Attorney General, Faris Al Rawi

The Financial Intelligence Unit has reported $22.2 billion in suspicious transactions and suspicious activity between 2016 and 2017.

Attorney General Faris Al Rawi says this represents a 500 per cent increase in such activities in the country.

He disclosed some of the data of the report for 2017 which he said Cabinet had approved to be laid in Parliament when it reconvenes in January.

In 2016, the report said there were 739 suspicious transaction reports. That figure grew to 877 in 2017.

He said the country’s budget, was $55 billion and the level of suspicious transactions was $22.2 billion.

Mr Al-Rawi said the FIU has 2,502 registrants from various sectors, including the banking and commercial sectors.

Of the 877 transactions, he said, 824 were completed transactions estimated at $8.4 billion while 53 interrupted transactions are believed to have amounted to $13.6 billion.

He said, the greatest number of reports stem from the banking sector and the money value transfer services.

Mr Al-Rawi said the Government intends to treat with the $22 billion of suspicious activity in the Trinidad and Tobago economy by laying in the Parliament an anti-corruption package which treats with mechanisms to treat with this scourge.

The legislative package, includes stand-alone civil asset forfeiture provision and the way land is registered in T&T.

Mr Al Rawi added the report identified politically exposed persons who have found themselves in the FIU matrix of suspicious activities.