AZERBAIJAN: GOAJ REQUEST FOR MORE TIME; UPDATE ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAKU 000808 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2019 TAGS: AJ ECON EFIN PREL PTER EINV SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN: GOAJ REQUEST FOR MORE TIME; UPDATE ON ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING/COUNTER TERRORIST FINANCING LAW REF: BAKU 147 Classified By: Political Economic Counselor Rob Garverick, Reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) Summary: On 12-16 October 2009, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plans to review Azerbaijan,s status with regards to the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG). On 06 October, the Government of Azerbaijan (GOAJ) raised their concerns with the Embassy that this review would be based on the MONEYVAL evaluation which had taken place in 2008, and not take into account the progress made since that point (ratification of the law, establishmnt of the Financial Investigative Unit (FIU),apointment of an FIU Director and Deputy Director, harter, budget, etc.) Although this was not explicitly stated, the GOAJ inferred that progress recently made may be halted if the GOAJ is penalized. Currently, the GOAJ has motivation to implement the FIU and law by December 2009, in order to make they MONEYVAL deadline. The GOAJ asked that the USG support their request during the upcoming FATF meeting to postpone the review of Azerbaijan until MONEYVAL was able to conduct another evaluation. Furthermore, the GOAJ said that they would be ready to accept a MONEYVAL evaluation at any point starting January 2010. Embassy believes that the USG has little to gain by putting Azerbaijan on the ICRG list during this meeting. This would seem neither to motivate them nor encourage them to implement a very important law. As a result, Embassy recommends that the USG supports Azerbaijan,s request for a review following December 2009. FATF Meeting -------------- ¶2. (U) On 06 October 2009, the Head of the Commission of State Securities, Rufat Aslanli organized a meeting with Embassy officers and other officials from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, Security Department of the Ministry of Finance (MFA) and the Securities Licensing Department to discuss the status of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Law (AML/CTF) law. During this meeting, Aslanli detailed the progress to date with the AML/CTF law, and requested the assistance of the USG in postponing the FATF review of Azerbaijan. ¶3. (U) Aslanli,s biggest concern was the upcoming 12-16 October FATF meeting. It was his understanding that Azerbaijan would be reviewed for inclusion on the ICRG based �00A;on the 2008 MONEYVAL evaluation. During the meeting, he admitted that Azerbaijan received the requisite 10 points during the 2008 evaluation which would be necessary for inclusion on the ICRG. At this point, if Azerbaijan had another MONEYVAL evaluation, the GOAJ believes that they have implemented enough of the law to avoid inclusion on the list. Furthermore, Aslanli believed that the entire AML/CTF law would be implemented by December 2009, and welcomed a new MONEYVAL evaluation as of January 2010. After that evaluation, the GOAJ was confident that they would not be included on ICRG. ¶4. (U) Aslanli provided his history with this law. As the Head of the Commission on State Securities and in his previous roles, he has been spearheading the inter-agency team focusing on AML/CTF since 2003. He admitted that progress has been slow, but was pleased that in 2009 the GOAJ made substantial progress to include the signing of the law and the decision to house the Financial Investigative Unit (FIU) in the Central Bank. Again he stressed that there had been some delay in establishing the FIU, but said that decisions were rapidly being made. ¶5. (U) As examples, he said that the GOAJ already allocated a budget to the unit. (The Embassy is waiting for a translation to learn the exact amount of the budget.) In addition, the GOAJ's parliament amended 15 laws and 4 codes. The charter of the FIU was approved by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev. Within the FIU, there will be 5 departments which would consist of 37 staff members. Aslanli pointed out that this unit would have 14 staff members more than the FIU of the Czech Republic. The salary of the staff would be commensurate with the salary of the staff of the banking sector in order to attract qualified officers. Although the recruitment process has unofficially begun, the process is currently being held up until Aliyev appoints a Head and Deputy of the FIU. Aslanli said that names have been identified, and President Aliyev needed to appoint them. Although Aslanli could not comment with certainty, he thought that these positions should be appointed by mid-October. ¶6. (U) At this point, Aslanli felt there was great BAKU 00000808 002 OF 003 political will behind this law, and thought that it would be completely implemented by December 2009, in time for the December MONEYVAL meeting. Although it was not explicitly stated, Embassy Officers left the meeting feeling that Aslanli implied that if the GOAJ became discouraged by being placed on the ICRG, it was likely that all the motivation would be slowed down until Azerbaijan was up for their next review, which would not take place until 2014. FIU Head Appointed -------------- ¶7. (U) During the meeting with Aslanli, Embassy officers encouraged the GOAJ to appoint a head of the FIU as soon as possible to prove the political will. On 7 October, President Aliyev appointed Adishirin Gasimov the director of the FIU. Previously, he had worked as Director of the Bank Supervision and Cash Department at the Central Bank. In addition, on 08 October, the Central Bank called to inform ECONOFF that Aliyev appointed the Deputy Head, Anar Suleymanov who had previously been involved in AML procedures at the Central Bank. MONEYVAL,s STATEMENT -------------- ¶8. (U) Following its eptember 24 meeting, MONEYVAL announced that it elieved further progress had been made in implemnting Azerbaijan's AML/CTF law, specifically with regards to the creation of the FIU. However, since Azerbaijan had not yet established the FIU structure but believed it would be implemented by December 2009, MONEYVAL agreed to have Azerbaijan report back during the December 2009 meeting. Meeting with the IMF -------------- ¶9. (U) On September 1st, EmbOffs met with IMF representative Giuseppe Lombardo on a fact finding mission to discuss what technical assistance was needed and what the IMF could provide the FIU. During the meeting, the IMF agreed to coordinate any assistance with the Embassy to avoid duplication of efforts. ¶10. (U) The bulk of the meeting, however, was dedicated to the IMF discussing the short comings of the AMF/CTF law. In particular, the IMF was concerned that all transactions - cash or otherwise- would need to be reported at a value of 20,000 AZN or greater. This could be extremely time consuming and a business would likely need to dedicate significant capital to systems to report so many transactions. Another concern was that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were subject to this law as well. As such, they would be required to establish a separate compliance department to report such transactions. The IMF representative thought this might create an opportunity for the GOAJ to target specific NGOs based on AML/CTF concerns. A third concern was that the fees 1,500-15,000 AZN for infractions of the AML/CTF law were not punitive enough. A large bank, or wealthy individual, could easily elect to conduct transactions that violated the law and willingly pay the fine in order to keep the business. ¶11. (U) Lastly, the IMF rep stated that another concern was that the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MOIA) reluctant to investigate potential crimes, because under the current draft, the Prosecutor General,s office could penalize an officer who indicated an institution might be in violation of the AML/CTF law. If the institution was found innocent by the Prosecutor General,s office, the Prosecutor General could fine the officer. As a result, officers would not be motivated to investigate any potential crimes. Comment -------------- ¶12. (C) Embassy,s goal in this process is to help GOAJ implement a successful AML/CTF law. Although the GOAJ has been slow to do so, they have made some progress as indicated by the 24 September MONEYVAL statement, as well as naming the Director and Deputy Director of the FIU. At this point, the embassy sees little to gain by putting Azerbaijan in the ICRG. In a three month period, the only likely effect would be the GOAJ becoming demotivated to implement the law and offended by our inability to support them. Unlike other situations with the GOAJ, Azerbaijan is willing to give us a definitive deadline to implement all of the reforms, December ¶2009. As such, Embassy recommends giving the GOAJ a three BAKU 00000808 003 OF 003 month reprieve and explicitly telling the GOAJ that they will receive no more time after that period. If this is not possible, the Embassy recommends that the USG is not seen at the FATF meeting as leading the charge against Azerbaijan. End Comment LU