Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chair Mrs. Farida Waziri, has advised developed countries to stop serving as safe havens for looted funds from developing nations.
She said the commission had recovered over $9billion in three years.
She also called for more global actions against the scourge of money laundering across the world.
According to a statement by Femi Babafemi, Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mrs. Waziri made the call at the weekend at a conference against money laundering and economic crime in London.
Mrs Waziri, who presided over the three sessions of the conference explained in the paper she presented that the Nigerian government has continued to take steps to address the menace of money laundering through “a comprehensive AML/FC regime that encapsulates legal framework, regulatory framework, and institutional framework as well as domestic and international cooperation.”
She said: “I agree with the UN which says that around $148 billion is stolen from Africa by the political leaders, the business elite and civil servants with the collusion and connivance of banking industries in Europe and North America.”
“This tells us that both the developing economies, who are the victims of this menace in terms of losing their resources through corrupt leaders and getting stigmatised as a result of negative publicity, as well as the developed economies which provide safe havens for these looted funds, have to do much more in term of waging a dispassionate war against the scourge of money laundering.”
She said the EFCC had recovered over $9billion in three years from looters of public funds.
The EFCC boss also disclosed that in the past two and a half years, she has introduced several preventive measures such as sustained public awareness campaigns through the Anti-Corruption Revolution; Budget Tracking; Transactions Clearing Platform, TCP; Foreign Remittance Monitoring.
She explained that the detection and enforcement approaches had also been enhanced through relevant legal frame works such as the recent passage of the amended Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Acts; Sustained intelligence gathering on Politically Exposed Persons, PEPS; Prosecution of cases as well as conviction, recoveries and confiscation regime.
She added: “It was a combination of all these efforts that have led to the recovery of over $9 billion USD in less than three years; a conviction record of over 150; 1500 cases charged to court including over 60 high profile ones within the same period.
“The EFCC will continue to work with other stakeholders to stamp out the menace.
“Between 2005 and October 2010 the Commission through the Financial Intelligence Unit, FIU received 5,063 Suspicious Transaction Reports, STRs and a total of 46,507,704 Currency Transaction Reports within the same period, adding that more of such reports are daily analysed by operatives to curb money laundering.
Other speakers at the conference praised the commitment of the EFCC to the war against graft in Nigeria and called for closer ties across the borders.
Those who delivered papers at the conference include: Phillip Hacket QC of Argent Chambers, UK; Daren Allen of Berwin Leighton Praisner LLP; Zia Ullah, former Group Head of Sanctions and Policy at Barclays Bank; Emma Oettinger of Law Society England and Wales; Dr Gbenga Oduntan of University of Kent, UK; Chris Chukwu of CBN; Tonye Cole of Sahara Group; Yemi Johnson of Openspaces Compliance, UK among others.
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EFCC recovers $9b in three years