Switzerland's former top anti-money laundering official is moving to a United Nations role combating the financing of slavery and human trafficking. He had quit Bern in disillusionment after less than a year in the job.
The United Nations' Center for Policy Research named Daniel Thelesklafits project director of FAST, which stands for Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, it said in a statement on Monday. Thelesklaf will move to New York for the project, part of the United Nations University, later this year.
The appointment comes nine months after the veteran Swiss lawyer-crimefighter abruptly left his job running the Swiss money laundering office. Thelesklaf later criticized the alpine nation as ineffectual at combating the scale and variety of criminal money that is flowing into Swiss banks.
Reluctance To Reforms
He had been working as an ambassador of the FAST since last autumn, besides his role as «chargé de mission» at Monaco's financial intelligence unit, SICCFIN. A widely-recognized expert on money laundering and terrorism financing outside of Switzerland, Thelesklaf has spent the bulk of his career abroad.
Last year, he criticized the Swiss system for spotting and catching criminal money being rinsed through offshore bank accounts as out dated, inefficient, and outgunned. Swiss politicians have shown little inclination to tackle reforms, even after a host of money scandals including Venezuela's state-controlled oil firm PDVSA, 1MDB, and FIFA.
His exit comes four weeks after the top Swiss finance regulator, Mark Branson, was poached by German overseer Bafin. Under Branson, Finma had been more proactive on money laundering than in the past.
