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https://balkaninsight.com/2024/02/01/montenegros-real-estate-sector-is-vulnerable-to-money-laundering-report/

The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body MONEYVAL has warned in a new report this week of the significant risk of money laundering in the country’s real estate sector. It said the banking sector, casinos and lawyers are also vulnerable.

“The real estate sector (transactions, investment, sale, and brokerage) is significant in terms of money laundering risk. This is mostly due to the size of the sector and a large number of suspicious transaction reports received that involve immovable property deals. Typologies indicate that investment into real estate is the most frequent method for money laundering in Montenegro,, it was said in the report.

“Certain findings also indicate that organized crime group members also already possess certain amounts of cryptocurrencies, which are also used to purchase real estate and undermine the traceability of the assets,” it added.

In December 2023, BIRN reported that the real estate sector in Montenegro has benefited from multi-million purchases by wealthy foreigners using digital money. Dealings in cryptocurrencies are not yet legally regulated in Montenegro and the government is seen as crypto-friendly.

MONEYVAL warned that the main money laundering threats in Montenegro are drug trafficking, loan sharking, evasion of taxes and corruption. It stressed that the increase in the number and volume of deposits held by non-residents following the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a new emerging money laundering risk.

“These funds are mainly deposited in banks or invested in the real estate sector with a spillover effect in the construction and real estate price. The special police office also mentioned that footprints of virtual assets have been identified during investigations. Authorities indicated that to mitigate these emerging risks, at least, provisions limiting the use of cash and regulation for virtual assets are needed respectively,” the report said.

According to Ministry of Interior data from last June, more than 96,000 foreign citizens with temporary or permanent residence permits live in Montenegro, which is about 15 per cent of the total population. The Russian community with 26,000 citizens is biggest.

MONEYVAL reported that Montenegro conducts a relatively low number of money laundering investigations, while criminal sanctions are not applied effectively. It also noted the low number of money laundering convictions, and that prosecutors often prefer to pursue the confiscation of proceeds of crime rather than investigate and prosecute associated money launderers.

“Financial investigations for tracing and confiscating proceeds of criminal activity are used, however not consistently and systematically… More efforts are necessary to trace, seize and confiscate foreign proceeds and proceeds moved abroad. The controls on cross-border cash movements have yielded some results, however more efforts are needed,” the report said.

MONEYVAL said Montenegro has an effective level of detection and immediate coordinated response to terrorism financing, noting that the National Security Agency and Special Pollice Unit follow financial transactions and cross-border movements of cash, but actions are not undertaken to trace other assets that can be used to fund terrorism.

In December 2023, media reports said Montenegro could be added to MONEYVAL’s “grey list”, due to a lack of results in applying measures to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. But, on December 14. Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Evaluation of Measures to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism had decided not to include Montenegro on the “grey list”.