IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MEASURES TAKEN BY THE JUDICIAL GENERAL COUNCIL OF MONGOLIA TOWARDS MONGOLIA BEING IDENTIFIED AS A STRATEGIC ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING DEFICIENT COUNTRY

The Judicial General Council of Mongolia                                                                         

Ulaanbaatar city

Mongolia

September 16, 2020   

The Chairman of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia approved the “Action Plan for the Preparation of the Mutual Evaluation On-site visit of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in September 2020” on August 14, 2020 in relation to the visit of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) as Mongolia was listed as one of the countries that have been identified as having strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiency in 2019.

Within the aforementioned framework, the introduction of the implementations against anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing between 2019-2020 is divided into five components as follows; (1) cooperation, (2) appointment of judges, (3) statistics on court decisions on money laundering cases, (4) trainings for judges and (5) other.

            (1) Cooperation: 

• In 2019, the Executive General Secretary of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia, Mr. Amgalanbaatar O joined and represent the judiciary at the National Council on Anti-money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing and Justice of the Supreme Court of Mongolia, Mr. Khosbayar Ch, Director-General of the Directorate for Judicial Administration and Management, Mr. Sainkhishig J and respective officers at the Judicial General Council of Mongolia have joined and actively participate at the Cooperation Council of the Financial Information Unit (FIU).
• Chairman of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia, Mr. Batbayar E is involved in the composition of the Working Group approved by the Prime Minister of Mongolia by Decree No.172 of December 11, 2019 to remove Mongolia from the list of countries that have been identified as having strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiency. The head of the working group is Minister of Finance, Mr. Khurelbaatar Ch.  
• Director-General of the Directorate for Judicial Administration and Management, Mr. Sainkhishig J and relevant officers have worked in the Working Group of the FIU of the Bank of Mongolia to “National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing of Mongolia”.
• The Judicial General Council of Mongolia gave in recommendations and input to the “Action plan to remove Mongolia from the list of countries that have been identified as having strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiency by FATF” which was approved by the Government Resolution No.463 of 2019.
• The Judicial General Council of Mongolia gave in recommendations and input to the “Action plan for the preparation of the mutual evaluation on-site visit of FATF to Mongolia” which was approved by the Finance Minister Khurelbaatar Ch.

            (2) Appointment of Judges:

Within the national framework and policy to remove Mongolia from the grey list and capacity build law enforcement organizations towards combatting money laundering, the State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia, Government and Ministry of Finance approved the 2020 state budget with additional positions, trainings and activities for law enforcement organizations on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. In the 2020 State Budget, an additional budget for the salary of 20 judges of the criminal court and trainings were approved for a total of 0.7 billion tugriks.

Pursuant to the above decisions, a total number of 16 judges were appointed with 14 by the Presidential Decree No.42 of May 21, 2020, 1 by the Presidential Decree No.50 of May 26, 2020 and 2 by the Presidential Decree No.103 of July 23, 2020.  

• The 14 judges appointed by the President of Mongolia on May 21, 2020 by Decree No.14.

• The 1 judge appointed by the President of Mongolia on May 26, 2020 by Decree No.50.

• The 1 judges appointed by the President of Mongolia on July 23, 2020 by Decree No.103.

The Judicial General Council of Mongolia is working to have the remaining four vacant positions of judges from the 20 positions approved in the State Budget appointed within the year 2020.          

            (3) Statistics on Court Decisions on Money Laundering Cases:

3.3 Immediate Outcome 7 (ML investigation and prosecution) 3.3.1. ML identification and investigation 70. 3.3.2. Consistency of ML investigations and prosecutions with threats and risk profile, and national AML policies 71. 3.3.3. Types of ML cases pursued 72. 3.3.4. Effectiveness, proportionality and dissuasiveness of sanctions 73. 3.3.5. Use of alternative measures 74. Overall conclusion on IO.7 75. [Weighting and conclusion: See IO.1 for instructions] 76. [Evaluated country] is rated as having a [rating] level of effectiveness for IO.7.

The Judicial General Council of Mongolia developed and submitted research on single and multiple-offence cases on money laundering to the Immediate Outcome 7 (IO.7) Working Group of the FIU of the Bank of Mongolia and Cooperation Council of Law enforcement agencies six times during this period.

The statistics of the court decisions on money laundering cases compared to the previous years has increased as shown below:

            (4) Trainings for Judges:

Training on criminal law practice, “Classification of money laundering, theft, corruption cases and its distinction from other cases” was included in the “Judicial Training Plan for 2020” approved by the Chairman of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia by Decision No.27 of February 18, 2020

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the trainings planned for 2020 could not be conducted. The Directorate for Human Resource of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia are working on their preparations to conduct the training in October 2020.

These trainings for judges compensate 1-3 credit hours for judges from the Mongolian Bars Association. We have managed to have our trainings compensate 3 credit hours in 2017 and 2 credit hours in 2019 by the Mongolian Bars Association respectively.

Since 2014, the Judicial General Council of Mongolia partnering with other organizations conduct trainings, hold meetings, introductions and information on economic crimes and money laundering and have around 800 judges of criminal courts trained (counted multiple trainings each judge attended).

            Lists of researches on trainings on money laundering:

However, trainings of crimes on money laundering and terrorism financing has not been given to all levels of criminal court judges since 2017.

Also, this type of training has not been organized in 2018.

            (5) Other:

Activities implemented in regards to money laundering as follows:

• Transferred the www.judcouncil.mn website’s menu of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia into English.
• Activities to update the www.shuukh.mn website for court decisions and is ongoing.
• Developed a procedure which is being reviewed by the Judicial General Council authorities to develop statistics information of crimes on money laundering nationwide each month.
• Demand to improve the software system for criminal case registration and monitoring rose pursuant to the “Common Procedure on Criminal Case Management” which was approved in 2019. The Judicial General Council of Mongolia collected 233 (multiple feedback from each court) recommendations and feedback from a total of 61 criminal courts at all levels including criminal court of first instance, appeal and criminal chamber of the supreme court.

DIRECTORATE FOR JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

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