DISCUSSION WITH EGYPTIAN MONEY LAUNDERING UNIT

S E C R E T CAIRO 001260

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR ISN, T, EAP
DEPT FOR NEA/ELA
TREASURY FOR TFFC/STACK/CLARK/MOGER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/02/2019
TAGS: ECON EFIN ETTC KN KNNP PARM PREL EG
SUBJECT: DISCUSSION WITH EGYPTIAN MONEY LAUNDERING UNIT
REGARDING DPRK AND IRAN

REF: A. STATE 66250

B. STATE 48525

C. CAIRO 00993

D. CAIRO 00975

Classified By: Acting Econ Counselor John T. Speaks for reasons 1.4 (b)
and (d)


1. (C) Per reftel A instructions, we have informed the
relevant Egyptian government authorities of UNSCR 1874,
shared with them the associated non-paper, and urged the
necessary actions be taken. Dr. Samir el Shehad, the
Director of the Egyptian Money Laundering Combating Unit
(EMLCU),told us he appreciated that we raised the issue to
his attention and said he will review the FinCEN advisory to
determine what, if any, action is needed in the Egyptian
context. We also followed up with him about the presence of
Tanchon Commercial Bank and its correspondent relationship
with National Bank of Egypt (NBE)(ref b). He said that as
soon as we had alerted him to the alleged account, he
confronted NBE which categorically denied ever having a
correspondent relationship with Tanchon Commercial Bank. He
said that the Bankers Almanac had gotten the information
about the correspondent relationship from Tanchon Bank, not
from NBE, and that the information was incorrect. When asked
if Tanchon Bank had accounts with any banks in Egypt, he said
they did not.


2. (S) Since Dr. el Shehad had not been in Cairo during the
visit of Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey in May, we
asked him if he had been briefed by Deputy Central Bank
Governor Hisham Ramez about that meeting (ref d). He said he
had been briefed, and he understood the meeting had gone well
and that the Egyptian Central Bank and the U.S. Treasury were
on the same page regarding Iran. When asked if the Central
Bank or the EMLCU intended to issue any formal guidance to
the banking community regarding prohibiting Egyptian banks
from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts with
Iranian banks, he said it "would not be convenient" to do so,
but rather the Central Bank or the EMLCU would follow any
policy guidance coming from the FATF on this subject, as they
had done the last time the FATF issued such guidance.
SCOBEY