Recent developments in Taiwan’s anti‐money laundering and anti‐terrorism work
| Pages | 308-319 |
| Date | 01 October 2004 |
| Published date | 01 October 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13685200410810029 |
| Author | Chi‐Jen Ching |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Money Laundering Control Ð Vol. 7 No. 4
Recent Achievements in Taiwan's Anti-Money
Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Work
Chi-Jen Ching
INTRODUCTION
Taiwan has made important concrete strides forward
in recent years in its campaign to sever criminal pro®t-
eers from their criminal pro®ts and in breaking the
links between terrorists and their funding. These
strides forward are taking place on all fronts: statutory
changes, establishment of interagency groups,
increased cooperation with foreign law enforcement
agencies and increased domestic awareness of the
importance of the involved issues.
In this paper Taiwan's achievements of the past few
years as well as future plans and future challenges will
be discussed. Focus will be on the areas of Taiwan's
successes in investigating and prosecuting money
laundering cases, Taiwan's criminal forfeiture laws,
Taiwan's anti-terrorism policy and practices and Tai-
wan's achievements in the area of international
cooperation. Taiwan is justi®ably proud of the
achievements in these areas but there is, alongside of
that, the realisation that there are future challenges
to be met, weak links that must be strengthened and
that the challenge of breaking the `lines of money'
that fuel criminality and terrorism requires ongoing
sustained eorts.
TAIWAN'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE
SYSTEM
To place Taiwan's eorts in context, some back-
ground on Taiwan's criminal justice system will be
useful. Taiwan is a multi-party constitutional democ-
racy that inherited the criminal law system ®rst devel-
oped by the Republic of China at its founding in 1912.
That system can be simply described as a `continental'
or `inquisitorial' system. Taiwan's modern system has
much in common with the German and Japanese
criminal justice systems. The emphasis is on statutory
law rather than case law and the jury system is not
used. Taiwan's court system has three levels: District
Courts, which are the trial courts; the High
Court, which is the intermediate appeals courts and
the Supreme Court, which is the highest appellate
court. Taiwan also has a Council of Grand Justices
which is responsible for interpreting Taiwan's
constitution.
Taiwan's criminal justice system underwent a
major revision in September 2003 with the introduc-
tion of over 100 amendments to the Criminal Code.
The criminal trial system has shifted from a `continen-
tal-inquisitorial' system to what has been termed a
`modi®ed adversarial system'. This new trial system
incorporates elements from the US and Japanese
adversarial systems and places an increased emphasis
on evidence law, cross-examination and a more
active trial role for the prosecutor.
The major government agencies involved in the
criminal justice system are: the Ministry of Justice,
which has oversight for the prosecution function;
the Judicial Yuan, which has oversight for the judicial
function and the Ministry of Interior which oversees
the National Police Administration. In the battle
against money laundering and ending terrorist fund-
ing, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of
China also play key roles.
THE ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING
SYSTEM IN TAIWAN
Overview
Taiwan has always been a leader in Asia in the battle
against money laundering. As a prime example of
that leadership, in 1996 Taiwan promulgated the
®rst money laundering control Act in Asia. Taiwan's
Money Laundering Control Act (MLCA) was the
®rst comprehensive anti-money laundering Act in
Asia that covered both the seizure and forfeiture of
proceeds of criminal activities as well as establishing
a framework for Taiwan's international cooperation
in this area. After having the initial legislation in
place and operating for a few years, the need for re®ne-
ments and additions to the law became apparent. In
response to that Taiwan reviewed and revised most
of the original statutes to better meet the challenges
posed by terrorism and the responsibilities brought
on by Taiwan's mutual legal assistance agreements
with foreign law enforcement agencies. The MLCA
underwent major amendments which came into
eect on 6th February, 2003.
Page 308
Journalof Money Laundering Control
Vol.7, No. 4, 2004, pp. 308± 319
#HenryStewart Publications
ISSN1368-5201
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