AWDC Slams Report on Diamond Industry Money Laundering, Terrorism

On February 5, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) released a statement on a report drafted by the Financial Action Task Force and Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, commenting that it “misses the mark as the lack of information concerning certain countries cannot deem it as representative for the whole industry.”

The report maps out the potential for the occurrence of money laundering and terrorism in the diamond industry using case studies, the AWDC states; however, it is made up only of “information procured on a voluntary basis from countries and organisations that play a role in the global diamond sector and were invited to contribute.”

As quoted in the statement:

It is not our intention to deny the possible occurrence of money-laundering activities in the diamond sector but rather to emphasize that presenting case studies in the report, which lack complete information from all actors in the industry is not representative and presents a skewed picture of the business. In this vein, we would also like to point out that the list of cases does not address the frequency of these activities.

Click here to read the full statement from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.