Us Banks Refuse To Cash Cheques For Thai Officials

[Flashermac]

Thai embassy officials in Washington are struggling to cash bank cheques and conduct financial transactions as a result of Thailand being named on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) watch list, Justice Minister Pracha Promnok says.

 

Pol Gen Pracha said yesterday that officials from the embassy in Washington had informed the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) that they now had trouble performing transactions in the banks there. They went to the banks to cash cheques only to be refused by the banks, which is not a good signal, Pol Gen Pracha said.

 

Amlo hopes to have its anti-money laundering bill passed into law by the end of the year, with the change likely to come into effect in February next year.

 

Amlo would then ask the FATF, the global body which sets standards for anti-money laundering laws and combating the financing of terrorism, to remove Thailand from its watch list.

 

In a June 22 statement, the FATF said Thailand had not made sufficient progress in fighting money laundering.

 

The FATF encouraged Thailand to continue work on an action plan and to enact legislation to give it some teeth.

 

A House panel was fine-tuning the language of the bill, Amlo secretary-general Seehanart Prayoonrat said.

 

The bill would have to keep to standards set in international law.

 

Last week, Pol Gen Pracha met executives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which works closely with the FATF in refining procedures for money laundering. He explained obstacles to the government's efforts to strengthen the money-laundering law.

 

Pol Gen Pracha said he had asked the IMF to report on the progress of the bill to the FATF.

 

Pol Gen Pracha, who chairs the House committee drafting the bill, said the wording of the bill needed to be adjusted and the committee would ask either the Civil Court or the Criminal Court to define the term "terrorists".

The committee is expected to finish the bill's wording by Wednesday.

 

My link

 

 

[Horneytorney]

That's how USA dictates all other countries worldwide, what kind of law they have to implement...

[Gadfly]

That's how USA dictates all other countries worldwide, what kind of law they have to implement...

 

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an international body headed by a Norwegian - see link. Thailand has been on their gray list for awhile and drafted new legislation to get off the list. To get off the list, they need to enact it and enforce it. The Bangkok Post reported that:

 

The FATF already downgraded Thailand to its "grey list" this past February "for failing to implement laws to curb financial misconduct". An industry source said

no agencies are willing to submit the names of those likely to be involved in money laundering since most of them are politicians

.

 

This has been a looming problem since last February. Don't blame the U.S. for this. Thailand has only itself to blame.

[Horneytorney]

I did not blame the USA! But as a matter of fact:

1. the action against Thai Citizens or Officials was taken in the USA; there is no report about similar incidents in other countries! I guess in other countries, the Thai Officals can still cash in their cheques

2. the FATF is indeed an international body but the influence of the USA is very significant if not to say dominant

 

again, I do not blame the USA, it is a power game! Those, who denies that the USA does not try to enforce how other countries reconfigure their laws, in particular to be in line with THEIR war against terrorism, are just plain naive!

[kamui]

I did not blame the USA! But as a matter of fact:

1. the action against Thai Citizens or Officials was taken in the USA; there is no report about similar incidents in other countries! I guess in other countries, the Thai Officals can still cash in their cheques

2. the FATF is indeed an international body but the influence of the USA is very significant if not to say dominant

 

again, I do not blame the USA, it is a power game! Those, who denies that the USA does not try to enforce how other countries reconfigure their laws, in particular to be in line with THEIR war against terrorism, are just plain naive!

 

You are right about this, but it seems that in this rare case the US rules are hitting the right people.

[Gadfly]

You are right about this, but it seems that in this rare case the US rules are hitting the right people.

 

I am not sure I would call these "US rules". The EU is also quite aggressive on money laundering. The fact is that corruption and money laundering are not just local problems, but global problems. The US cannot and has not been able to simply dictate rules to bodies such as the OECD, and a more accurate way to put it is that these are OECD rules, and the OECD is hitting the right people. The world is changing. Even Chinese officials appreciate the pervasive and unchecked corruption undermines their legitimacy and ability to govern their own country. The world is changing, and the noose is tightening on the worlds kleptocrats. They can complain all they want about the US and "its rules". I don't give a sh*t. The game has changed, and they're going down. Expect to see more of this.

[Coss]

Interesting to see that Thais are being expected to observe the rules of the game rather than just smiling and ignoring them...

[Flashermac]

The FATF is not my father.

 

 

 

 

 

[Gadfly]

Interesting to see that Thais are being expected to observe the rules of the game rather than just smiling and ignoring them...

 

Yes, it is very interesting. And this isn't the only example of Thai officialdom being forced, in ways that have surprised and really annoyed them, to follow the rules that every other country is expected to follow (except, say North Korea and Somalia).

 

Recall that certain jet that was seized in Germany awhile back? That happened because Thailand refused to pay an international arbitration award. Thailand just stone-walled, daring the claimant to come to Thailand and try to enforce the award. That award was not the result of a mere contract; it was a treaty obligation that Thailand just thumbed its nose at. And what happened? A jet was seized, a government lost major face and Thailand's reputation for honoring its international obligations was trashed.

 

And a foreign party recovered over 30 million Euros that the Thai government owed but, smiling, of course, refused to pay. They weren't smiling when that jet was seized and they were forced to pay up.

 

Thailand also lost a major WTO case against the Philippines, but good luck trying to find anything about this in the Thai press (instead the DSI is now investigating the party that initiated the case, and you will read about this in the Thai press). What's even more amazing is that the WTO found, as a matter of fact, that its excise tax system was rigged with local producers setting the excise tax rates on their foreign competitors. Talk about a conflict of interest. And the WTO also said that the Thai government was less than truthful in describing its own laws. In other words, you cannot trust the word of Thai officialdom when they are describing how their own legal system works.

 

This will happen again. And expect more claims about the FATF, the WTO, the UN or whoever not being Thailand's father. Thailand gains tremendously in international trade (about 70% of its income earned through exports), which means it has to comply with its international obligations. This annoys local oligarchies and Thai officials (sort of the same thing) to no end. But there is not much they do about it now. And because they're so damn obstinate and unreasonable about these sorts of things, we can all expect to see more fun and games.

[Flashermac]

In the late 1980s the Thai port authorities set up some loading cranes and ordered all ships docking at Klong Toey to pay to use the government cranes. Ships were forbidden to use their on-board cranes. Besides running up costs of imports, it also caused delays. That caused quite a stink for a while. I wonder what ever became of it.