Barbados faces EU blacklist Bajan NY
By George Alleyne
The European Commission (EC) has
named Barbados for blacklisting this
year and local politicians are expressing
bewilderment at this move and claiming
a shifting of goal posts as far as the EC’s
compliance standards are concerned.
On May 7 the EC announced it has
“adopted a new list of third countries
outside the European Union with strategic
deficiencies in their anti-money
laundering and counter-terrorist financing
frameworks”.
The Bahamas and Jamaica were
named in that list along with Barbados
among 12 countries.
Notably, Guyana which had been languishing
in that list for a long time was
taken off.
This new blacklist becomes effective
on Oct. 01, and delisting of countries
will happen 20 days from the announcement.
The Commission, the executive arm
of the EU, explained that it modified criteria
for determining compliance of third
countries, to “deliver a new, comprehensive
framework to fight money laundering
and terrorist financing. The new
methodology to identify and mitigate
threats that strategic deficiencies in the
anti-money laundering and countering
terrorist financing of third countries.”
The EC’s said the listed states have
deficiencies within its ‘Third Country
Caribbean L 16 ife, May 22-28, 2020
Policy’, which covers: the criminalisation
of money laundering and terrorist
financing; measures relating to customer
due diligence; requirements relating
to record-keeping; requirements to
report suspicious transactions; and the
availability of accurate and timely information
of the beneficial ownership of
legal persons and arrangements to competent
authorities.
Additional deficiencies are the powers
and procedures of the third country’s
competent authorities for the purposes
of combating money laundering and
terrorist financing including appropriately
effective, proportionate and dissuasive
sanctions, as well as the third
country’s practice in cooperation and
exchange of information with Member
States’ competent authorities; and the
effectiveness of the third country’s Anti-
Money Laundering / Combatting the
Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system
in addressing money laundering or
terrorist financing risks.
Attorney General Dale Marshall told
the local Nation newspaper in response,
“it amounts to little more than a conviction
without a trial. We have been
given no details of this. In fact, the first
time we are hearing of it is through the
overseas press. Even the mighty must
abide by the rules of natural justice and
give us an opportunity to be heard,” he
stressed.
“We do not have a seat at their table
when our standing is being discussed,
and if you say that we are a non-cooperative
jurisdiction, then tell us in which
areas you consider that we are not cooperating.”
Marshall’s predecessor who served in
the last government, Adriel Brathwaite,
said he is a baffled as the current AG.
Reflecting that during his time in
office a number of similar impositions
were made on the island that had to be
adjusted each time, he said “when you
see these organizations taking action
against a country like ours in one area,
we need to ask ourselves what we are not
doing to their liking in another area.
By George Alleyne
While death from the Coronavirus,
COVID-19, continues to ravage the New
York community of Barbadians and put
their businesses into a tailspin, there
are emerging outstanding ones who are
either volunteering their time or showing
patience and understanding in challenged
enterprises.
Barbados Counsel General in New
York, Mackie Holder, told Caribbean Life
that as of Tuesday there were 40 confirmed
Bajan deaths from COVID-19.
“It is likely the figure is more, once we
verify other reports. And as we obviously
would not have all reports,” he said.
While the fatality figure for Barbadians
in New York is edging up to the
50 mark, other Bajan-New Yorkers are
offering services for both the dead and
living in these daunting circumstances.
For instance there is Barbadian
undertaker who struggles to accommodate
family requests to store and bury
their dead relatives.
“I am asking my Bajan and Caribbean
clients to be patient. … I have had
to turn down families because I have no
place to put their loved ones. Right now,
I have several people waiting for word
about the burial of their relatives and
friends,” the Barbados Nation newspaper
reported Steven LeGall, a Brooklyn
funeral director saying.
Barbados AG Dale Marshall. Photo by
George Alleyne
deaths near 50
1 UNIVERSITY
25 COLLEGES
2 IN 3 ATTEND
TUITION-FREE
3 IN 4 GRADUATE
DEBT-FREE
cuny.edu/learnmore
/learnmore