The Judicial General Council of Mongolia                                                                         

Ulaanbaatar city

Mongolia

September 16, 2020   

 

 

The Chairman of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia approved the Action Plan for the Preparation of the Mutual Evaluation On-site visit of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in September 2020” on August 14, 2020 in relation to the visit of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) as Mongolia was listed as one of the countries that have been identified as having strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiency in 2019.

Within the aforementioned framework, the introduction of the implementations against anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing between 2019-2020 is divided into five components as follows; (1) cooperation, (2) appointment of judges, (3) statistics on court decisions on money laundering cases, (4) trainings for judges and (5) other.

            (1) Cooperation: 

  • In 2019, the Executive General Secretary of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia, Mr. Amgalanbaatar O joined and represent the judiciary at the National Council on Anti-money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing and Justice of the Supreme Court of Mongolia, Mr. Khosbayar Ch, Director-General of the Directorate for Judicial Administration and Management, Mr. Sainkhishig J and respective officers at the Judicial General Council of Mongolia have joined and actively participate at the Cooperation Council of the Financial Information Unit (FIU).
  • Chairman of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia, Mr. Batbayar E is involved in the composition of the Working Group approved by the Prime Minister of Mongolia by Decree No.172 of December 11, 2019 to remove Mongolia from the list of countries that have been identified as having strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiency. The head of the working group is Minister of Finance, Mr. Khurelbaatar Ch.  
  • Director-General of the Directorate for Judicial Administration and Management, Mr. Sainkhishig J and relevant officers have worked in the Working Group of the FIU of the Bank of Mongolia to “National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing of Mongolia”.
  • The Judicial General Council of Mongolia gave in recommendations and input to the “Action plan to remove Mongolia from the list of countries that have been identified as having strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiency by FATF” which was approved by the Government Resolution No.463 of 2019.
  • The Judicial General Council of Mongolia gave in recommendations and input to the “Action plan for the preparation of the mutual evaluation on-site visit of FATF to Mongolia” which was approved by the Finance Minister Khurelbaatar Ch.

            (2) Appointment of Judges:

Within the national framework and policy to remove Mongolia from the grey list and capacity build law enforcement organizations towards combatting money laundering, the State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia, Government and Ministry of Finance approved the 2020 state budget with additional positions, trainings and activities for law enforcement organizations on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. In the 2020 State Budget, an additional budget for the salary of 20 judges of the criminal court and trainings were approved for a total of 0.7 billion tugriks.

Pursuant to the above decisions, a total number of 16 judges were appointed with 14 by the Presidential Decree No.42 of May 21, 2020, 1 by the Presidential Decree No.50 of May 26, 2020 and 2 by the Presidential Decree No.103 of July 23, 2020.  

  • The 14 judges appointed by the President of Mongolia on May 21, 2020 by Decree No.14.

Name of Court appointed to

Name and surname of judges appointed

 

Criminal Court of First Instance of Bayanzurkh District

1

 

Criminal Court of First Instance of Bayangol District

2

 

Criminal Court of First Instance of Bayangol District

 

Criminal Court of First Instance of Songino-Khairkhan District

1

 

Criminal Court of First Instance of Khan-Uul District

1

 

Criminal Court of First Instance of Nalaikh District

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Dornogobi Province

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Bayan-Ulgii Province

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Dornod Province

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Umnugobi Province

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Uvs Province

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Sukhbaatar Province

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Khovd Province

1

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Khuvsgul Province

1

 

  • The 1 judge appointed by the President of Mongolia on May 26, 2020 by Decree No.50.

Name of Court appointed to

Name and surname of judges appointed

 

Criminal Court of First Instance of Bayanzurkh District

1

 

  • The 1 judges appointed by the President of Mongolia on July 23, 2020 by Decree No.103.

Name of Court appointed to

Name and surname of judges appointed

 

Inter-soum Criminal Court of First Instance of Dornogobi Province

1

 

The Judicial General Council of Mongolia is working to have the remaining four vacant positions of judges from the 20 positions approved in the State Budget appointed within the year 2020.          

            (3) Statistics on Court Decisions on Money Laundering Cases:

3.3 Immediate Outcome 7 (ML investigation and prosecution) 3.3.1. ML identification and investigation 70. 3.3.2. Consistency of ML investigations and prosecutions with threats and risk profile, and national AML policies 71. 3.3.3. Types of ML cases pursued 72. 3.3.4. Effectiveness, proportionality and dissuasiveness of sanctions 73. 3.3.5. Use of alternative measures 74. Overall conclusion on IO.7 75. [Weighting and conclusion: See IO.1 for instructions] 76. [Evaluated country] is rated as having a [rating] level of effectiveness for IO.7.

The Judicial General Council of Mongolia developed and submitted research on single and multiple-offence cases on money laundering to the Immediate Outcome 7 (IO.7) Working Group of the FIU of the Bank of Mongolia and Cooperation Council of Law enforcement agencies six times during this period.

The statistics of the court decisions on money laundering cases compared to the previous years has increased as shown below:

Period submitted to report Тайланд

хүргүүлсэн хугацаа

Period of the research

Research rationale 

1

July 2019

2017-2019.7.11

Criminal court decisions on money laundering cases:

  • Court of First Instance – 44,
  • Court of Appeal - 17,
  • Supreme Court – 2

2

December 2019

2019.7.11-2019.12.02

  • A total of 20 cases on money laundering adjudicated by the Criminal Court of First Instance Decision

3

January 2020

2019.12.03-2020.01.03

  • 2 cases adjudicated by the Criminal court of first instance, 10 remaining

4

March 2020

2020.01.03-2020.3.18

  • A total of 21 cases on money laundering adjudicated and divided as follows: 14 decisions of Criminal court of first instance, 5 decisions of Criminal court of Appeal, 2 decisions of Supreme court

5

May 2020

2020.3.18-2020.5.

  • A total of 14 cases on money laundering adjudicated by the Criminal court of first instance

6

August 2020

2020.4.13-2020.8.13

  • 37 cases adjudicated by the Criminal court of first instance, 15 remaining

 

 

            (4) Trainings for Judges:

 

Training on criminal law practice, “Classification of money laundering, theft, corruption cases and its distinction from other cases” was included in the “Judicial Training Plan for 2020” approved by the Chairman of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia by Decision No.27 of February 18, 2020

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the trainings planned for 2020 could not be conducted. The Directorate for Human Resource of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia are working on their preparations to conduct the training in October 2020.

These trainings for judges compensate 1-3 credit hours for judges from the Mongolian Bars Association. We have managed to have our trainings compensate 3 credit hours in 2017 and 2 credit hours in 2019 by the Mongolian Bars Association respectively.

Since 2014, the Judicial General Council of Mongolia partnering with other organizations conduct trainings, hold meetings, introductions and information on economic crimes and money laundering and have around 800 judges of criminal courts trained (counted multiple trainings each judge attended).

            Lists of researches on trainings on money laundering:

Date

Title of Training

Number of judges attended

1

2014

Main principles of crimes on money laundering / Main principles of crimes on money laundering, practical training on courts of foreign countries/

245 judges

2

2015

Training on money laundering and terrorism financing crimes

15 judges

3

2016

Training on money laundering and terrorism financing crimes /"Strengthening combatting money laundering and terrorism financing in Mongolia”/

15 judges

4

2017

"Strengthening combatting money laundering and terrorism financing in Mongolia” training

16 judges

5

2017

Economic crimes and Mongolian legal framework training /agenda/

193 judges

6

2018

Unjust enrichment

35 judges

7

2019

 “Virtual currency” introduction and seminar by Mr. Christopher Gerhart,

Economic Crimes Advisor, Office of Technical Assistance, US Treasury

9 judges

 /judge trainers/

8

2019

Joint seminar and training of Law enforcement agencies for judges on “Framework to anti-money laundering and combatting terrorism financing in Mongolia, its activities”

10 judges

9

Nov 15, 2019

Training on “Adjudication of crimes on money laundering, terrorism financing, weaponry, its dissemination and international best practices” for judges at all levels of court organized by the Judicial General Council of Mongolia, Bank of Mongolia and UNODC

39 judges

10

Dec 2019

Introduction and discussions on Mongolia entering the list of countries  identified as having strategic Anti-Money Laundering deficiency by FATF and crimes on money laundering by Legal advisor to the President of the Bank of Mongolia, Ms. Gantuya D at the first and second round trainings to judges of Criminal court of first instance and appeal in December 2019.

243 judges

           

However, trainings of crimes on money laundering and terrorism financing has not been given to all levels of criminal court judges since 2017.

Also, this type of training has not been organized in 2018.

 

            (5) Other:

Activities implemented in regards to money laundering as follows:

  • Transferred the www.judcouncil.mn website’s menu of the Judicial General Council of Mongolia into English.
  • Activities to update the www.shuukh.mn website for court decisions and is ongoing.
  • Developed a procedure which is being reviewed by the Judicial General Council authorities to develop statistics information of crimes on money laundering nationwide each month.
  • Demand to improve the software system for criminal case registration and monitoring rose pursuant to the “Common Procedure on Criminal Case Management” which was approved in 2019. The Judicial General Council of Mongolia collected 233 (multiple feedback from each court) recommendations and feedback from a total of 61 criminal courts at all levels including criminal court of first instance, appeal and criminal chamber of the supreme court.

 

 

DIRECTORATE FOR JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

 

 

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