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FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0308
INFO RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA 1228
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 2432
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5211
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2219
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RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0071
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY 0018
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0072
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 1580
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0044
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCPODC/USDOC WASHDC 1088
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHINGTON DC 0347
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ULAANBAATAR 000658 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR, PEACE CORPS, OPIC, AND EXIMBANK 
STATE FOR EAP/CM, EB/TPP, OES/IHA 
USAID FOR ANE DEIDRA WINSTON 
LONDON AND MANILA PLEASE PASS TO USEDS TO EBRD AND ADB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN PTER ECON PREL SNAR MG
SUBJECT: New AML Law: Better Than Nothing, But Implementation Will 
Be Important 
 
Refs: (A) 03 Ulaanbaatar 015, (B) 03 Ulaanbaatar 630, (C) 
 
Ulaanbaatar 475, (D) Ulaanbaatar 537 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified -- not for Internet distribution. 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  At the end of June, Mongolia's parliament passed 
the country's first anti-money laundering (AML) law.  The step 
followed years of foreign exhortations, including and especially 
from the United States, about the danger that Mongolia might become 
a money laundering center.  There were sharp differences in Mongolia 
about the details of the new law, helping to explain why it took 
three years to be presented to parliament.  Parliament, though, 
appears to have been so distracted by other important pending 
legislation that legislators appear to have not carefully considered 
all of the details.  With the focus now on implementing the new law, 
there are doubts about Mongolia's capacity and political will. 
Mongolian officials have expressed a strong desire for technical 
assistance, much of which likely will be routed through the Asia 
Pacific Group (APG).  On August 31, the Embassy hosted a DVC between 
APG and a spectrum of Mongolian officials, with a view toward kick 
starting cooperation in advance of APG's first review of Mongolia, 
which is scheduled for December.  END SUMMARY. 
 
The Context 
----------- 
 
¶2.  (U) The lack of an appropriate legal framework and weak 
oversight of the banking sector have helped to make Mongolia a 
tempting place to launder money (ref a).  Mongolia's geographic 
location also makes it a potentially convenient destination for 
dirty money departing North Korea, China, or Russia.  While no hard 
evidence of money-laundering has yet emerged, there is anecdotal 
evidence it exists; and Mongolia has been awash in cash and 
unexplained economic activity. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The passage of the AML bill comes with the aid of 
significant external incentives.  For several years, the U.S. and 
other donors have strongly signaled Mongolia about the urgent need 
to adopt improved AML safeguards, including AML legislation 
consistent with international best practice standards (ref b). 
Donors have made clear that failure to act would carry important 
consequences for Mongolia's international reputation.  The Asian 
Development Bank (ADB) made passage of the AML bill an explicit 
precondition for release of the first tranche of a financial sector 
budget support program for Mongolia.  Treasury Deputy Assistant 
Secretary Glaser's visit this June (ref C) continued U.S. pressure. 
 
SIPDIS 
Meanwhile, tighter banking practices elsewhere provided supplemental 
pressure.  Mongolian banks have found it increasingly hard to gain 
correspondent banking relationships, because the country's lack of 
an AML raised a red flag with foreign banks' own compliance 
officials. 
 
Differences Over the Details 
---------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) A working group consisting of Mongol Bank and Ministry of 
Finance officials began drafting AML and anti-terrorist financing 
legislation in late 2003.  The original draft of the bill followed 
UN model legislation with some adjustments to accommodate Mongolia's 
legal system.  However, the inability of successive governments to 
reach compromise on various technical details delayed the bill from 
reaching Parliament until earlier this year.  Even after the draft 
was submitted, sharp internal differences persisted.  During DAS 
Glaser's visit in early June, a roundtable with Ministry of Justice 
and law enforcement officials degenerated into a heated shouting 
match among Mongolian participants regarding the details of the then 
pending law. 
 
¶5.  (U) One of the more intractable arguments was resolved when it 
was agreed that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in charge of 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000658  002 OF 003 
 
 
AML oversight and investigations would be housed in Mongol Bank. 
Both Mongol Bank and the Ministry of Finance had initially laid 
claim to the FIU.  Another thorny issue concerned the amount of 
power that would be granted the FIU, reflecting the tension between, 
on the one hand, a need to grant FIU sufficient independence and 
power to fulfill its mandate; and on the other hand, the aversion of 
many members of Parliament (MPs) to the idea of creating another 
clandestine inspection body in the mold of the General Intelligence 
Agency.  While a compromise has been reached based on the letter of 
the law, it remains to be seen how this tension will play out on the 
operational side. 
 
¶6.  (U) Another disagreement arose over the cash reporting limit, 
with some arguing that, since Mongolia is a largely cash-based 
society, limits should be set high; otherwise, technical and 
bureaucratic capacity constraints might make it difficult to monitor 
a large number of reportable transactions.  Some MPs had tried to 
push for a cash reporting limit of Tg50 million (roughly $42,000 at 
the current exchange rate of USD 1.00 = MT 1165).  The new AML law 
imposes a cash reporting limit of Tg20 million (roughly $17,000). 
 
The Law Passes 
-------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) On June 29, parliament passed the AML (ref D).  Parliament 
gave limited scrutiny to the AML bill, because they faced a crowded 
Spring session agenda (which included several major tax reform 
bills, anti-corruption legislation, and significant amendments to 
the minerals law) and fervently desired to wrap up business before 
the approaching Naadam holiday.  MP Oyun -- as conscientious a 
legislator as exists in parliament -- candidly told a recent 
gathering of foreign businessmen that, when the AML bill was brought 
to a vote, she and many other MPs were so focused on negotiations 
over the recent tax bills, that they voted to support the AML bill 
without bothering to consider its content.  Parliament knew that it 
needed to pass an AML bill, and here it was. 
 
¶8.  (U) After several weeks of post-passage "technical review" by 
parliamentary staff and the Speaker, a text of the law was released. 
 An English translation of the bill has been passed to DOJ as well 
as Treasury's Terrorist Financing and Intelligence unit in 
Washington, DC.  Embassy awaits DOJ's opinion of the legislation. 
The Mongolian government's informal translation of the law is 
available at the source below.  However, ADB technical assistance 
personnel have commented that the translation is rough and inexact, 
and expect Mongol Bank to issue a corrected translation in a few 
weeks.  We will post the revised version when available, and will 
email it to Washington agencies. 
 
http://www.geocities.com/freemanpj/AML_law.ht m. 
 
Parliament's website has the Mongolian text: 
 
http://www.parl.gov.mn/parl/docs/LL/06-h-19.d oc 
 
Implementation and External Technical Assistance 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) With an AML law in place, the focus turns to 
implementation.  The somewhat disinterested nature of domestic 
support for the AML bill raises concerns that the legislation was a 
gesture to appease donors, and that as a result, the need for 
follow-on enforcement measures will fail to gain traction.  However, 
Mongolian officials, and officials at Mongol Bank in particular, 
have been vocal in asking for donor technical assistance (TA) on AML 
implementation. 
 
¶10.  As part of its financial sector budget support program for 
Mongolia, the ADB will be dispatching a TA team to assist in the 
establishment of the FIU in Mongol Bank.  Mongolia's first mutual 
evaluation (ME) with the Asia Pacific Group (APG), currently 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000658  003 OF 003 
 
 
scheduled for December, will provide an excellent opportunity to 
diagnose its technical needs.  The Embassy has told Mongolian 
officials, per Washington's direction, that any U.S. technical 
assistance will be delivered through the APG. 
 
August 31 Videoconference With APG 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  To help ensure a good start to mutual engagement, the Embassy 
hosted a digital video conference between APG and Mongolian 
interagency officials on August 31.  The chief aim of the event was 
to provide the Mongolians with an opportunity to learn about the ME 
process and its significance as an internationally-recognized 
diagnostic mechanism.  Members of the ADB TA team assisting in the 
establishment of the Mongol Bank FIU, as well as a small group of 
Mongolian commercial bankers, attended.  Both the APG and the 
Mongolian government attendees expressed pleasure with the ability 
to have a direct exchange as Mongolia prepares for the evaluation. 
The APG commented that the dialogue set a useful precedent it likely 
will seek to use with other countries undergoing their first APG 
evaluation, and specifically mentioned Cambodia as one such 
country. 
 
¶12.  The Embassy is especially grateful for the assistance of ConGen 
Sydney, which will be hosting the APG officials taking part. 
 
Slutz