Prove wealth or forfeit it

Speaking yesterday at a Caribbean Fraud conference at the Radisson Hotel in Port-of-Spain. He said Government views an anti-fraud package of legislation is an ode to common sense and the “Al Capone approach”, adding that Capone did not go down for murder but for tax evasion. The package of legislation includes civil asset forfeiture if you cannot explain your wealth to a court of law you will lose it .

“That means the unemployed person with 25 gold chains, two BMWs, Facebook images, who is 28 and living in the lap of luxury but who can’t account for an hour’s work during the day, will get a knock on the door from the authorities. They will say, ‘dear sir I noticed you have a large mansion .

Could you please provide evidence as to how you acquired it. Please don’t give it to me, give it to a court please’,” Al-Rawi said .

He said that under the proceeds of crime legislation, $250,000 can be seized but only after conviction which could take 17 years .

He said this package of legislation will include a completely renovated system for land registration that features making not registering a deed a criminal offence, subject to jail and penalty .

He said that currently, the late registration of a deed has a fine of $2,500 so you can unwind a trust 20 years later, “and I get away scot free.” He said all documentation must be registered and elimination of the ability to unwind a trust .

“The allegations of people who have properties in their names just got crushed because if they don’t disclose it, it’s gone.” He said the package of Anti- Fraud legislation will be laid in September .

He called on people to think what it would be like if people are held accountable for their actions and you do not have to “grease a hand” to get things done. Global Forensic Institute Director Jerome Chambers in his opening comments reported the statistic that five per cent of all revenue is lost due to fraud as on average it takes 18 months before the fraud is discovered .

Al-Rawi in his address said the real problem is the distance between allegations of fraud and criminality and conviction is “impossibly large.” “The root cause of criminality in our country is fraud.” On the five per cent statistic he reported that roughly 10,000 cars are licensed per month - the series of plates. He said there is an allegation that officials at Licencing Authority asked citizens to pay $500 to accelerate licensing of cars .

“And that’s a small request right? Most people in buying a $200,000 car, a $100,000 car, some people a million dollar car what’s $500? Take $500 multiply by 10,000 multiply by 12 and somebody in the Licensing Authority has a $60 million enterprise based on fraud.” He added: “Small change equals big corruption.” He said they would be renovating licensing authority and introduce Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags for vehicles .