Date : 11/14/2019 4:21:53 PM
From : "IMMR"
To : "JoanneO@justice.gov.il"
Subject : Report to HoFIU on the use of the EG Chair's emergency power to suspend FIU Vatican/Holy See's access to ESW - for confirmation


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Report to HoFIU on the use of the EG Chair's emergency power to suspend FIU Vatican/Holy See's access to ESW - for confirmation (Section 6.2 B of the Egmont Charter)
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2019 19:00:13 -0500
From: Sorin Gabor <sorin.gabor@egmont.org>
To:


On behalf Mr. Mariano Federici, Chair of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units

Dear Heads of FIU,

I trust this email finds you well. I am writing to you in relation to the situation of Autorita Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) of the Holy See / Vatican State.

In a letter dated 4 October 2019 the President of the AIF, Mr. Rene Brülhart, informed that on 1 October 2019 the Gendarmerie of the Vatican City State raided AIF’s premises in relation to a judicial proceeding coordinated by the Vatican Promoter of Justice (who performs the role of prosecutor). During the raid documents and electronic devices from the office of the Director of the AIF were seized, and the Director was suspended until the end of April 2020. The President of the AIF also informed that the raid seems to be in connection with an operation carried out by the AIF based on a suspicious transaction report that involved several jurisdictions and the judicial proceeding is still ongoing.

Based on this communication, the Egmont Committee tasked a Sub-Group formed by the Europe I Regional Representatives and the Chair of the PPWG to formally engage with the AIF and get a better understanding of the current state of events. For this purpose, the Sub-Group forwarded a set of questions that were replied by the President of AIF. In his response, the President of AIF confirmed that on 1 October 2019 the Corps of the Gendarmerie, while executing a decree issued by the Vatican Promoter of Justice, seized confidential documents and electronic materials that included information provided by other FIUs. The President of the AIF highlighted that currently only authorized AIF’s staff has access to the Egmont Secure Web and other confidential information.

After a careful review, the Sub-Group concluded that there are still strong doubts related to the grounds under which the seizure was conducted, as well as which information from other FIUs has been compromised, what is the situation of such information and what are the safeguards in place that will assure our membership that this will not happen again.

As you may understand, this is a very serious situation since the AIF may not be in a position to protect the confidentiality of information received, processed, held or disseminated by other Egmont Group members, as stipulated in the Egmont Group Principles for Information Exchange (Principles 28-33), should the Vatican Promoter of Justice decide to seize further documents from AIF.

Based on the above-mentioned, and as advised by the Sub-Group, in consultation with the Egmont Committee, I decided to use the Egmont Group Chair’s emergency powers stipulated in Section 6.2 B of the Egmont Charter, and hence suspend the Autorita Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) access to the Egmont Secure Web (ESW). The use of these emergency powers is based on an evident security threat to our organization, since information provided by other FIUs has be seized and there is no clarity about the status of this information. In addition, there is no assurance that this situation will not happen again under the current state of affairs.

Based on what is stipulated Section 6.2 B of the Egmont Charter, I would like to report the use of the Chair’s emergency power to the Heads of FIU and request its confirmation. For this purpose, I will appreciate your feedback by replying to this email by Wednesday, November 20th, 2019. No replies within this time-frame will be considered as tacit approval.

Please be advised that the EC Sub-Group will engage with the AIF shortly in order to inform about this measure. The EC Sub-Group will assess a further recommendation to re-connect AIF to the ESW, once the following issues are duly clarified:

  • Which were the grounds for the seizure of the AIF’s information by the Vatican Promoter of Justice.
  • Which information provided by other FIUs has been seized by the Vatican Promoter of Justice, and what is the situation of this information.
  • What measures have been implemented by the AIF in order to prevent the seizure of additional information.

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this important matter.

Best regards,

 

Mariano Federici

Chair, Egmont Group


___________________________

The Egmont Group Secretariat