Exclusive | Global money-laundering watchdog Financial Action Task Force tones down concern over Hong Kong’s lack of extradition deal
- Paris-based body stated issue as ‘most significant deficit’ a decade ago, and has since softened its stance, but officials still cite old report
- Lawmakers question relevance of initial concerns, accusing city authorities of misleading the public
A global money-laundering watchdog has toned down its concern over the lack of rendition arrangement between Hong Kong and mainland China, no longer calling for it to be fixed “as a matter of priority”, the Post has exclusively learned.
In its latest draft report to be endorsed in June, and which was circulated to the Hong Kong government months ago, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) did not insist that the absence of an extradition deal to send fugitives from the city to some jurisdictions, including Taiwan and Macau, amounted to a “most significant deficit” as described 10 years ago.
The statement then was based on financial concerns over assets recovery between mainland China and Hong Kong in criminal cases.
Instead, the Paris-based body now only calls the status quo a “legal shortcoming”.
