A new report by the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL urges the authorities of the Slovak Republic to systematically pursue illicit funds generated by crimes, through effective seizure and confiscation, and to systemically tackle money laundering and terrorist financing occurring around such crimes. The report makes a comprehensive assessment of Slovakia’s anti money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism system and its level of compliance with the Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
MONEYVAL points out that the Slovak authorities have a moderate understanding of national money laundering and terrorism financing risks. While some of the prosecutors have a grasp of money laundering threats which include organised crime, corruption and cybercrime, the rest of law enforcement agencies, supervisors and the private sector are grounding their knowledge on the findings of a National Risk Assessment, which is not entirely accurate.
The report concludes that the Slovak Republic obtains poor results in using financial intelligence and other relevant information to collect evidence and trace criminal assets. Since the last evaluation, the number of money laundering convictions increased, but an important part is related to simple property offences such as car thefts. The outcome of investigations and prosecutions of money laundering in other major proceeds generating crimes does not fully reflect the country’s risks.
