MR. RODNEY M. GALLAGHER

International Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Anti-Corruption Expert

Rodney Gallagher joined the international accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand in 1974 and from 1979 to 1989 he conducted a number of economic and financial assignments, mainly for ODA, UK Government but also for USAID, EU, and the World Bank. In 1984 Mr Gallagher was made a partner with the London firm of Coopers & Lybrand, subsequently Price Waterhoue Coopers (PWC), with particular responsibility for the firm’s work in the Caribbean.

In 1989/90 Rodney Gallagher was given a personal appointment to undertake a review of the financial services sector in British Overseas Territories for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The report was published by HMSO and laid before Parliament in January 1990. In October of that year Mr Gallagher was appointed, on secondment from Coopers & Lybrand, as the Financial Services Adviser to the Secretary of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, based at the British High Commission, Bridgetown, Barbados.

As Financial Services Adviser, Mr Gallagher was responsible for the development of anti-money laundering initiatives in a number of independent Caribbean states, including Antigua, Grenada, St Lucia and Belize and all the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean.  Between 1992-4 Mr Gallagher played a key role in the formation of the regional anti-money laundering body, the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), whose Secretariat is now based in Trinidad, and was responsible for the initial feasibility study and drafting the Kingston Declaration. Mr Gallagher has been closely involved with a number of important, international law enforcement operations in the region, addressing the threat from both Colombian and Russian organized crime and helped establish the joint US-UK White Collar Crime Investigation Team (WCCIT), serving as a member of the WCCIT Oversight Committee from its inception. In 2000 Mr Gallagher was appointed the sole Commissioner on a Commission of Inquiry in to public corruption in the BVI. Since 2003 Mr Gallagher has been the Chief Investigator for the Commission of Inquiry in to alleged corruption and money laundering surrounding the US$50m loss on the Ottley Hall marina project in St Vincent & the Grenadines.

In June 1998 Mr Gallagher was awarded an OBE for services to HMG in the Caribbean and retired from service with the UK Government in December 2001. In March 2002 Mr Gallagher was appointed as the External Commissioner on the board of the newly formed Financial Services Commission, British Virgin Islands for a period of three years. Since early 2002 Mr Gallagher has been retained to advise a number of governments and private sector organisations in the Caribbean on anti-money laundering programmes, is an Advisor to the FIU in St Vincent and has mentored a number of regional FIUs including in Barbados, BVI, St Lucia and Antigua.

Presently Mr Gallagher serves as a National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of St Vincent & the Grenadines, is retained by a major European based financial services provider, is on the Board of a financial services group in Belize and is a partner of a UK based hedge fund registered in England & Wales. Recently Mr Gallagher assisted the US State Department in its formulation of its Caribbean Security Initiative with particular emphasis on corruption, drug trafficking and financial fraud.  In addition Mr Gallagher is currently undertaking a number of consulting and investigative assignments related to financial fraud, money laundering and corruption mainly in the Caribbean, Central America and Europe.

He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Keele, and a Master degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.