Cyprus Receives FBI Report on Measures to Tackle Money Laundering & Sanctions Evasion

On Thursday, the 27th of March, the Cyprus government officials announced and pledged to execute the recommendations offered in the security initiative by the special FBI team from the United States.

This comprehensive security initiative is designed to stop the prevalent sanctions evasion practices and the increasing money laundering incidents facilitated by the financial institutions in Cyprus.

This statement came after the Cyprus government authorities released a report by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team that spent nine months on the Mediterranean island for training.

According to a statement made by Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a Cyprus government official, the report offered by the FBI contains extensive proposals and recommendations, such as modifying current laws, adding more staff training, and upgrading high-tech systems.

He further restated that the Cypriot law enforcement officials are looking to implement the recommendations made by the FBI team.

For a period of nine months, the FBI provided additional training sessions that helped Cypriot police in becoming skilled at identifying illegal financial transactions and investigating incidents involving evasion of United Nations, European Union, and US sanctions imposed on any third country.

Back in 2023, the U.S. government under the Biden administration spearheaded a joint initiative in response to President Nikos Christodoulides’ invitation to FBI and Justice Department officials.

The Cypriot President had invited the US to facilitate investigations that implicated allegations of sanction evasion by Cypriot financial institutions by helping Russian oligarchs evade international penalties.

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The US administration, led by President Biden, also established the KleptoCapture Project Task Force to confiscate Russian oligarchs’ assets. However, this Task Force was later discontinued under the Trump administration.

Interestingly enough, President Trump indicated last week that he intends to impose additional tariffs and restrictions on the Russian government in light of the ongoing crisis with Ukraine.

Just a year ago, the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, pledged to make Cyprus free from money laundering and sanction evasion activities and rebuild its global reputation as an AML-compliant country.

As per the Cyprus-U.S. joint statement,  the Cypriot law enforcement authorities received forensic accounting and financial investigation training, both domestically and at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest, Hungary.

Furthermore, British government officials committed in December last year to provide anti-money laundering intelligence to the Cypriot Ministry of Finance to block and intercept the movement of illegal funds throughout Europe.

As per media sources, the British intended to make the implementation of sanctions more effective against the Russian war machine involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.