Laundering Black Money
B. Anton JEYANATHAN Rtd. DIG, SLP
The high drama of bribing a Member of Parliament to cross over from
one Camp to another was a prime time mega show on the TV channels last
week. This clearly indicated the availability of large sums of Black
Money which are being used to undertake buying over of Members of
Parliament and political bigwigs. I am certain that such large sums of
money are not monies earned through legal means and definitely earned
through illegal means.
Wealth amassed through illegal activities which cannot be accounted
for, is the wealth that needs to be laundered. Illegal activities are
many and differ from country to country. Nevertheless, illegal
activities such as:
a. Smuggling of contraband
b. Drug trafficking
c. International arms sales
d. Terrorism
e. Underworld activities
f. Organised criminal activities (kidnapping, extortion, money
lending, illegal money exchanging, maintaining underground banking
systems, gambling, prostitution, bank burglaries, fraud, contract
murders etc.,) are universally recognized as illegal criminal
activities.
The above illegal activities are very lucrative and rake in enormous
wealth, which cannot be accounted for, through either the legal banking
or financial systems prevailing in any democratic country. The
activities are done in strict secrecy handled by a few trusted members
of the syndicate. The unaccounted wealth which cannot be circulated
through the legal process is termed as Black Money.
Political parties
Transnational companies, powerful syndicates maintain and operate
Slush Funds or Entertainment Funds, outside their declared funds. This
fund is maintained to bribe and corrupt law enforcement officials,
politicians and for contributions to the funds of various political
parties.
Money laundering is the process of concealment of the origin of
income earned through illegal activities and its conversion to other
legitimate assets, in order to disguise its illegal source.
The public are aware of the number of crossovers of Members of
Parliament and politicians from one Camp to another in the recent past.
Members of Parliament
It will be naive to believe that these crossovers were due to the
interest of the public or the nation, or due to adherence to certain
ideals and policies. Though MP Muzzammil exposed the transaction of
large sums of money offered to him to crossover, one can easily conclude
how much of money could have changed hands in the recent past, where
crossovers of prominent Members of Parliament took place from one Camp
to another. They will only know how much of money changed hands from the
party to which the members crossed over. They will only know the
identity of the person or persons who paid them off.
There is no gainsaying that there is an enormous amount of Black
Money which is available in this country, which is being used specially
during the current political campaign. One has only to switch on the
television of more than 13 to 14 Channels, where there are no value
added programs either for the adults or children being telecast during
the past two to three weeks.
Paid advertisements
Paid advertisements on behalf of various candidates, in particular
the two main candidates are dominating the TV screen depriving the
viewers of relaxed entertainment. One has to drive around the city, the
suburbs and outstations, where the number of cut-outs, posters, banners,
flags, etc., are on display in favour of one candidate or the other.
Hosting of voters for lunches and dinners at hotels and official
residences, are a daily occurrence. Where do the organisers get the
funds to spend on campaigns in the various forms described above?
Transparency International Sri Lanka has continuously exposed the
enormous amount of money spent on various campaigns, advertisements and
through the print and electronic media by the two main candidates. Where
do these funds originate from to spend such a large sum of money? Of
course, not from Party funds or from legitimate sources.
The Mass Media Minister speaking at a news conference recently stated
that an Act known as the Election Campaign Fund Act should be enacted to
investigate and ascertain how the funds are derived by the various
political parties to spend on the election campaign.
Legislative bodies
The suggestion is laudable, but whether any further steps will be
taken on this is the million-dollar question. Whatever legislative
bodies such as the Constitutional Council, the Police Commission, the
Public Services Commission, the Judicial Services Commission etc., which
were in existence, have been overlooked and they seem to have died a
natural death. With this experience, the public does not expect any
legislation to be enacted to ascertain the source of income of the
political parties who engage in political campaigns.
In respect of the offering of bribes of MP Muzzammil, though
belatedly it is reported that he had lodged complaints with the Bribery
Commission and the CID. It is for these Agencies to investigate the
complaint thoroughly to lay their hands on the origin of the large sums
of money which were offered to the MP and the person or persons who had
this money to offer.
Unlawful activity
Interestingly, there is a Bill which was passed by the Government
titled Prevention of Money Laundering. To quote from this Act Section
3(a) under the sub-heading ‘Offence of money laundering’.
“Any person who engages directly or indirectly in any transaction in
relation to any property which is derived or realized, directly or
indirectly, from any unlawful activity or from the proceeds of any
unlawful activity.”
Large sum of money
Section 4 of this Act states: “For the purposes of any proceedings
under this Act, it shall be deemed until the contrary is proved, that
any movable or immovable property acquired by a person has been derived
or realized directly or indirectly from any unlawful activity, or are
the proceeds of any unlawful activity, if such property -
(a) Being money, cannot be or could not have been -
(i) Part of the known income or receipts of such person; or
(ii) Money to which his known income or receipts has or had been
converted.”
Once the investigation establishes the person who possessed this
large sum of money and offered it to MP Muzzammil, to cross over, such
person should be answerable under these Sections to prove that this
large sum of money was part of the known income or legally earned.
This Bill gives a wide range of powers for the Law Enforcement
Officers to investigate, freeze Bank Accounts, confiscate Black Money
and take the offenders before a Court of Law. To my recollection, one MP
has already been taken before Courts under this Bill for having received
a large sum of foreign exchange which was considered as money derived
from illegal sources.
Bribery Act
The exposure by MP Muzzammil has opened widely the avenues for the
Law Enforcement Officers to act under this particular Bill, under the
Bribery Act, Income Tax Act and any other Act which could be used to
ferret out the Black Money which is available in this country, which is
being used for political campaigns, buying Members of Parliament, buying
voters, engaging and paying underworld gangs to commit murder, assault,
disruption and other illegal and violent activities to prevent the
democratic process of having a fair and violence free election.
The responsible authorities should act swiftly to arrest the trend of
laundering Black Money, seize such Black Money and convert it to the
Government funds so that the people of this country could benefit. |