PNG Grey Listing Explained: Financial Crime Prosecution Failures and Their National Impact.

Papua New Guinea has been placed on the international financial “grey list” due to serious weaknesses in prosecuting money laundering and trans-national crimes. During a Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into gold smuggling last year, the head of the Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit (FASU) at the Bank of Papua New Guinea revealed that more than 5,000 identified money laundering cases remain unprosecuted.

According to evidence presented, the lack of enforcement, especially involving powerful individuals with strong political connections has significantly contributed to PNG’s grey listing status.

Papua New Guinea grey listing due to unprosecuted money laundering cases – Image design with Image Studio AI.

Why Papua New Guinea Was Grey Listed: 5,000 Unprosecuted Money Laundering Cases Raise Alarm

Why PNG was grey listed?

By: Allan Bird (Facebook post)

Some of you will recall a Parliament Committee Inquiry last year into the Gold Smuggling operations in PNG.

During that inquiry, the head of FASU, BoPNG was called in to give evidence.

In his evidence he stated that PNG would be grey listed because of serious weaknesses in prosecution of financial and trans-national crimes.

He told the inquiry that more than 5,000 cases of money laundering identified by his department for prosecution by Police and the Public Prosecutors remain untouched.

Very power people in PNG with strong political connections have been laundering money for years and none of them have been prosecuted.

This is one of the main reasons we have been grey listed.

Until those cases start getting prosecuted in our legal system, we will remain grey listed or worse.

FATF Gray list Papua New Guinea 2026

FATF gray list Papua New Guinea 2026 – FATF Places Papua New Guinea on Gray List, Urges Stronger Anti-Money Laundering Controls.

Papua New Guinea has been added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) global gray list after the country was found to have gaps in its systems to prevent money laundering and illicit financial activities.

The FATF announced the decision following its February 2026 summit in Mexico City, calling on Papua New Guinea to strengthen financial supervision, improve suspicious transaction reporting, and enhance transparency on beneficial ownership information.

Authorities in Papua New Guinea have given high-level political commitment to implement an action plan aimed at strengthening the country’s financial integrity framework.