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U.S. Law Firms Expanding to U.K., EU, Must Learn to Meet Tougher AML Standards
By Brian Monroe
printWhen Washington, D.C., law firm Steptoe & Johnson expanded in the United Kingdom in 2001 by merger, the firm spared its U.S. staff from responsibility for the U.K.'s stricter anti-money laundering regulations and know your customer requirements. Steptoe's American lawyers, when traveling to London to work on international cases, rely on their British colleagues to handle AML due diligence – such as filing suspicious activity reports, identifying the beneficial owners of companies and trusts, and determining whether a client is a politically exposed person (PEP) – required in most European nations but not the United States. "Fortunately, we have grown...
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One out of every three British banks is unwilling to turn away customers with an "unacceptable" level of risk for money laundering, the United Kingdom's chief financial regulator said in a report Wednesday.
Estimates on how much money is laundered in the United Kingdom are, at best, mere speculation, says Jacqueline Harvey, a professor at Newcastle upon Tyne, England-based Newcastle Business School.
The United Kingdom's chief financial services regulator Wednesday fined a London-based corporate advisory firm and its anti-money laundering officer, a first for the governmental agency.
A UK High Court Justice said Thursday that terror laws that allow for the freezing of assets of suspected terrorists are unlawful. The judgment stems from an appeal brought by five individuals whose assets were frozen under a United Nations measure targeting terrorists.
A convicted drug dealer was found guilty Monday of failing to disclose the existence of a bank account he held in Spain while serving an eight year sentence for drug trafficking and mortgage fraud offenses.
Romania and Bulgaria, the two newest members of the European Union, are among a number of EU nations that are unlikely to adopt sweeping new anti-money laundering measures by a December 15 deadline, according to public officials and AML professionals.
Whether political figures like Augusto Pinochet require extra scrutiny from financial institutions that serve them long after they leave office may change in European Union nations under a 2004 AML directive expected to be implemented union-wide this year, according to analysts.
The new AML regulations authorize law enforcement agents to search a business if they have reasonable cause to believe the entity is subject to AML rules but hasn't registered with the government.
The new law extends anti-money laundering program requirements to industries including real estate companies, company formation agents and consumer credit businesses. They also set guidelines for determining beneficial ownership of various entities.