On Jul. 18, FATF issued report on concealing beneficial ownership.
- FATF and Egmont Group issued report on the concealment of beneficial ownership.
Beneficial Ownership
- Corporate vehicles can be misused to conceal ownership of illegally gained assets.
- New report assesses vulnerabilities linked to concealment of beneficial ownership, in order to support further risk analysis by governments and financial institutions.
- Report uses over 100 case studies, provided by 34 jurisdictions of global network.
- Utilizes the experiences of law enforcement, the private sector, and other experts.
as well as open-source research, to identify methods criminals use to hide assets. - Report contains particular focus on the involvement of professional intermediaries.
- Ease with which legal persons, primarily limited liability companies, can be formed make them particularly vulnerable, seen to be used in building complex structures.
- Professional trust, company service providers often play a role in these structures.
- Use of nominee directors and shareholders, both formal and informal, exacerbates risks by creating barriers between the owner or individual and laundered proceeds.
- Often professional intermediaries play role in helping create or operate structures.
- Report highlight importance of effective implementation of FATF recommendations on beneficial ownership to ensure NCAs have access to information on ownership.
FATF Report to G20
- FATF President Marshal Billingslea presented his objectives for the US Plenary year (Jul. 2018 - Jun. 2019) to Jun. 2018 meeting of the Joint FATF-MENAFATF Plenary.
- During the year FATF to prioritize activity in combating financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, combating terrorism financing, in virtual currency.
US Presidency Objectives
- Issued report to Jul. 2018 G20 Finance Ministers, Central Bank Governors' meeting.
- Report set out FATF ongoing work to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
- Covered FATF’s work program on virtual currencies/crypto assets, including money laundering and terrorist financing risk posed by virtual currencies and crypto assets.
- Regulatory environment for crypto assets, revision of global standards and guidance.
- Countering the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, financing of terrorism, improving transparency, availability of beneficial ownership information.
- Improving the criminal justice system, de-risking, fintech, regtech, digital identity.
