The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has published a report on money laundering / terrorist financing risks and vulnerabilities associated with gold. The report arose as a result of the apparently natural transition or displacement of money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) from the formal financial sector and the cash market to the gold market, as regulators and law enforcement harden those environments.

Key chapters in the report are:

• chapter 2 which identifies the features of gold that make it attractive to criminal organisations as a mechanism to move value;
• chapter 3 maps the nature, source and scope of gold production, markets and trade, to assist practitioners to recognise the common predicate offences that occur in the gold market.; and
• chapter 4 builds a library of ‘red flag’ indicators that could assist designated non-financial businesses and professions, financial institutions and others in identifying and reporting suspicious activities associated with ML and TF in the gold sector.

View Money laundering and terrorist financing risks and vulnerabilities associated with gold, 20 July 2015