A top Vanuatu financial official has rejected suggestions his country is on the verge of being blacklisted by the OECD's Financial Action Task Force.
Last week, Visiting Fellow to the ANU's Development Policy Centre, Tess Newton Cain, told Pacific Beat that Vanuatu had been warned by the taskforce that it urgently needed to lift its game in combatting fraud and money laundering.
But the director of Vanuatu's Financial Intelligence Unit Floyd Ray Mera says they have begun prosecuting money laundering suspects.
The first money laundering case is currently before the court in Santo.
Mera says three extra cases with 44 money laundering charges expect to be registered with the court in Vanuatu later this week or next week.
The government has also provided extra funding and additional staffing to help trek money laundering cases.
Photo file Reserve Bank of Vanuatu