Yellen tours wildlife reserve to start South Africa visit

HAMMANSKRAAL U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen used a tour of a wildlife park in South Africa on Wednesday to announce a joint initiative to combat wildlife trafficking and related criminal activities in both countries.

Yellen said during a visit to the Dinokeng Game Reserve that the United States and South Africa would form a task force to focus on the financing of wildlife trafficking. She said there also would be increased information sharing between U.S. and South African financial intelligence units.

The task force would follow the money in the same way other investigating authorities pursue evidence of serious crimes, Yellen said, and the shared commitment would likely help U.S. efforts to fight money-laundering and high-level corruption.

Wildlife traffickers, corrupt officials and other criminals rely on many of the same vulnerabilities in anti-money laundering regulatory regimes, so our efforts to combat wildlife trafficking reinforce our efforts to fight corruption and vice versa, Yellen said at the game reserve located north of Pretoria, South Africa's capital.