress made by the national system for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism over the past four years, particularly in the area of compatibility with the relevant international standards at the legislative or regulatory levels or in terms of efficiency.
To this end, he recalled the importance of the two circulars of the Presidency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which established the principle of parallel investigation as a basic procedure provided for by international standards on money laundering and terrorist financing. , noting the extension of territorial jurisdiction in matters of money laundering, to the courts of Casablanca, Fez and Marrakech, while it was exclusive to the Court of 1st instance of Rabat.
According to Nfissi, the process of mutual evaluation of relevant national systems by specialized international bodies is no longer an occasional process but now takes on a character of continuity.
The ANEF Council, as the national coordinator in this area, has published a five-year strategic plan which includes continuing action to increase the efficiency of the national system and intensify cooperation and coordination between the Authority and the authorities in charge of applying the law on the one hand, and between the Authority and the supervisory and control authorities on the other hand, in accordance with a proactive approach to preparing assessments future, he concluded.