Articles
Dirty Money?
On 1 March 2004 The Money Laundering Regulations (the “Regulations”) came into force which develop and extend the definition of relevant financial businesses. Businesses that will now be obliged to meet the requirements of anti-money laundering legislation include solicitors, accountants, auditors, insolvency practitioners, tax advisers, estate agents, trust formation agents, casinos and any person or company conducting a business of dealing in "high value" goods accepting cash of £10,000 or more in a single transaction.
A person (or business) will be conducting money laundering if there is concealment, disguise, conversion, transfer or removal of criminal property from the UK. They will also be caught by the regulations if they enter into an arrangement which they know or suspect facilitates (by any means) the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by another person. Tipping off (or prejudicing an investigation) and failure to report knowledge, suspicion or belief that such activity is taking place are also offenses.
Businesses will now have to instigate systems and controls to stop money-laundering, including client identification procedures, suitable record keeping, appropriate staff training, appointing a money laundering reporting officer and implementing internal reporting procedures. There is now a requirement to report to the Financial Intelligence Division of NCIS whenever there is knowledge, suspicion or reasonable grounds for knowledge or suspicion of money-laundering.
The penalties for being a money launderer include up to 14 years imprisonment and confiscation of any asset that can be traced back to any connection with the laundered money.