The nation’s first-ever national assessment report on money laundering and terrorism financing was released yesterday by the Executive Yuan, identifying the areas where the nation could do more to prevent money laundering.
The report identified trafficking in narcotics, fraud, organized crime, corruption, smuggling, securities crimes, third-party money laundering, tax evasion and intellectual property crimes as the nine major areas where improvement was needed.
China, Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia are the top five destinations in terms of criminal gains, while the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam tied for fifth position, the report said.
China, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam and the Philippines are the top five countries in terms of incoming criminal cash flow, it added.
Thirty-seven government agencies and 31 private-sector groups collaborated on the report, which is aimed at preparing the government for the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) meeting in November, in which Taiwan would undergo its third round of mutual evaluations, after being placed on a watch list in 2011.
Taiwan is one of the founding members of the APG, which was established in 1997.
The report concluded that offshore banking units of domestic banks were very vulnerable, while offshore securities units and branch offices, securities branches, postal services as well as offshore insurance units of foreign banks were highly vulnerable, Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said.
Also included under highly vulnerable entities and professions were jewelry stores, lawyers, accountants, real-estate managers, agricultural financial establishments, insurance companies and securities investment, Chiu said.
Taiwan is the first nation in the Asia-Pacific region to pass legislation against money laundering and had been in compliance with APG regulations up until it was placed on the watch list in 2011, Premier William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at which the report was released.
The government is well aware that improvements could be made to the nation’s anti-money laundering legislation, and efforts began under former premier Lin Chuan (林全), Lai said.
They include the establishment of the Executive Yuan’s Anti-Money Laundering Office and amending the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), as well as the Act to Prevent Financing Terrorism (資恐防制法), Lai said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching