There is significant economic pressure on South Pacific microstates to generate revenue, preferably foreign direct investment (FDI). The International Financial Action Network (IFAN), based in Paris, named recently four South Pacific nations¹⁴ as being centres of concern, and urged them to cooperate with global attempts to eliminate money laundering by criminal syndicates.

An October meeting of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering was told by an Australian cabinet member that evidence exists of Russian mafia syndicates laundering billions of dollars through offshore banking systems in the Asia-Pacific; specifically through small island states of the Southwest Pacific. Unless willing to take remedial action the stability and independence of these small Pacific nations and their financial systems may well be under threat from these crime syndicates. The minister continued: ''Money launders look to jurisdictions where regulation is the weakest, so they can exploit loopholes in identification and reporting requirements. The international community cannot tolerate governments doing business with organised criminals who are attempting to launder their proceeds of crime''¹⁵. Among these island nations Nauru, Palau, and Vanuatu most recently have been accused of permitting Russian mafia and the South American drug cartels to launder money.

For many small Pacific Island nations, which otherwise have very little or no resources to export, such financial centre income is the major source of foreign exchange revenue. In the last year, those Pacific Island countries operating these financial centres have come under intense pressure. Nauru, Palau, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Nuie and Marshall Islands have all been approached to scale down offshore banking operations. Usually these operations are conducted through international business companies (IBC). IBCs are companies formed under offshore financial centre laws that require almost no public disclosure of ownership or shareholder details.

Some notable examples are Nauru, a country of 10,000 people, which has licensed electronic banking operations that allow the international transfer of funds on an enormous scale. A Russian banker last year claimed that seventy billion US dollars was transferred from Russian banks to accounts in Nauru, most of these transactions being conducted through the Internet via the government-owned Nauru Agency Corporation. The US State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) has stated that Nauru has 400 offshore finance centres registered to a single postal box. Nauru's new President is quoted as saying that his government will take immediate action to combat money laundering.

Cook Islands too has been accused by the international banking community of aiding international criminal activities of the Russian Mafia and others, an accusation strongly denied. On balance it could be that the Cooks has "cleaned up it's act" by stronger regulation and oversight of offshore banking activities.

Vanuatu currently has 63 licensed offshore banks. The Russian mafia is believed to be operating in the region through American or Australian middlemen. In the view of some regional observers this indicates that the criminal activity originates from banks in the west, and it is from there enforcement action should be initiated.

Nuie has only 2,000 residents, but has 6,000 registered IBCs earning about five hundred thousand U.S. dollars a year, a major foreign exchange earner. A Panamanian law firm controls IBC operations in Nuie, with a "token" Nuiean employee based on the island. Nuie's Panamanian legal advisor argued that the international concern was not money laundering, but a wish to get the tax revenue from monies flowing into offshore banking accounts. ''It has been a cover for a long time. It is a cover to get offshore money onshore,"¹⁶ he said, adding that US states like Florida, Nevada, and California also are offering similar offshore banking facilities.

It seems clear to me that with the closure of money-laundering centres in Europe and the Caribbean, Russian mafia, South American drug cartels and other international criminal, and perhaps international terrorist organisations are now looking to the tiny island states of the Southwest Pacific as a "safe" place from which to operate. Organisations such as al Qaeda use "legitimate" companies and businesses to finance international terrorist activities. In the Asia Pacific there exists strong concerns are that such financing activities are now taking place, and will attract more organisations and individuals whose presence in the region is both undesirable and potentially destabilising.

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14 Cook Islands, Nauru, Nuie, and the Marshall Islands

15 Amanda Vanstone, October 2002

16 Speaking at a press conference in New Zealand in March 2002