By SEAN DOUGLAS Tuesday, October 13 2009

TABAQUITE MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj yesterday said there were so many holes in the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Bill, passed by both Houses last week, that the Bill would prove to be a “gift” to criminals.

He was speaking to Newsday yesterday. The Bill was due to be proclaimed by President George Maxwell Richards on Saturday, ahead of a deadline on which the country would have been blacklisted, but yesterday sources at President’s House could not say whether or not it had been approved. Many felt the Bill was rushed before all its implications could be fully understood.

Maharaj said, “I have no doubt the provisions of this Bill will be challenged by anyone who is charged.” He said the Constitution in section 13 allows a court to strike down an unconstitutional section of a bill, even if it was passed by a special majority. He complained the FIU is being set up under the Ministry of Finance rather than independently.

“Would a machinery set up in a minister’s office contaminate and pollute the investigation and prosecution process?”

He said if the FIU does not have functional and administrative independence, and if it is not insulated from political interference, someone who is prosecuted under the Bill could raise a constitutional motion to complain of a lack of due process. Maharaj predicted the Bill would not succeed, and it would not curb money-laundering, a realisation that actually came as no surprise to him. He said, “From 2002 to 2009 there has been not a single prosecution for money laundering.” Maharaj said the Government had disbanded the Anti Money Laundering Unit that he had set up when he had been Attorney General, repeating his claim that its head, ACP Raymond Craig had been reassigned to traffic duties.

Maharaj recalled his Anti Money Laundering Unit had once been praised by then US Attorney General Janet Reno as the best of its type in the region. He said the Government has now given criminals a gift.

“They have given the defence lawyer of a money launderer, a gift to declare the prosecution is null and void. They went out of their way to give them a gift.” Recalling that all the Independent and Opposition senators had warned the Government about holes in the FIU Bill, he alleged, “So it seems it was a deliberate gift. The Government went out of their way to give them a gift to claim their prosecution is an abuse of process.”