SA intensifies financial crime crackdown ahead of integrity check

Voller says, “We give greater access to law enforcement by the click of a button, so they can immediately access the data in the offices that don’t need to come all the way to Pretoria, and the second aspect, what we’ve done is that we’ve created data linkages between some of the digital information that we hold in our register, like company data, and we’ve tied it to beneficial ownership data, so that when law enforcement and investigators are looking at the full picture, they can connect the dots between who owns what, which companies they are behind, who is related to whom, and basically able to do what a full investigation in terms of that.” Tau adds, “So, we’re quite comfortable about the work that we’ve done, but we’ve part of a comprehensive system, cabinet continuously receive supports on the progress that’s been made on the overall part of greatest issues, what we’re doing, where the challenges are, and what is being resolved, and I can assure you that, in fact, the country has been active, across the department, across the agencies, and government, to ensure that we’re able to deal with issues of financial crime.” Director at international organisation Open Ownership Karabo Rajuili says with criminals becoming sophisticated, shell companies mushrooming and financial crimes becoming extremely complex, it is important that the country gets an accurate beneficial ownership network for increased accountability.