Full Breakdown
Canada urged to improve prosecution of complex financial-crime cases after FATF review
By Drooid · · How we work
FATF evaluation highlights Canada’s anti-money-laundering regime
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its first assessment of Canada under newly-stringent, risk-focused criteria. The review, conducted over 14 months and culminating in a three-week on-site visit, placed Canada in the “regular follow-up” category—an improvement from the “enhanced follow-up” rating received in the 2016 mutual evaluation. While the FATF praised Canada’s “sophisticated capability” in seizing cryptocurrency assets and noted strong civil-forfeiture practices in several provinces, it identified persistent challenges in prosecuting professional money-laundering cases and called for a more risk-based supervisory approach, especially in non-financial sectors such as real estate and precious-metal dealers.
Data and findings
- During the five-year period assessed (fiscal 2019-20 to 2023-24), 703 cases carried a charge of laundering proceeds of crime. Nearly half of those cases resulted in a guilty finding on either the money-laundering charge or the predicate offence, but only 10 % of the money-laundering charges themselves led to a guilty decision.
- In 86 % of the cases, the money-laundering charge was withdrawn, dismissed, discharged or stayed.
- The report noted uneven implementation of corporate beneficial-ownership registers across provinces and highlighted that Ontario is considering “unexplained wealth orders” to facilitate asset seizure.
Official statements & responses
Giles Thomson, president of the FATF, said the evaluation recognized Canada’s strong understanding of illicit-finance risks and recent steps to improve corporate transparency and financial-intelligence use. “As a major global economy, Canada has a strong understanding of the illicit finance risks it is facing, and has taken significant steps to strengthen corporate transparency and the use of financial intelligence since its last mutual evaluation,” — Giles Thomson, president of the FATF
Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne responded that the outcome validates recent government actions—including a ban on crypto ATMs, legislation for a new federal financial-crime agency, and anti-extortion measures—and pledged to review and act on the FATF recommendations. “This outcome represents not only an improvement of Canada’s last evaluation in 2016 but a validation of the work the government is undertaking with agencies and provinces together to better protect Canadians against fraud and the financial system against nefarious activity,” — Mr. Champagne, federal finance minister
FinTRAC, Canada’s anti-money-laundering watchdog, expressed satisfaction that its financial-intelligence support for law-enforcement and national-security agencies was acknowledged, and noted a significant expansion of its oversight activities over the past year.
Verbatim quotes
- “As a major global economy, Canada has a strong understanding of the illicit finance risks it is facing, and has taken significant steps to strengthen corporate transparency and the use of financial intelligence since its last mutual evaluation,” — Giles Thomson, president of the FATF
- “This outcome represents not only an improvement of Canada’s last evaluation in 2016 but a validation of the work the government is undertaking with agencies and provinces together to better protect Canadians against fraud and the financial system against nefarious activity,” — Mr. Champagne, federal finance minister
