This book is only available in PDF format

Authors: Henry Brandts-Giesen, Neil Russ
Published: 9 April 2018
Pages: 15

Introduction

Money laundering is the process by which criminals attempt to conceal the true origin of the proceeds of their criminal activities. This is typically achieved by placing the proceeds of crime into the financial system, creating complex layers of financial transactions to disguise the provenance of the funds, and then integrating the laundered funds into the legitimate economy. Anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) laws and regulations are aimed at detecting and preventing this type of activity.

This paper is intended to assist law firms and sole practitioners with their obligations to assist in the detection and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. This paper is part of a series. It builds on, and is part of the NZLS series of AML/CFT Tool Kit webinar papers starting in September 2017 and continuing in February 2018. Lawyers have hitherto largely avoided extensive due diligence and disclosure obligations in relation to their clients. They have been separately regulated, and have been seen in legal terms as judicial officers, owing primarily a duty to the New Zealand courts. However, over recent years the governments of developed countries have increased their efforts to combat tax evasion and organised crime by introducing new and increasingly onerous and complex compliance regimes and extending them beyond financial institutions to lawyers and other professionals.

Content outline

• Customer Due Diligence
• Background to Global AML and CFT Initiatives
• AML in a New Zealand Context
• AML/CFT Act
• Standard CDD
• Simplified CDD
• Enhanced CDD
• Lawyers' Obligations Under Phase 2