The phenomenon of reverse money laundering, where clean money is funneled through several institutions to terrorist organizations, became an evident problem after the September 11 terrorist attacks, said Maury Taylor of the U.S. Department of Justice at a press conference in Sofia on Wednesday.

The press conference followed a two-day international seminar on fighting financial crimes and money laundering that started on Monday in Plovdiv. Ways to strengthen the Bulgarian legislative framework and investigative and prosecution techniques in the fight against financial crimes were discussed.

Magistrates, prosecutors and financial experts gathered to share their experience in the struggle against money laundering. The Plovdiv conference played host to a Slovenian supreme state prosecutor and a representative of the country's financial intelligence unit, as well as a financial investigation officer from the United Kingdom.

"Bulgaria has no criminal liability for legal entities yet, so our colleagues here were happy to have us share our experience," Slovenian prosecutor Barbara Brezigar said. She added that her country's legislation was amended in 1999 and now it is in line with the Strasbourg Convention on financial crime.

All experts present at the press conference were unanimous that a good legislative basis is essential but not enough. Its effective application by the executive system is vital. British financial investigations officer Roger Wilson said that London has had the necessary laws for 15 years but still there is money laundering in Britain's capital.

"It doesn't matter how good your law is, if there is no will and commitment to implement it," Wilson said.

Richard Seaman, from the U.S. Department of Treasury, pointed out the importance of understanding and fighting reverse money laundering and said that recently a law was passed that required American banks to investigate the customers of foreign banks opening accounts with them.

So far, the U.S. has failed to properly regulate the so-called "correspondent banking," Seaman said. "American banks have been used by money launderers through foreign banks, now they have to go a step further to know their customers better," he added.

Carol Kelley, liaison officer for the American Bar Association Central and Eastern Europe Law Initiative, said that no particular measures were proposed at the seminar since this was not within in its scope. "We wanted to give ideas to those assembled so that they could formulate effective legislative methods to combat money laundering," Wilson added.