Baltic financial intelligence services reveal information on Belarusians to State Control Committee

A citizens of Belarus tried to withdraw $1.5m from a bank in a neigbouring state and found himself in Belarus's State Control Committee.

The director of the Financial Monitoring Department of the State Control Committee, Aliaksandr Maksimenka, said it in an interview with Sovetskaya Belorussia newspaper.

According to the department director, Belarus is a member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units that deals with money laundering. Group members exchange information via encrypted channels.

The official said how a deputy director of a Belarusian firm withdrew $1.5 million in a Baltic bank.

“Colleagues informed us immediately. They even had documents showing where and when the client had withdrawn money and where he put it later. The detained man tried to deny everything. He said he had been framed and someone else had withdrawn the money. But we have pictures of him near ATMs. It is an example of international cooperation of financial intelligence groups,” Aliaksadr Maksimenka says.

It should be reminded that information received via international channels gave the ground to initiate a criminal case against human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, who was sentenced to 4.5 years in a medium security penal colony and confiscation of property.