OREANDA-NEWS. According to recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Russia should expand the list of assets of deputies, senators, officials, heads of state-owned companies and judges that may be confiscated as illegal property.

These recommendations are given in a report published on the basis of the fourth round of mutual evaluations held in March 2019. The previous evaluation took place in 2008. Experts of the intergovernmental organization established by the Group of Seven assessed the level of Russia’s fight against money laundering.

The measure of confiscation of assets should be applied more actively if the legality of ownership is not confirmed, and the list of seized property should also be expanded, the FATF notes. Now unjustified wealth is confiscated from officials only in cases of significant discrepancies between officially declared income and expenses.

Russia is not a large center for laundering money, but the country is a source of criminal proceeds, a significant part of which is laundered abroad, FATF experts say. The most criminal proceeds come from budget theft, tax evasion, corruption, fraud in financial sector and drug trade.

Next year, banks will need to identify the beneficiaries of their customers and “politically exposed persons” more thoroughly, and the Central Bank of Russia will conduct field audits of credit organizations, because the FATF revealed excessive liberalism in the work of Russian institutions in these spheres. A roadmap to correct these shortcomings will be prepared.