Combating money laundering is essential to mitigating corruption. Grand corruption involving pubic officials erodes the public trust, hinders economic development, skews the distribution of wealth and can ultimately lead to social unrest.

Taking into consideration all these implications, UNDP’s Anti-Corruption Project (SAEK II), supported by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), partnered with Kosovo’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-K) to develop the first analysis of money laundering involving Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) which was launched earlier today in the presence of high officials of UNDP and Kosovo insitutions.

In her opening remarks, the UN Development Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Ulrika Richardson emphasized: “It is clear that Kosovo is making progress, and I - all of us - look forward to seeing continued progress in this honorable fight against corruption. For Kosovo authorities it is also remaining requirement to show concrete results in its path towards European integration”.

Swiss Ambassador, Jean-Hubert Lebet mentioned two reasons why statements by local authorities and international partners didn’t really have an impact on reducing corruption: “Inductive environment to corruption, including inadequate legislation, poor qualification of civil servants, insufficient salaries of the public sector, misuse of strong solidarities and the lack of clear and effective support to police, prosecutors and judges. Kosovo citizens don’t need other words condemning corruption but deserve results and strong evidences for an effective fight against corruption. We expect the top political leadership of Kosovo to demonstrate this support and this political will. It will not be easy and results could be unpleasant, as the country is small and everybody knows each other. Without this support, any strategy will be useless”, said Ambassador Lebet.

Othe speakers included: Mr. Dardan Nuhiu, Director of the Kosovo Financial Intelligence Unit, Mr. Labinot Preniqi, Head of Anti Money Laundering Division, Central Bank of Kosovo, Mr. Shaip Havolli, Director of the Kosovo Anti-corruption Agency, and Mr. Petrit Balija, Executive Director of the Kosovo Banking Association.

The publication provides guidelines for reporting entities on how to engage with PEPs as clients, monitor risk and identify red flag indicators that may require filing of reports to the FIU. In the final section, eight typologies (or cases) of identified alleged money laundering involving PEPs are explained so as to illustrate money laundering schemes that reporting entities and investigators encounter.

It is expected that the report will serve as a valuable reference guide for private sector reporting entities in discerning which clients are of high risk and what suspicious activities to report; police and prosecutors in building their cases through uncovering evidence that leads them to initiate confiscation procedures; and finally for judges in understanding how this type of white collar crime is committed and to adjudicate appropriate sentences for these types of serious offenses.

The Money Laundering Typologies of Politically Exposed Persons in Kosovo report was conducted with the initiative of the UNDP Support to Anti-Corruption Efforts in Kosovo project, which is funded by the Swiss Cooperation Office in Kosovo and DANIDA.

Contact information

Burbuqe Dobranja, UNDP Communications Associate

Phone: 383 38 249 066 ext. 410;   email: burbuqe.dobranja@undp.org

Danijela Mitić, UNDP Communication Associate

Phone: 383 38 249 066 ext. 412;     e-mail: danijela.mitic@undp.org