Tougher laws to fight financial crimes

Grenada’s Lower House of Parliament has amended nine pieces of legislation to enhance the island’s compliance with the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force rules and regulations.

“The adjustments are aimed at stopping every available avenue to eliminate terrorist financing and money laundering,” said Gregory Bowen, Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives, who explained that the amendments are not only being done to laws in Grenada, but in other regional territories.

“They too have to comply with the legislative adjustment as the region puts the structures in place to ensure that companies, non-governmental organisations, charities, fraternities and groups of a similar nature are not used to finance terrorist activities,” he said.

The amended laws are the Companies Act; the International Companies Act; the Financial Intelligence Unit Act; the Banking Act; the Offshore Banking Act; Proceeds of Crimes Act; the Interception of Communication Act; the Criminal Code; and the Terrorism Act.

The Companies Act now provides for all NGOs to register under the Companies Act in the same format as company.

“This means that the names of the directors and others associated with the organisation will be known,” Bowen said, who explained that there is growing evidence in many parts of the world that philanthropists and others use charities and NGOs to finance illegal activities such as terrorism, money laundering and human or migrant trafficking.

The Criminal Code amendment specifically makes provision for the criminalisation of human trafficking, migrant smuggling, environmental crimes and piracy. The legislators approved the inclusion of “hostage-taking”, which means a person who seizes or detains and threatens to kill, or to injure, or to continue to detain another person in order to compel a third person to do or to abstain from doing any act as an express or implied condition for the release of the person.


A person found guilty of “Hostage Taking” will be liable to conviction on indictment to life imprisonment. In the area of piracy, it means any illegal act of violence, detention or any act of depredation committed for private gain by the crew, including the master, or the passengers of a private ship, a private aircraft and directed on the high seas, against a ship or aircraft. The penalty is also life imprisonment.

“We are not leaving any room or loopholes in the law for those who may want to take advantage of any situation,” said Roland Bhola, who presented the Criminal Code amendment to the legislators. (LS)