
Last month I reported in this paper how the listing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of Botswana as being of high risk to money laundering and terrorism financing was an insult to country. The designation of Botswana as being a high-risk country by the FATF arose following the 2016 Mutual Evaluation of Botswana which found that the country had serious strategic deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism laws and framework. Readers may recall that I put forward a cogent argument outlining how the decision by the FATF was wrong as no strategic AML/CTF deficiencies were identified in relation to Botswana. I also posited that it was FATF members that posed the biggest risk to global financial systems. In this second part, I offer an example from Europe to support my claim, and there are many cases involving European institutions from which to choose. The most recent major money laundering scandal involves Danish Danske Bank which has shocked European financial systems and regulators. Denmark is a FATF member. Many in Europe are now saying it could be Europe’s biggest money laundering scandal ever. While investigations have commenced not only in Denmark and Estonia but also in…