Representatives of FATF European Group on Money Laundering Start Work in St. Petersburg

Representatives of the European group of the international Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) have begun work in St. Petersburg. According to official sources, Patrick Moulette, the executive secretary of FATF, and other representatives of the European group, along with Victor Zubkov, the head of the Russian Committee for Financial Monitoring, arrived in St. Petersburg yesterday evening.

Today, the FAFT representatives intend to meet with Lyubov Sovershaevaya, the deputy Presidential Plenipotentiary for the North-West Federal Region, Vladimir Zubrin, the deputy Federal Prosecutor General, and the heads of law-enforcement agencies in the North-West. Meetings with leaders of the North-West Association of Commercial Banks, the Federal Securities Commission and St. Petersburg businessmen are also planned.

According to official sources, the representatives of the European group have come to study how legislation to prevent the laundering of income acquired by criminal means is implemented in Russia's regions. After visiting St. Petersburg, they intend to visit Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg.

A conference devoted to international cooperation in the fight against money laundering opened in Moscow yesterday.