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ACB urged to join hands with other competent authorities in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing

17 May 2022, Salima

The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) has called upon the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to collaborate with other law enforcement agencies and supervisory authorities in fighting money laundering and terrorist financing in the country.

This call was made by the Acting Director General of the FIA, Vincent Chipeta, when he officially opened a Virtual Currency Investigations Training Workshop for investigators and prosecutors of the ACB organised by the Attorney General Alliance - Africa (AGA-Africa) on 17th May 2022 at Sigelege Beach Resort in Salima.

"The Financial Intelligence Authority is glad that the war against money laundering and other financial crimes is on the right path in the country. This has only been possible with concerted efforts from the private sector through Compliance Officers of the Financial Institutions, the Law Enforcement Agencies (Investigators and Prosecutors), Supervisory Authorities, and the general public. This is very commendable, and I would like to urge each one of us to continue collaborating in combating financial crimes in the country," he said.

Chipeta noted that while there are advantages of new payment methods such as through cryptocurrencies, the payment methods carry with them inherent money laundering and terrorist financing risks hence requiring critical attention from law enforcement agencies.

The Country Representative for AGA-Africa, Gift Calorine Chikwakwa, commended the ACB for working together with AGA-Africa and drawing its staff to horn skills in virtual currencies investigation techniques.

One of the participants for the workshop, Vilera Liwonde - Chief Investigations Officer for the ACB, described the workshop as timely and an eye opener in the sense that investigators will also be targeting virtual asset transactions in combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

The workshop, which drew 36 participants from the ACB, was organised to enable the investigators and prosecutors learn and share knowledge and good practices in conducting virtual currencies investigation through their interaction with the facilitators, namely; David Blake - the General Counsel of AGA-Africa, Kyle George - the First Assistant Attorney General for the State of Nevada, Jean Phillipo-Priminta - the Chief State Advocate at the Malawi Ministry of Justice, Beaunard Grobler - Open Source Information Specialist at the Financial Intelligence Centre of South Africa, Emomotimi Agama - the Managing Director of Nigerian Capital Market Institute, Sydney Gondwe - the Africa Reginal Manager for Crypto Gaming United of Zambia, and Masautso Ebere - Compliance Manager at the Malawi Financial Intelligence Authority.