The competent Cypriot and Greek authorities, the Unit for Combating Money Laundering and Financial Intelligence Unit of Cyprus (MOKAS) and Greece's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the exchange of information in matters of money laundering and financing terrorism.
The MoU was signed on 27 May by the head of MOKAS Maria Kyrmizi-Antoniou and by FIU President Haralambos Vourliotis, a press release by the Law Office of the Republic of Cyprus said.
"The initiative to sign the MoU constitutes the beginning of new cooperation prospects between the two units, such as undertaking joint strategic analyses over the risks of money laundering Cyprus and Greece are faced with, the exchange of best practices and know-how and organising joint training sessions," it added.
The MoU's goal is to increase criminal proceedings for money laundering and connected crimes, as well as to increase the freezing or forfeiture of illegal income, the press release said.
Cross-border cooperation to achieve these goals is of crucial importance as money laundering is in most cases a cross-border crime, it continued.
The MoU "attests the very effective cooperation MOKAS and FIU have developed in exchanging information, data and financial analysis," Attorney General George Savvides said during a meeting he and Assistant Attorney General Savvas Angelides had earlier in the day with an FIU delegation which is visiting Cyprus, headed by Vourliotis, Efstathios Tsirmbas, head of the unit, and Nicolaos Balaskas in charge of international cooperation of FIU.
(Source: CNA)
