RIYADH, Jan 30: Saudi Arabia has ordered an immediate crackdown on money laundering activities in the Kingdom. Orders have been issued to ‘very urgently’ implement measures recommended by a high-level committee set up by the government to combat this issue.

Briefing the newsmen about the outcome of a Saudi cabinet meeting on Monday, the Information Minister Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy said, King Fahd has also ordered the high-level Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) Committee to draft anti-money laundering law in accordance with regulations of the Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The cabinet also decided to invite a team from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force to evaluate the measures.

Saudi government announced the measures in the backdrop of an international conference on money laundering, jointly organized by SAMA and the Interpol.

Meanwhile, the SAMA governor Hamad Al-Sayyari while addressing the conference disclosed that the Saudi authorities have identified 150 banks accounts held by individuals and business entities in local banks who were involved in money laundering activities, and that appropriate action would be taken against them.

Furthermore, he told the gathering that the authorities are also monitoring a large number of other accounts suspected of funding terrorism or of having links with some of the outlawed organizations. Analysts, participating in the conference, felt that more than $1.4 trillion illicit funds were currently in circulation in the global banking system.

Mr Sayyari said that the Saudi Ministry of Interior has been following the cases of suspected accounts including those, which have been frozen or were under investigation. The government has taken measures to identify such money laundering cases specially after the September 11 incidents.

The Saudi banks on their part have introduced an internal audit department, geared to monitor suspicious activities of the clients within the framework of guidelines provided by SAMA and international regulatory bodies. The banks have been reporting suspicious activities of the customer also to the Paris based Financial Action Task Force constituted by the G-7 to monitor money-laundering cases.

The move to monitor suspicious accounts by the local authorities was undertaken after Western allegations that some individuals and charity organizations in the Gulf states were channelling millions of dollars in donations to fund ‘terrorism’.

The Assistant Director of Interpol in the Middle East, while addressing the conference noted that the deliberation during the conference would also focus on how to reorganize and streamline charity operations on a regional level.