Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.07.2017, Blaðsíða 12

Guðrún Árnadóttir and Björn Þor-
valdsson do not have the most glamor-
ous jobs in the world. In fact, chances
are you never heard of them before if
you haven’t been following the Icelan-
dic news for the past ten years now.
And yet these two Icelanders, who
comprise two-thirds of all the employ-
ees at the Money Laundering Office of
Iceland, are diligently working every
day to fight some of the worst financial
excesses in this country.
“This office was originally at the
National Commissioner's office and
had been there since 1997,” Guðrún ex-
plains. “Iceland joined the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) in 1991 and if
you want to take part in FATF, you have
to establish an Financial Intelligence
Unit (FIU). Originally, there was one
employee, who worked for the FIU. One
of the results that came forward in an
FATF Mutual Evaluation from 2006
was that the FIU needed further sup-
port. This was followed by legislative
changes made in 2015, and the office
was moved over to the District Pros-
ecutor’s office in July 2015. Now there
are three employees working here.”
The daily grind
So what is it these two do all day? Rapel
by helicopter into the office windows
of shady financiers? Sadly, no.
“We receive suspicious transac-
tion reports from reporting entities
who are legally obligated to report,”
Guðrún says. “Reporting entities are
required to notify the FIU if transac-
tions are considered to have any links
to money laundering or terrorist fi-
nancing.”
The folks who are legally obliged
to report suspicious financial activity
“can be financial services companies,
pension funds and insurance compa-
nies, lawyers and barristers, account-
ants, real estate agents, car dealer-
ships,” and others, Guðrún says. “We
receive these reports and analyse the
information. We have access to sys-
tems wherein we can ask for additional
information regarding the informa-
tion in the reports. We then analyse
the information we've received, and
we have authority to disseminate the
results to the police, the tax authori-
ties, and to customs.”
Who’s washing their money
in Iceland anyway?
“Money laundering can be from a va-
riety of sources,” Björn explains. “It
can be tax evasion, it can be organised
crime or unorganised crime.”
So we're not necessari ly talk-
ing about drug lords. It could also be
someone living in Iceland just trying
to avoid paying taxes?
“Yes. Of course, there are serious
cases of people engaged in crime who
are laundering money, but it is in no
way limited to this,” Björn says.
12 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2017
Words:
Paul Fontaine
Photos:
Art Bicnick
Share this:
gpv.is/ml12
Money
Laundering In
Iceland, And How
We’re Fighting It
We’re doing good, but could be doing better
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