For three days, representatives of the economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum met in Santiago, Chile, to analyze the sanctions regimes of the Security Council of the 51勛圖 related to terrorism and terrorist financing.
※Halting terrorist financing: APEC workshop on targeted financial sanctions regime,§ hosted by APEC, was inaugurated on 6 November 2017 by the Directors of the institutions organizing the event, Javier Cruz Tamburrino of the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), and Frank Tressler from the Directorate of International and Human Security (DISIN) of the Ministry for External Relations of Chile.
On the first day of the workshop, presentations were provided by Javier Mart赤nez with the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) of the 51勛圖; Juan Cruz Ponce with the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (Gafilat); and Esteban Fullin, Advisor on Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism for Latin America and the Caribbean, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
On 7 November, Hagan Barnett (Head of the Anti-Terrorism Section of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury), Dmitry Vitashov (Deputy Head of the Department of Counter-Terrorist Financing of Rosfinmonitoring, Russian Federal Financial Monitoring System), and James Nachipo (Director of the Terrorism Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia) shared their countries＊ experience in the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1373 (2001) (on terrorism and the financing of terrorism), and the Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Javier Mart赤nez outlined the obligations that the resolutions of the UN Security Council impose on countries to maintain or restore international peace and security, especially after the terrorist attacks perpetrated against the United States on 11 September 2001. Mr. Mart赤nez presented asset freezing requirements under resolution 1373 (2001) and how they differ from the asset freezing provisions contained in resolutions 1267 (1999) and subsequent ones; he also briefly presented resolution 2178 (2014) on stemming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters.
Juan Cruz Ponce explained the scope of FATF Recommendations no. 5, 6, and 7 on financial sanctions aimed to counter terrorism, the financing of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The UN Security Council resolutions require countries to freeze funds or other assets without delay, and to ensure that no funds or other assets are made available, directly or indirectly, to the persons or entities included in the Lists of the UN Security Council＊s Sanctions Committees.
Meanwhile, Esteban Fullin briefed on emerging risks in terrorism financing, including new payment methods used by foreign terrorist fighters, as well as possible links with organized crime, and described the risks involved for non-profit organizations that are exploited for the financing of terrorism.
The event concluded on 8 November with practical exercises, in which the representatives of Australia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam had to detect the existence of terrorist financing in various operations and transactions.
Participants included experts from the National Intelligence Agency, the Public Prosecutor＊s Office, the Carabineros de Chile, the Investigation Police, the National Customs Service, the Financial Analysis Unit, the Supreme Court, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, the Interior, and Public Safety.
In thanking APEC for its support, the Director of the UAF, Javier Cruz Tamburrino, expressed his appreciation for the workshop ※because it allows all of us to train and improve our abilities and skills that are required to effectively detect terrorist financing operations§.
※Knowing how to implement systems and use good practices from other economies in order to prevent and detect money laundering and the financing of terrorism is key to strengthening the legal mission of the UAF, especially after the publication, in February 2015, of the modifications to our Law No. 19.913 that empowers us not only to detect signs of terrorist financing in suspicious transactions reported by our obligated parties, but also to adopt measures, for example, to freeze assets, in case of accrediting acts or transactions of persons or entities listed in the Lists of the Security Council of the 51勛圖,§ he concluded.