A core practice area for Lexbridge is in providing support to countries and organisations in developing laws relating to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), anti-corruption and countering other forms of financial crime.
Our multi-disciplinary team includes highly experienced lawyers with expertise in relevant international and domestic law frameworks, rules and principles. The team has extensive experience in areas including financial investigations and forensic accounting, AML/CFT- related prosecutions and litigation, in particular in relation to criminal asset confiscation, and transnational justice mechanisms. The team also has extensive experience working with governments on policy development, law reform and legislative drafting in the AML/CFT sector, especially in the Pacific Region.
We have worked extensively for and with the Australian Government and other governments in the Pacific, as well as with intergovernmental and non-government organisations in the region like the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APGML) and the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative and have well-established relationships and networks throughout the region. Our team members have decades of experience assisting government departments to develop legal policy reforms and assisting operational agencies to develop procedures and apply laws more effectively. Within the Lexbridge team we have extensive expertise and experience in AML/CFT legislative drafting, with over three decades of experience in this field. We have significant experience in assisting Pacific Island countries to develop legislation, subordinate instruments and guidance materials to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards. We are skilled at liaising and consulting with legal, policy, regulatory and operational stakeholders to produce high quality legislative outputs, often under challenging circumstances and to tight deadlines. We are also experienced providers of capacity-building programs and practical training.
If you are interested in seeking Lexbridge assistance, please contact us at: enquiries@lexbridgelawyers.com
Lexbridge Lawyers is working with the APGML and the Cook Islands on a groundbreaking AML/CFT law reform project for the Pacific.
The project has two main deliverables:
1) development of the Model Legal Framework for Pacific Island jurisdictions; and
2) delivery of a legal framework tailored specifically for the Cook Islands, based on the Model Legal Framework.
The key objective of our project is to assist Pacific Island countries, starting with the Cook Islands, in their efforts to combat the threat of money laundering linked to corruption and serious and organised crime and to meet relevant international standards, including the most recent changes to the FATF standards.
This project is of global and regional significance. If adopted and implemented by a majority of Pacific Island countries, the Model Legal Framework would potentially be the most significant advancement in the Pacific Region to combat all financially motivated crime types for the past 20 years. It would provide multiple positive flow-on effects to the region, and would be a highly effective tool to combat corruption in the region and foster stronger regional cooperation against transnational crime and illicit financial flows with particular benefits for interoperability between jurisdictions.
Learn more here about the Model Legal Framework project.
