The Financial Intelligence Unit was established in 2002 under Section 9 of the Financial Intelligence and Money Laundering Act. This public institution has been playing a lead role to recover assets used or acquired from the proceeds of crime, further to amendments made in 2016 to the Asset Recovery Act 2011. Since 2019, it is also the main regulator under the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating of the Financing of Terrorism for the Real Estate Sector, Jewelry and for the three branches of the legal profession.
It now has a new boss. Carine Charlette-Katinic has been named as Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit three months ago.
Ms. Charlette-Katinic has spent over ten years in managerial positions in Australia in various companies, mainly to advise and oversee on operational risks and compliance.
She takes the reins of this institution at a critical juncture. The reputation of Mauritius as international financial center has been badly damaged in 2020. Mauritius was placed on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force as a jurisdiction under increased monitoring and on the EU’s blacklist as a high-risk country with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing frameworks.
The authorities are confident that matters will be resolved by September as FATF staff on-site inspection should confirm the preliminary findings made public last month.
