DCP Hinds Lawyers Resisting POCA Act.

Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of crime, Glenmore Hinds, is decry­ing efforts to block more effec­tive mon­ey laundering

legislation.He is charg­ing that the legal fra­ter­ni­ty and oth­ers with a vest­ed inter­est are frus­trat­ing police efforts at going after illic­it mon­ey. The charge was in ref­er­ence to the recent amend­ments to the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), which have met with stiff resis­tance from mem­bers of the legal fraternity.

The amend­ments to POCA adds pro­fes­sion­als and busi­ness­es to the list of enti­ties to be sub­ject­ed to the anti-mon­ey laun­der­ing scruti­ny, where­as the law pre­vi­ous­ly addressed banks and oth­er finan­cial institutions.The law also placed a cap of $1 mil­lion on cash trans­ac­tions with finan­cial insti­tu­tions. “They are resist­ing being brought in and it is to my cer­tain knowl­edge that a sig­nif­i­cant sum of mon­ey that is laun­dered annu­al­ly goes through the legal books … they are resist­ing and they cite lawyer/​client priv­i­lege as the rea­son,” Hinds said as he addressed the third annu­al Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Financing of Terrorism Conference in Kingston on Tuesday. Hinds said there is a choice to be made between indi­vid­ual rights and the sur­vival of a coun­try. “It must be viewed in the wider con­text of try­ing to save a coun­try and a coun­try’s rep­u­ta­tion … you can have all your rights, but if you don’t have a coun­try those rights can’t be secured,” he told the con­fer­ence. He added that those who are against the leg­is­la­tion are more con­cerned about pros­e­cu­tion and reduced prof­its and this can be to the detri­ment of the country

“They rec­og­nize that they stand to be pros­e­cut­ed … or it might very well mean that it may be a reduced income for them,” he said as he implored that Jamaica would be a bet­ter place if the legal pro­fes­sion is brought into the fold. The annu­al AML/​CFT con­fer­ence was staged for the fifth year by the Jamaica Bankers Association, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Jamaica Institute of Financial Services, from December 8 – 10. http://​jamaica​-glean​er​.com/​g​l​e​a​n​e​r​/​2​0​1​4​1​2​1​2​/​b​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​/​b​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​4​.​h​tml

PUBLISHERS NOTE:

Well what do you know, some­one in Authority in Jamaica actu­al­ly say­ing a large amount of Jamaica’s Lawyers are com­mon criminals?
Well who woul­da thunk it?
A coun­try which has at it’s head peo­ple whose char­ac­ters are dirty, whose con­duct are more than enough to place them in prison for life. What did you expect?
For decades our Country’s Lawyers have large­ly been tac­it sup­port­ers of crime in some cas­es and in oth­ers, active par­tic­i­pants. That is not to say some Lawyers are not good upstand­ing offi­cers of the Courts, some are. However like Politicians , Police, and oth­er pub­lic ser­vants the legal fra­ter­ni­ty has been for a long time .….….
Well less than legal.