Anti-Money Laundering Training For Journalists

JOURNALISTS and other media practitioners as well as students of journalism underwent intensive one-day training on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing in the country on Friday, October 12, 2018.

The training was organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) with support from the Transparency International.

Held under the theme: “Turning up the Pressure: Tackling Money Laundering through Multi-Stakeholder Approaches in Ghana”, the training aimed at raising public awareness and political commitment to anti-money laundering and anti-corruption in West Africa.

It also sought to equip journalists and potential journalists to ensure in-depth reporting on the menace of money laundering and terrorism financing in Ghana and how to tackle them and their related issues.

Participants were schooled on several components of the subject matter such as money laundering investigations, the anti-money laundering act 2008 (ACT 749) and the role of stakeholders in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.

Personnel from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), who were the facilitators, disclosed that prior to the enactment of the anti-money laundering act (ACT 749) in 2008, money laundering was not an offence adding that before a person could be arrested or accused of money laundering, there was the need to first establish a documentation that proves there was a criminal activity.

However, it was difficult to effect any arrests of persons who were found involved in money laundering activities even after the provision of evidence because most of them invested their money in legitimate businesses.

He made reference to a case concerning a romance scam which occurred in 2015 involving a 27-year-old Ghanaian sole proprietor identified as Kofi Mensah who disguised himself as a lady and defrauded one Mr. Ben White, who was alleged to have come from the USA, of $50,031.00.

Participants and the media generally were urged to integrate anti-money laundering strategies in their reportage.

Before the closure of the workshop, participants were put into groups to discuss and produce a presentation on the role of law enforcement agencies, the media, civil societies and regulators in tackling money laundering.

The participants of the workshop comprised business and financial journalists, and journalism students from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) and the African University College of Communications (AUCC) – both in Accra.