Exclusive
As of: 09/20/2021 4:42 p.m.
As early as May 2020, the Federal Ministry of Justice described the work of the money laundering investigation group FIU as “incompatible” with the Money Laundering Act. Their approach is “legally extremely questionable”.
The criticism of the Federal Ministry of Justice of the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) subordinate money laundering unit Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) from May 2020 was sharper than previously known.
From an opinion to the SWR Last Thursday it was only clear that the Ministry of Justice had warned the Ministry of Finance that the FIU had to adhere to the Money Laundering Act in its work. After now that SWR information available, the procedure of the FIU is described in the letter of May 15, 2020 as “incompatible” with the Money Laundering Act. The procedure is “legally extremely questionable”.
“Risk-oriented approach” in the criticism
The background to this is the controversial application of the so-called “risk-oriented approach” by the FIU. This is a kind of filter system with which the unit forwards relevant information from the existing reports of suspected cases to the law enforcement authorities. In the past, this has led to criticism from the judicial administrations of the federal states. They complained that doing this would no longer forward a lot of information to law enforcement authorities.
At the request of the SWR the Federal Ministry of Justice had not yet carried out an assessment of the FIU’s actions. In a written statement it is said that the Federal Ministry of Finance was informed in May 2020 that the FIU must immediately forward “all relevant information” not only in the case of money laundering and terrorist financing, but also in the case of other criminal offenses – “regardless of the risk-oriented approach”.
Literally it says: “If this should not be the case according to the representations of the federal states, the BMJV believes that the concerns should be taken up and the transfer practice checked so that it is in line with the AMLA [Geldwäschegesetz]Specifications can be guaranteed. ”
Hardly any concrete answers from the Ministry of Finance
The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Sarah Ryglewski (SPD), left on SWR– Communicate the request: After receiving the letter from May 2020, “a continuous process was initiated with all those involved [worden]in order to further optimize the work processes of the FIU while taking all matters into account. “She left unanswered the question of which departments and persons in the ministry were involved in the process.
The letter is currently the subject of a public prosecutor’s investigation against those responsible at the FIU for “distribution of punishments in office” by the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office.