This is the second SPIC-inspired article. One of the highlights of the second day, and probably second only to Gerald Krasner’s excellent presentation overall, was presented by David Winch B.Com FCA, of MLRO Support Ltd. Maybe I’m just a sucker for people trying to graft a living out by giving specialist advice, or maybe he was as good as I remember. In any event, he did the decent thing and skipped most of the routine money laundering stuff we’ve all seen before and concentrated on a few key points (but the rest was in the notes if we needed it).
Now some of you will read this and find nothing new. Others will, like me, find the odd nugget that you may have been told but forgotten or missed completely in another seminar by nodding off at the wrong moment. The bold type was used in David’s slides and I make no apology for quoting him. I trust that the plug at the end of this article will make up for it!
1 At all times you must report, and seek consent for, your own involvement in money laundering, for example:-
Where you become concerned in an arrangement which facilitates the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property by another, or
Where you possess, acquire, use, convert or transfer criminal property.
Note that David went on to explain that this only covers criminal property, arising from criminal conduct. This would not include civil matters. Key words to watch out to see if something is only civil are ‘surcharge’ or ‘penalty’. Criminal matters will use words like ‘offence’, ‘guilty’, ‘fine’ or ‘conviction’.
2 David reminded us that R3’s guidance says we must get adequate ID as soon as practicable and uses 5 working days as a guide to what this means.
IF you do not obtain satisfactory evidence of identity you must not continue to act for the client [regulation 4(3)(c) MLR 2003]
Don’t forget that you need ID from those purchasing assets as well, unless the transaction is for less than 15000 euros and you have no suspicion of money laundering in relation to the transaction.
3 If you want to deal with an asset that you think may be ‘criminal property’ you need clearance from NCIS. Without it you commit a money laundering offence yourself and may be prosecuted. NCIS will reply within 7 days or you may assume consent. In practice they usually consent, so don’t risk trouble by not asking first.
4 There is no interaction between the insolvency and money laundering legislation, so don’t assume that because you have raised a money laundering report it covers your D return or section 218 obligations or vice versa. Report to both NCIS and the DTI as separate bodies.
I apologise to David for only reproducing the bits I particularly noticed out of a very comprehensive presentation. The bit you really need to note is that he can supply one-to-one email support to MLROs with money laundering queries. Replies are normally sent by the close of business on the next working day and the service is paid for by a small monthly or annual subscription.
It would not be safe to put his details on a Blog, but if you drop me an email, I’ll let you know how to get hold of him. Whether you can use him now or not, I highly recommend attending any course that shows him as a speaker. You are bound to learn something and I suspect that most would gain more from the experience than they expected to. In case you are wondering, I’m not on any commission and David doesn’t know about this plug for his services. I just thought it was information that you or your MLRO could use.
